An air carrier flight crew deviating for weather was cleared by ZTL to descend via the clt parqr 1 b...

Attributes
ACN	1354755
Time
Date	201605
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Place
Locale Reference	ZTL.ARTCC
State Reference	GA
Environment
Flight Conditions	IMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Large Transport Low Wing 2 Turbojet Eng
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Descent
Route In Use	STAR PARQR1
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Pilot Not Flying Captain
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Person 2
Function	Pilot Flying First Officer
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence

Narrative:

While deviating around weather at FL240; 'parqr fix when able;' - the atl center clears flight to descend via the parqr 1 RNAV arrival landing south. We query that we are not direct parqr. Controller re-states clearance. We decline; but say once we go direct; we can be cleared to descend via. The two following aircraft get same clearance and have the same disagreement. After the third aircraft; controller says that is how he was trained to do it. The FAA inspector riding with us; agreed with our interpretation and said; if we had left F240; it would have been considered an altitude deviation. Evidently; ATC trains controllers differently from how pilots are trained.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An air carrier flight crew deviating for weather was cleared by ZTL to Descend Via the CLT PARQR 1 but refused because the flight was off track and not flying the arrival.

Narrative: While deviating around weather at FL240; 'PARQR fix when able;' - the ATL CTR clears flight to descend via the PARQR 1 RNAV Arrival landing south. We query that we are not direct PARQR. Controller re-states clearance. We decline; but say once we go direct; we can be cleared to descend via. The two following aircraft get same clearance and have the same disagreement. After the third aircraft; controller says that is how he was trained to do it. The FAA inspector riding with us; agreed with our interpretation and said; if we had left F240; it would have been considered an altitude deviation. Evidently; ATC trains controllers differently from how pilots are trained.

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.

An air carrier flight crew deviating for weather was cleared by ZTL to descend via the clt parqr 1 but refused because the flight was off track and not flying the arrival.