A B737-300 FLC COMPLAINS OF THE DESIGN FEATURES OF THE OPALE 4 ARR STAR CHART. THEY SUFFERED A HDG TRACK POS DEV ON APCH TO YYC.

1998-10 · NASA ASRS report 416490

Date: 1998-10 · Aircraft: B737-300 · Phase: approach

Anomalies: deviation-track-heading-all-types|deviation-discrepancy-procedural-published-material-policy|deviation-discrepancy-procedural-clearance|inflight-event-encounter-weather-turbulence|inflight-event-encounter-other-unknown|other-unspecified

Synopsis

A B737-300 FLC COMPLAINS OF THE DESIGN FEATURES OF THE OPALE 4 ARR STAR CHART. THEY SUFFERED A HDG TRACK POS DEV ON APCH TO YYC.

Narrative

INBOUND TO CYYC FROM SFO OUR CLRNC SINCE TKOF HAD BEEN 'OPALE DIRECT YYC.' WE LISTENED TO THE ATIS AT ABOUT 10 MINS PRIOR TO START OF DSCNT AND THEY WERE USING RWY 34. ABOUT 10 NM PRIOR TO OPALE; EDMONTON CTR CLRED US FOR THE 'OPALE 4 ARR.' WE TRIED TO LOAD THE ARR FROM THE FMC DATABASE; BUT FOUND IT WAS NOT AVAILABLE. WE BOTH REACHED FOR OUR CHARTS AND THE FO BEGAN READING THE ARR FIXES AND I TYPED THEM INTO THE FMC WITHOUT ERROR. HE TOLD ME THE PLATE SAID NOT TO EXPECT LOWER THAN 10000 FT UNTIL E OF MOGOT. I DID NOT BACK UP HIS REVIEW OF THE CHART MYSELF; ALTHOUGH I GLANCED AT THE ARR FIXES. I WAS THEN DISTR FOR SEVERAL MINS BY TURB; ICING AND PREPARING FOR THE APCH. WHEN WE GOT TO MOGOT; HE DID NOT TURN THE ACFT AND I LOOKED AT THE AERO PAGE AND SAW 100 DEG HDG OFF OF MOGOT AND TOLD HIM TO TURN TO 100 DEGS. A FEW SECONDS LATER; CALGARY APCH CALLED US TO TELL US WE WERE FLYING THE ARR FOR RWY 28! LIKE MANY INCIDENTS; THERE WAS A STRING OF EVENTS THAT LED TO THE NAV DEV. THE MAIN ISSUE IS THE CHARTING CHART MAKER USES FOR THE ARRS TO CYYC. I BELIEVE CHART MAKER SHOULD PRINT IN LARGE BOLD TYPE 'RWY 10' ABOVE 'ALBRO;' 'RWY 34' ABOVE 'HANSI;' AND 'RWY 16/RWY 28' ABOVE 'MOGOT' TO BETTER ALERT THE PLT TO THE DIFFERENT RWY TRANSITIONS! ALSO; THE PRACTICE OF PLACING NOTES VERTLY (IE; RWY 34/16 NOTES) ON A PAGE WHEN EVERYTHING ELSE IS L TO R HORIZLY ORIENTED DOES NOT CATCH YOUR EYE WHEN YOU ARE HURRIED! AS PLTS; WE DON'T READ THE TEXT DESCRIPTIONS WHEN WE ARE HURRIED! ALSO CONTRIBUTING; WE HAD FAR MINIMUM REST AFTER A TOUGH DAY PREVIOUSLY AND WE WERE NOT PHYSIOLOGICALLY AT A PEAK. THE FO WAS NEW TO OUR AIRLINE. AND ATC SHOULD HAVE GIVEN US THE CLRNC MORE THAN 1 MIN BEFORE THEY EXPECTED US TO FLY IT! ALSO CONTRIBUTING: THE FACT THAT THE ARR WAS NOT IN THE FMC DATABASE WHICH GREATLY INCREASED OUR WORKLOAD.

Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.

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