Narrative:

Climbing out of bwi on the TERPZ5 we were given a 'climb via' instruction. Then subsequently given a maintain 290 knots or greater out of 10;000. The arrival calls for us to cross terpz at or above 11;000 then litme at or above 14;000 with only a 9.6 mile distance to climb 3;000 feet while accelerating. Both instructions are impossible from a performance standpoint for a fully loaded airliner. I had to get ATC to give us relief from both speed and or altitude to ensure compliance. Changing over to center we were given instructions to climb to FL230; we had to verify that we were given relief from the litme restriction. They seemed to not even consider us on the 'climb via' anymore?we were given relief and complied with all instructions as directed. The purpose of this [report] is to bring attention to the procedures and the ATC directions. These procedures are putting flight crews in high probability scenarios of busting airspeeds and or altitudes. ATC changing published instructions and or procedures being published that are at or above the performance of commercial aircraft abilities are a continued hindrance. This puts flight crews in jeopardy and additionally they are not safe. The entire 'climb via' and 'descend via' procedures are very high risk for flight crews; having to listen for a single word such as 'except' to distinguish between what ATC is expecting and clearing a flight crew to do is ludicrous and not safe. ATC shares no responsibility with flight crews once they pass these nonstandard procedures on to the crew leaving us as the final line of making all restrictions. These procedures need to either be issued as published without exception and vetted properly for aircraft performance or they should not be expected to be flown.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A320 Captain reported his concerns with ATC use of 'descend via' and 'climb via' procedures.

Narrative: Climbing out of BWI on the TERPZ5 we were given a 'climb via' instruction. Then subsequently given a maintain 290 knots or greater out of 10;000. The arrival calls for us to cross TERPZ at or above 11;000 then LITME at or above 14;000 with only a 9.6 mile distance to climb 3;000 feet while accelerating. Both instructions are impossible from a performance standpoint for a fully loaded airliner. I had to get ATC to give us relief from both speed and or altitude to ensure compliance. Changing over to Center we were given instructions to climb to FL230; we had to verify that we were given relief from the LITME restriction. They seemed to not even consider us on the 'climb via' anymore?We were given relief and complied with all instructions as directed. The purpose of this [report] is to bring attention to the procedures and the ATC directions. These procedures are putting flight crews in high probability scenarios of busting airspeeds and or altitudes. ATC changing published instructions and or procedures being published that are at or above the performance of commercial aircraft abilities are a continued hindrance. This puts flight crews in jeopardy and additionally they are not safe. The entire 'climb via' and 'descend via' procedures are very high risk for flight crews; having to listen for a single word such as 'except' to distinguish between what ATC is expecting and clearing a flight crew to do is ludicrous and not safe. ATC shares no responsibility with flight crews once they pass these nonstandard procedures on to the crew leaving us as the final line of making all restrictions. These procedures need to either be issued as published without exception and vetted properly for aircraft performance or they should not be expected to be flown.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site 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.