Narrative:

Initially vectored off routing to aus while en-route to windu. Given descent while on westerly heading to FL330 from FL360. Descended initially on profile; then cleared direct ssolo at FL330. Frequency change. Given further descent to an altitude I don't recall. Now high on profile; attempted to deploy spoilers several times but left wing spoilers were stuck closed/retracted. Told pilot monitoring the spoilers weren't coming out; but he didn't hear me. I suspect the inter cockpit communication was stepped on by center; or a frequency change. Asked pilot monitoring to inform center we weren't going to make restrictions at ssolo about 15 miles prior to ssolo. I believe he had to repeat that call to center. Pilot monitoring informed center; and after some confusion center replied; 'do the best you can.' spoilers were still unusable so we ended up making the below FL230 restriction at 310 knots rather than 280 knots. Soon thereafter; I was able to get full spoiler deployment and we made the rest of the speed and altitude restrictions on the SEWZY4 arrival. Pilot monitoring did a nice job of quick 3:1 math to help me get below FL230 at ssolo. I wrote the spoilers up in the aml in aus.had the spoilers deployed normally we would have made our restrictions at ssolo. I could have communicated more clearly to the pilot monitoring that the left wing spoilers were stuck retracted. I assumed he heard my initial description or saw the configuration display showing the condition during several repeated extension attempts; but some clear yelling from me over center's chatter would have clarified the condition for the pilot monitoring. I'm going to put some human error on houston center's shoulders for the slow response to a couple calls from us about not making the restrictions at ssolo; and the 'do the best you can' response was; I felt; vague and something I thought ATC was trying to get away from in their terminology.I fly [to] aus quite a bit and a late descent from cruise is very common on the SEWZY4; spoilers are usually required to get on profile. Perhaps a better arrival design would be in order. I covered the CRM issues and center's communication/responses. I don't think we violated anything at ssolo with center's 'do the best you can' clearance but submitting this in case the FAA's eye in the sky thinks differently. That is all.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Air carrier flight crew reported a problem extending spoilers; communicating with each other; and their combined effect on the descent profile.

Narrative: Initially vectored off routing to AUS while en-route to WINDU. Given descent while on westerly heading to FL330 from FL360. Descended initially on profile; then cleared direct SSOLO at FL330. Frequency change. Given further descent to an altitude I don't recall. Now high on profile; attempted to deploy spoilers several times but left wing spoilers were stuck closed/retracted. Told pilot monitoring the spoilers weren't coming out; but he didn't hear me. I suspect the inter cockpit communication was stepped on by Center; or a frequency change. Asked pilot monitoring to inform Center we weren't going to make restrictions at SSOLO about 15 miles prior to SSOLO. I believe he had to repeat that call to Center. Pilot monitoring informed Center; and after some confusion Center replied; 'do the best you can.' Spoilers were still unusable so we ended up making the below FL230 restriction at 310 knots rather than 280 knots. Soon thereafter; I was able to get full spoiler deployment and we made the rest of the speed and altitude restrictions on the SEWZY4 arrival. Pilot monitoring did a nice job of quick 3:1 math to help me get below FL230 at SSOLO. I wrote the spoilers up in the AML in AUS.Had the spoilers deployed normally we would have made our restrictions at SSOLO. I could have communicated more clearly to the pilot monitoring that the left wing spoilers were stuck retracted. I assumed he heard my initial description or saw the configuration display showing the condition during several repeated extension attempts; but some clear yelling from me over Center's chatter would have clarified the condition for the pilot monitoring. I'm going to put some human error on Houston Center's shoulders for the slow response to a couple calls from us about not making the restrictions at SSOLO; and the 'do the best you can' response was; I felt; vague and something I thought ATC was trying to get away from in their terminology.I fly [to] AUS quite a bit and a late descent from cruise is very common on the SEWZY4; spoilers are usually required to get on profile. Perhaps a better arrival design would be in order. I covered the CRM issues and Center's communication/responses. I don't think we violated anything at SSOLO with Center's 'do the best you can' clearance but submitting this in case the FAA's eye in the sky thinks differently. That is all.

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.