Narrative:

I was dispatched to anchorage on a routine medevac transport with a patient in physical distress. During arrival into anchorage we were given an extended vector for runway 7L to allow priority to a MD11 landing on the parallel runway. Numerous non-standard radio calls and heading assignments were made during the arrival due to controller training taking place. We were intercepting 7L after being vectored across the extended runway centerline and told to maintain visual separation from the MD11 who was near our assigned altitude. While maneuvering to align back to runway centerline we encountered jet wash from the MD11. I maneuvered and climbed to get above the jet and continued toward the runway while maintaining visual. Shortly after I was queried by the controller of our altitude and acknowledged that we were 800 feet above our assigned altitude. I immediately descended back to the glidepath and continued on to landing. There were other contributing factors as well. Environmental: sun angle was low to the east and rising over the mountains nearly direct in line to the flight path; glassy; over-water approach reflecting sunlight across the windshield required extra attention outside the cockpit to acquire and maintain visual with the preceding MD11.the patient became agitated and vocal during final approach which caused the medical crew to have to physically intervene resulting in non-routine cockpit distraction.bottom line; medevac aircraft are assigned a special call sign to enhance controller situational awareness and are due traffic priority for patient care. As passenger and cargo aircraft volume increases in anchorage controllers are not allocating the proper traffic priority to arriving medevac aircraft. The unique mission; typical single-pilot IFR operations; and the resultant increased cockpit workloads require new attention to smooth-flowing arrivals and traffic priorities without the need for pilots to request special handling.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: BE20 pilot reported deviating from assigned altitude after encountering wake turbulence from preceding MD11 on arrival into ANC.

Narrative: I was dispatched to Anchorage on a routine medevac transport with a patient in physical distress. During arrival into Anchorage we were given an extended vector for runway 7L to allow priority to a MD11 landing on the parallel runway. Numerous non-standard radio calls and heading assignments were made during the arrival due to Controller training taking place. We were intercepting 7L after being vectored across the extended runway centerline and told to maintain visual separation from the MD11 who was near our assigned altitude. While maneuvering to align back to runway centerline we encountered jet wash from the MD11. I maneuvered and climbed to get above the jet and continued toward the runway while maintaining visual. Shortly after I was queried by the Controller of our altitude and acknowledged that we were 800 feet above our assigned altitude. I immediately descended back to the glidepath and continued on to landing. There were other contributing factors as well. Environmental: sun angle was low to the east and rising over the mountains nearly direct in line to the flight path; glassy; over-water approach reflecting sunlight across the windshield required extra attention outside the cockpit to acquire and maintain visual with the preceding MD11.The patient became agitated and vocal during final approach which caused the medical crew to have to physically intervene resulting in non-routine cockpit distraction.Bottom line; Medevac aircraft are assigned a special call sign to enhance Controller situational awareness and are due traffic priority for patient care. As passenger and cargo aircraft volume increases in Anchorage Controllers are not allocating the proper traffic priority to arriving medevac aircraft. The unique mission; typical single-pilot IFR operations; and the resultant increased cockpit workloads require new attention to smooth-flowing arrivals and traffic priorities without the need for pilots to request special handling.

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.