WHILE BEING VECTORED BY PHX APCH CTL; B757 FLC GIVEN IMMEDIATE CLB CLRNC. CTLR TRAINING IN PROGRESS; WITH NUMEROUS XMISSIONS BLOCK STEPPED ON. RPTR DOES NOT BELIEVE TRAINING SHOULD BE CONDUCTED DURING HVY TFC VOLUME TIMES.

Narrative

WE (X) WERE ABOUT 15 MI FROM THE ARPT; BEING VECTORED FOR A VISUAL APCH TO THE W. WE WERE GIVEN A DSCNT TO 7000 FT (WE WERE BASICALLY ON A BASE LEG; APCHING FROM THE N). APCH CTL WAS VERY BUSY; YET A STUDENT CTLR WAS AT THE HELM OF APCH BEING ASSISTED BY AN INSTRUCTOR CTLR. (WE WERE TOLD THIS AFTER WE CALLED THEM ON THE GND.) SEVERAL XMISSIONS WERE BLOCKED OUT BTWN APCH CTL AND VECTORED ACFT. SEVERAL AIRLINES XMITTED 'YOU WERE BLOCKED' TO APCH CTL. AT THE TAIL END OF A BLOCKED XMISSION; I HEARD 8000 FT. I QUERIED APCH; 'WHO WAS THAT LAST XMISSION FOR?' BUT RECEIVED NO RESPONSE. (APCH WAS EXTREMELY BUSY AT THIS TIME; AND MY QUERY PROBABLY 'STEPPED' ON ANOTHER XMISSION.) REACHING 7000 FT; WE WERE TOLD TO IMMEDIATELY CLB (NO TA OR RA). WE IMMEDIATELY ADDED PWR AND CLBED TO 8000 FT. APPARENTLY; WE BECAME A CONFLICT WITH A DEPARTING ACFT (Y) WHO WAS AT 7000 FT ABOUT 5 1/2 MI AWAY. WHEN WE CALLED APCH CTL ON THE GND; A SUPVR INFORMED US THAT THE STUDENT HAD MADE AN ERROR IN 'IMMEDIATELY' CLBING US; A VECTOR WOULD HAVE WORKED BETTER. IN ADDITION; THE 8000 FT BLOCKED XMISSION WAS NOT FOR OUR ACFT. HE SAID THE STUDENT/INSTRUCTOR TEAM WAS BEING COUNSELED AND THERE NEVER WAS A TFC SEPARATION PROB. IN RETROSPECT; IT SEEMED TO US THAT THE CTLR WAS WORKING TOO MANY ACFT AND SMOOTH; CONCISE COM WAS NOT POSSIBLE. PEAK ARR PERIODS ARE PROBABLY NOT THE BEST TIME TO CONDUCT CTLR TRAINING.