Narrative:

While on descent from cruise altitude into ege to cross rlg at or above 14;000 feet; ATC; in order to maintain separation for a high volume of traffic into ege began issuing numerous speed and altitude clearance restrictions. During the descent ATC requested us to maintain 200 kts for separation. I selected 200 kts in the FCU; speed brakes extended; and shortly thereafter both myself and the pilot monitoring (pm) began to observe the 'hook' beginning to approach vls/selected speed. At that point we became concerned about a possible alpha protect thrust excursion and resultant overspeed as the hook began to approach vls. We very briefly discussed extending the flaps to 1; and at that point; as we were passing FL220 I asked the pm to extend flaps one in order to mitigate the possibility of a thrust excursion/overspeed. I mistakenly thought the vfe altitude restriction for flap extension was below FL250; when in fact that was the max altitude restriction for gear extension. Pm gradually began to move handle out of the detent at which point the flap altitude ECAM warning became visible/audible. Pm immediately put handle back into the detent. There was no visible movement of flaps to the extended position on the upper ECAM indicator; and the warnings immediately went away. Upon landing I contacted maintenance and asked for the airbus flight controller in order to query him regarding the possibility/requirement for a flap inspection. After describing the situation to him; he stated that handle movement; as opposed to any flap movement would initially trigger the flap ECAM alert; and as long as the handle was immediately reset without actual flap movement an inspection would not be required. In retrospect I should've declined ATC's speed restriction and just asked for an additional vector for separation. I have also committed that particular limitation to memory.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A319 flight crew reports attempting to extend flaps to 1 at 22;000 feet to maintain 200 knots per ATC request. An ECAM warning is immediately annunciated and the flap handle is pushed forward before any flap movement occurs.

Narrative: While on descent from cruise altitude into EGE to cross RLG at or above 14;000 feet; ATC; in order to maintain separation for a high volume of traffic into EGE began issuing numerous speed and altitude clearance restrictions. During the descent ATC requested us to maintain 200 kts for separation. I selected 200 kts in the FCU; speed brakes extended; and shortly thereafter both myself and the pilot monitoring (PM) began to observe the 'hook' beginning to approach VLS/selected speed. At that point we became concerned about a possible Alpha protect thrust excursion and resultant overspeed as the hook began to approach VLS. We very briefly discussed extending the flaps to 1; and at that point; as we were passing FL220 I asked the PM to extend flaps one in order to mitigate the possibility of a thrust excursion/overspeed. I mistakenly thought the VFE altitude restriction for flap extension was below FL250; when in fact that was the max altitude restriction for gear extension. PM gradually began to move handle out of the detent at which point the flap altitude ECAM warning became visible/audible. PM immediately put handle back into the detent. There was no visible movement of flaps to the extended position on the upper ECAM indicator; and the warnings immediately went away. Upon landing I contacted maintenance and asked for the Airbus flight controller in order to query him regarding the possibility/requirement for a flap inspection. After describing the situation to him; he stated that handle movement; as opposed to any flap movement would initially trigger the flap ECAM alert; and as long as the handle was immediately reset without actual flap movement an inspection would not be required. In retrospect I should've declined ATC's speed restriction and just asked for an additional vector for separation. I have also committed that particular limitation to memory.

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.