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Air carrier captain laments the delays and wasted fuel on a clear day at ord at peak arrival time.
| Attributes | |
| ACN | 839758 |
| Time | |
| Date | 200906 |
| Local Time Of Day | 0001-0600 |
| Place | |
| Locale Reference | C90.TRACON |
| State Reference | IL |
| Environment | |
| Flight Conditions | VMC |
| Aircraft 1 | |
| Make Model Name | Medium Large Transport Low Wing 2 Turbojet Eng |
| Operating Under FAR Part | Part 121 |
| Flight Phase | Initial Approach |
| Route In Use | Vectors |
| Flight Plan | IFR |
| Person 1 | |
| Function | Captain Pilot Not Flying |
| Experience | Flight Crew Last 90 Days 130 Flight Crew Total 17500 Flight Crew Type 7000 |
| Events | |
| Anomaly | ATC Issue All Types Inflight Event / Encounter Fuel Issue |
Narrative:
Prolonged vector at slow speed; ATC saturation; low landing fuel. We received an inordinate number of speed changes and odd; unusual vectors getting to ord; and once in TRACON's hands; we expected that we would be sequenced efficiently. Instead; a B757 and an rj were stuck in front of us; and we were held back at 170 KTS from the eastbound turn off the arrival until sibly on the inbound approach. The vectoring took us well outside class B airspace; and we used an additional 1400 pounds of fuel getting from roughly the airspace over rolling meadows up to the airspace over south park ridge. I'm putting in this report not because of anything special but because it is so easy for our minimum fuel that dispatch provides us to get burned up by C90 TRACON and ZAU center. We blocked in with 4300 pounds - much lower than the fat of 6000 pounds expected. There were no other delays and we were ahead on fuel number over mason city VORTAC (mcw). From that point on; center began using the 'speed up; slow down; vector off course' technique of separating aircraft. There was no weather to speak of; just a cloud layer over ord. All three west landing runways were in use; and it was peak arrival time.
Original NASA ASRS Text
Title: Air carrier Captain laments the delays and wasted fuel on a clear day at ORD at peak arrival time.
Narrative: Prolonged vector at slow speed; ATC saturation; low landing fuel. We received an inordinate number of speed changes and odd; unusual vectors getting to ORD; and once in TRACON's hands; we expected that we would be sequenced efficiently. Instead; a B757 and an RJ were stuck in front of us; and we were held back at 170 KTS from the eastbound turn off the arrival until SIBLY on the inbound approach. The vectoring took us well outside Class B airspace; and we used an additional 1400 LBS of fuel getting from roughly the airspace over Rolling Meadows up to the airspace over south Park Ridge. I'm putting in this report not because of anything special but because it is so easy for our minimum fuel that dispatch provides us to get burned up by C90 TRACON and ZAU Center. We blocked in with 4300 LBS - much lower than the FAT of 6000 LBS expected. There were no other delays and we were ahead on fuel number over Mason City VORTAC (MCW). From that point on; Center began using the 'speed up; slow down; vector off course' technique of separating aircraft. There was no weather to speak of; just a cloud layer over ORD. All three west landing runways were in use; and it was peak arrival time.
Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.