Narrative:

Today we were at FL240 when houston center told us to initially descend to 15;000 feet. Furthermore; they told us to fly our present heading of approximately 182 as we were headed south on the arrival. We were still around FL200 descending at over 1;000 feet per minute south of the charted arrival when we were given a clearance to cross 5 west of a fix at 9000 feet. In order for us to comply with this restriction we would have needed to descend at about 3200 feet per minute which would have over-sped the airplane. I told ATC we would be unable to make this crossing restriction and we would need delay vectors. The center controller immediately gave us these vectors as she said there; 'would be no leniency by approach control today with the crossing restriction; they needed me to make that crossing restriction.' I am assuming she gave us the delaying vectors and we stayed in her airspace and we were then able to comply with the crossing restriction. I am by no means an ATC expert and I know there are a lot of agreements and LOA's that governs that airspace; but there needs to be a standardized way to get this aircraft in and out of iah. My concern is that without this standardization a newly transitioned pilot to the aircraft; might eagerly want to comply with ATC and accept a crossing restriction that they cannot do safely. It might be missed and a loss of separation can occur. Furthermore; there is still confusion by ATC that we are faster than other turboprops and need to be given a little bit more of a heads up on our descents. Would one of these two ideas work in west operations for iah? The first idea is on an arrival can we have different crossing restrictions for jets (12;000); than turboprops that can maintain greater than 250kts (10;000) and then turboprops that maintain less than 250kts (9;000)? That way we would be able to stay at 10;000 and not interfere with the jet traffic above and not have to slow. If that is an option how would that note get changed on the arrival charts and get FAA approval? The second idea is on the arrival create a transition off for turboprops that can maintain greater than 250kts at 10;000. That transition can be given a heading of 085 to a point off the arrival. The idea here would be keep the plane as high as possible on the downwind leg; and then the controller can descend them through 10;000 on the base where they can then join the localizer when landing to the west. If that would work; how would that note get changed on the arrival charts and get FAA approval?

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Turboprop Pilot on an IAH arrival explains that turboprops do not have the capability to descend and slow like jets yet ATC expects them to meet the same crossing restrictions with late descent clearances. A suggestion is made about different turboprop crossing altitudes.

Narrative: Today we were at FL240 when Houston Center told us to initially descend to 15;000 feet. Furthermore; they told us to fly our present heading of approximately 182 as we were headed south on the Arrival. We were still around FL200 descending at over 1;000 feet per minute south of the charted arrival when we were given a clearance to cross 5 west of a fix at 9000 feet. In order for us to comply with this restriction we would have needed to descend at about 3200 feet per minute which would have over-sped the airplane. I told ATC we would be unable to make this crossing restriction and we would need delay vectors. The Center Controller immediately gave us these vectors as she said there; 'would be no leniency by Approach Control today with the crossing restriction; they needed me to make that crossing restriction.' I am assuming she gave us the delaying vectors and we stayed in her airspace and we were then able to comply with the crossing restriction. I am by no means an ATC expert and I know there are a lot of agreements and LOA's that governs that airspace; but there needs to be a standardized way to get this aircraft in and out of IAH. My concern is that without this standardization a newly transitioned pilot to the aircraft; might eagerly want to comply with ATC and accept a crossing restriction that they cannot do safely. It might be missed and a loss of separation can occur. Furthermore; there is still confusion by ATC that we are faster than other Turboprops and need to be given a little bit more of a heads up on our descents. Would one of these two ideas work in west operations for IAH? The first idea is on an arrival can we have different crossing restrictions for Jets (12;000); than Turboprops that can maintain greater than 250kts (10;000) and then Turboprops that maintain less than 250kts (9;000)? That way we would be able to stay at 10;000 and not interfere with the jet traffic above and not have to slow. If that is an option how would that note get changed on the arrival charts and get FAA approval? The second idea is on the arrival create a transition off for Turboprops that can maintain greater than 250kts at 10;000. That transition can be given a heading of 085 to a point off the arrival. The idea here would be keep the plane as high as possible on the downwind leg; and then the controller can descend them through 10;000 on the base where they can then join the localizer when landing to the West. If that would work; how would that note get changed on the arrival charts and get FAA approval?

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.