In a fifteen minute period; an air carrier crew was issued three different RNAV arrivals from the we...

Narrative:

Arriving in the den area; late afternoon; with many thunderstorms and build-ups to the west of den playing havoc with charted arrivals. We were assigned three different RNAV arrivals in the space of 15 minutes when each became untenable due to weather. In one instance when we told the controller we needed to deviate for weather; his initial response was 'unable.' that was not the response [I] was looking for and was ready to declare and emergency but before I could do that he came back and cleared us for the right deviation. While these new arrivals may serve someone's purpose; they are complicated; cumbersome; have too many restrictions; altitude limitations; and are cluttered beyond belief. Throw in a few thunderstorms on the arrival and they become impossible. Just assigning another arrival does not help the situation in a cockpit that is already up to its ears attempting to avoid weather.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: In a fifteen minute period; an air carrier crew was issued three different RNAV arrivals from the West because of weather and was prepared to declare an emergency to avoid a thunderstorm just as ATC issued an acceptable vector.

Narrative: Arriving in the DEN area; late afternoon; with many thunderstorms and build-ups to the west of DEN playing havoc with charted arrivals. We were assigned three different RNAV arrivals in the space of 15 minutes when each became untenable due to weather. In one instance when we told the Controller we needed to deviate for weather; his initial response was 'UNABLE.' That was not the response [I] was looking for and was ready to declare and emergency but before I could do that he came back and cleared us for the right deviation. While these new arrivals may serve someone's purpose; they are complicated; cumbersome; have too many restrictions; altitude limitations; and are cluttered beyond belief. Throw in a few thunderstorms on the arrival and they become impossible. Just assigning another arrival does NOT help the situation in a cockpit that is already up to its ears attempting to avoid weather.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 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.

Attributes
ACN	1111296
Time
Date	201308
Local Time Of Day	0001-0600
Place
Locale Reference	ZDV.ARTCC
State Reference	CO
Environment
Flight Conditions	IMC
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	B757 Undifferentiated or Other Model
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Descent
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 80 Flight Crew Total 28000 Flight Crew Type 4500
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence

In a fifteen minute period; an air carrier crew was issued three different RNAV arrivals from the west because of weather and was prepared to declare an emergency to avoid a thunderstorm just as ATC issued an acceptable vector.