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B737 captain reported the approach to abq airport needs review because; as currently designed; it increases the chances for an unstable approach.
| Attributes | |
| ACN | 1591861 |
| Time | |
| Date | 201811 |
| Local Time Of Day | 0601-1200 |
| Place | |
| Locale Reference | ABQ.Airport |
| State Reference | NM |
| Environment | |
| Flight Conditions | VMC |
| Aircraft 1 | |
| Make Model Name | B737 Undifferentiated or Other Model |
| Operating Under FAR Part | Part 121 |
| Flight Phase | Descent |
| Route In Use | STAR SNDIA THREE |
| Flight Plan | IFR |
| Person 1 | |
| Function | Captain Pilot Not Flying |
| Qualification | Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP) Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Multiengine |
| Experience | Flight Crew Total 23000 |
| Events | |
| Anomaly | Deviation - Altitude Crossing Restriction Not Met Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Deviation - Procedural Clearance Inflight Event / Encounter Unstabilized Approach |
Narrative:
Did not know what a speed brake intensive arrival this was. We started down with a 2.8 vertical bearing to the first altitude restriction. It was not long before we started falling behind the VNAV path. The speed brake was deployed but was not enough to catch up. We were vectored to the north then re-cleared to vlcno intersection. We were still too high to make the crossing and passed 600 feet high with the speed brake out all the while. We increased speed to make the altitude but was unsuccessful. We were then cleared the visual but still had too much energy for a normal approach. The gear was lowered well before normal just to slow to flap speed. It took some fancy flying just to be stable at 1;000 feet. I totally get why there is a warning in our ops pages about high occurrences of unstable approaches in abq. The structure of this arrival needs to be looked at again. It flies like a hi-altitude penetration in a phone booth. It needs to extend further west before intercepting the final to runway 8. Until this arrival is corrected a note should be added stating that it may exceed the vertical capabilities of your aircraft. I have not flown into abq for years so I was not expecting anything like this. From here on I will have us descend to MEA before starting this arrival again.
Original NASA ASRS Text
Title: B737 Captain reported the approach to ABQ airport needs review because; as currently designed; it increases the chances for an unstable approach.
Narrative: Did not know what a speed brake intensive arrival this was. We started down with a 2.8 vertical bearing to the first altitude restriction. It was not long before we started falling behind the VNAV PATH. The speed brake was deployed but was not enough to catch up. We were vectored to the north then re-cleared to VLCNO intersection. We were still too high to make the crossing and passed 600 feet high with the speed brake out all the while. We increased speed to make the altitude but was unsuccessful. We were then cleared the visual but still had too much energy for a normal approach. The gear was lowered well before normal just to slow to flap speed. It took some fancy flying just to be stable at 1;000 feet. I totally get why there is a warning in our ops pages about high occurrences of unstable approaches in ABQ. The structure of this arrival needs to be looked at again. It flies like a hi-altitude penetration in a phone booth. It needs to extend further west before intercepting the final to Runway 8. Until this arrival is corrected a note should be added stating that it may exceed the vertical capabilities of your aircraft. I have not flown into ABQ for years so I was not expecting anything like this. From here on I will have us descend to MEA before starting this arrival again.
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.