A320 first officer describes a TCAS RA descending into sat at 11;000 ft. Leveling off was the requir...

Attributes
ACN	1157006
Time
Date	201403
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	SAT.Airport
State Reference	TX
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	A320
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Initial Approach
Route In Use	STAR LEMIG1
Flight Plan	IFR
Aircraft 2
Make Model Name	Small Aircraft
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Climb
Route In Use	None
Flight Plan	VFR
Person 1
Function	First Officer Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Commercial Flight Crew Multiengine Flight Crew Instrument
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 200 Flight Crew Total 2400 Flight Crew Type 1900
Events
Anomaly	Conflict Airborne Conflict
Miss Distance	Vertical 450

Narrative:

During our initial approach to sat; descending via the lemig 1 arrival; ATC issued us an amendment to our altitude to be maintained (first we were assigned 10;000 ft then 11;000); that was due to traffic (small aircraft). When we leveled off at 11;000 ft first we had a TA; followed by a RA to level off. We executed the procedure as prescribed; it just took a couple of seconds. We didn't notify ATC of the conflict because we were out of it (the RA commanded us to level off; the traffic seemed not to be able to keep the altitude very well; it was like 400 ft below us). As additional information the autopilot was engaged. The rest of the flight continued without any further incident. One of the contributing factors I think was that ATC was a little bit busy managing other traffic; also the lack of precision from the small aircraft pilot to maintain the altitude as assigned.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A320 First Officer describes a TCAS RA descending into SAT at 11;000 FT. Leveling off was the required action to avoid a VFR small aircraft.

Narrative: During our initial approach to SAT; descending via the LEMIG 1 arrival; ATC issued us an amendment to our altitude to be maintained (first we were assigned 10;000 FT then 11;000); that was due to traffic (small aircraft). When we leveled off at 11;000 FT first we had a TA; followed by a RA to level off. We executed the procedure as prescribed; it just took a couple of seconds. We didn't notify ATC of the conflict because we were out of it (the RA commanded us to level off; the traffic seemed not to be able to keep the altitude very well; it was like 400 FT below us). As additional information the autopilot was engaged. The rest of the flight continued without any further incident. One of the contributing factors I think was that ATC was a little bit busy managing other traffic; also the lack of precision from the small aircraft pilot to maintain the altitude as assigned.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

A320 first officer describes a TCAS RA descending into sat at 11;000 ft. Leveling off was the required action to avoid a VFR small aircraft.