A B757 FLT CREW EXPRESSES THEIR CONCERN ABOUT ATIS AND ACARS RECEPTION AT CRK.

Date: 2003-09 · Aircraft: B757-200 · Phase: approach

Anomalies: other-atis-acars-problems

Synopsis

A B757 FLT CREW EXPRESSES THEIR CONCERN ABOUT ATIS AND ACARS RECEPTION AT CRK.

Narrative

FOUR ADVERSE ITEMS CONTINUALLY OCCUR DURING OPS INTO CLARK; PHILIPPINES. 1) WEAK ATIS. ATIS AT CLARK IS XMITTED ON THE VOR FREQ (113.1). THE XMISSION SEEMS TO BE WEAKER THAN ALL OTHER ATIS BROADCASTS IN SE ASIA. AS A RESULT; PLTS ARE SPENDING INORDINATE AMOUNTS OF TIME TRYING TO DECIPHER THE ATIS CLOSE IN TO THE FIELD. ADDITIONALLY; THE TWR CTLR INDICATED THAT DURING PERIODS OF BAD WX; XMISSIONS ARE EVEN WEAKER. 2) GARBLED ATIS. CLARK'S ATIS COMPUTER GENERATED VOICE IS EXTREMELY SLOW SPEAKING; AND IT IS DIFFICULT TO UNDERSTAND NUMBERS AND OTHER PHRASES; PARTICULARLY WHEN THE ACFT IS BEYOND 50 NM FROM THE FIELD. EVEN AT THE FIELD; CERTAIN PHRASES ARE IMPOSSIBLE TO UNDERSTAND. 3) SPORADIC ACARS WX INFO FROM CLARK. AFTER APPROX MIDNIGHT; CLARK LCL TIME; TIMELY AND ACCURATE TAF'S AND METAR'S FROM CLARK ARE ALMOST NONEXISTENT. GENERALLY; WITHIN ABOUT 30 MINS OF LNDG; ACARS WX INFO COMES BACK UP. 4) TWR FREQ HAS A LOW FREQ BUZZ IN THE BACKGROUND OF CTLR XMISSIONS; SOMETIMES GARBLING RECEPTION. THE COMBINATION OF THESE ABOVE ITEMS MAKES FOR A POSSIBLE HAZARDOUS APCH INTO CLARK. FOR EXAMPLE; ON SEP/THU/03; WE WERE UNABLE TO RECEIVE ACARS WX DATA GOING INTO CLARK. APPROX 30 MINS OUT; WE GOT ACARS DATA INDICATING THAT VISIBILITY AT CRK WAS 4000 METERS. ATIS WAS GARBLED; BUT SEEMED TO PARALLEL WHAT WE WERE SEEING ON ACARS. WHILE SHOOTING THE APCH THE WX LOOKED 'SUSPECT;' AND APCH/TWR WAS QUERIED. TWR INDICATED THAT HIS VISIBILITY WAS 100 METERS; AND RVR WAS 1000 METERS. MINIMUMS FOR THE APCH WERE .8 KM; SO THE APCH WAS CONTINUED; AND WE BROKE OUT RIGHT AT MINIMUMS. ANOTHER FLT PRIOR TO US HAD DIFFICULTY UNDERSTANDING THE TWR WHEN REQUESTING THE WX. IT MAY BE POSSIBLE TO HELP COMS AT CLARK; PHILIPPINES BY: 1) CHANGE ATIS VOICE SOFTWARE AT CLARK. A MORE UNDERSTANDABLE VOICE WILL HELP PLTS TO UNDERSTAND ATIS INFO; EVEN IF THE XMISSION IS WEAK. 2) DETERMINE WHY ACARS WX AT CLARK STOPS BEING XMITTED AFTER MIDNIGHT. 3) ELIMINATE CRK TWR XMITTER BUZZ.

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