Air carrier first officer experienced a TCAS RA at 5;000 feet descending east of iwa. The RA changed...

Narrative:

We were in close proximity to iwa; our intended landing airport. We were given a heading of approximately 270 and then told by phoenix approach we had traffic at our 12 o'clock contact iwa tower and cleared for the visual approach. Immediately after this instruction we received an RA telling us to climb. The captain disconnected the autopilot and complied with the original climb order. I made a radio call to approach and told them we were responding to an RA. During the climb we received course reversal commands telling us to then descend; descend. Approach then instructed us to turn right. After the RA was complied with we reported that we were returning to course and switched over to iwa tower. I never got visual on the intruding aircraft. The jumpseater reported seeing the aircraft and said it was very close. There is a practice area for aerobatic aircraft very close to the approach corridor for iwa. I believe this practice area should be moved further south to avoid conflicts.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Air Carrier First Officer experienced a TCAS RA at 5;000 feet descending east of IWA. The RA changed from a climb to a descend but the aircraft involved was not seen. Reporter believes the aircraft involved was returning from an aerobatic practice box.

Narrative: We were in close proximity to IWA; our intended landing airport. We were given a heading of approximately 270 and then told by Phoenix approach we had traffic at our 12 o'clock contact IWA tower and cleared for the visual approach. Immediately after this instruction we received an RA telling us to climb. The Captain disconnected the autopilot and complied with the original climb order. I made a radio call to Approach and told them we were responding to an RA. During the climb we received course reversal commands telling us to then Descend; Descend. Approach then instructed us to turn right. After the RA was complied with we reported that we were returning to course and switched over to IWA tower. I never got visual on the intruding aircraft. The jumpseater reported seeing the aircraft and said it was very close. There is a practice area for aerobatic aircraft very close to the approach corridor for IWA. I believe this practice area should be moved further south to avoid conflicts.

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.

Attributes
ACN	1344785
Time
Date	201603
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	P50.TRACON
State Reference	AZ
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Medium Large Transport
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Descent
Route In Use	Vectors Visual Approach
Flight Plan	IFR
Aircraft 2
Make Model Name	Aerobatic
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Person 1
Function	Pilot Not Flying First Officer
Events
Anomaly	Conflict Airborne Conflict

Air carrier first officer experienced a TCAS RA at 5;000 feet descending east of iwa. The RA changed from a climb to a descend but the aircraft involved was not seen. Reporter believes the aircraft involved was returning from an aerobatic practice box.