B-737 captain reported a communications breakdown between flight crew and ATC which placed undue bur...

Narrative:

While being vectored on approach; ATC gave us a clearance to maintain 3;800 feet until established and then cleared the approach. The vector given placed us just inside okain; approximately 11 miles. This already placed us high on a designed steep approach. Before the intercept; approach requested us to maintain 170 KIAS until reebo. I replied that the best we could give is 150 KIAS because we were flying a localizer approach. He queried our ability and replied that this is the first time that he had heard of this inability. He also stated that he might need to pull us out of the approach. A steep non-precision approach is a poor place to have these distractions placed on a crew while shooting this approach near minimums. This type of approach is designed/briefed at a specific set of parameters regarding speed and descent. It was surprising to us as a crew that the controller wasn't aware of these conditions especially given the field was IFR. We are only bringing this attention for safety reasons because we feel it placed an undue burden on a crew during a very challenging part of flight. Also; we were restricted to the localizer due to an MEL issue. With all the automation these days; controllers must still understand that crews may not always have that capability available.'

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B-737 Captain reported a communications breakdown between flight crew and ATC which placed undue burden on flight crew while on a near minmums non-precision approach.

Narrative: While being vectored on approach; ATC gave us a clearance to maintain 3;800 feet until established and then cleared the approach. The vector given placed us just inside OKAIN; approximately 11 miles. This already placed us high on a designed steep approach. Before the intercept; Approach requested us to maintain 170 KIAS until REEBO. I replied that the best we could give is 150 KIAS because we were flying a LOC approach. He queried our ability and replied that this is the first time that he had heard of this inability. He also stated that he might need to pull us out of the approach. A steep non-precision approach is a poor place to have these distractions placed on a Crew while shooting this approach near minimums. This type of approach is designed/briefed at a specific set of parameters regarding speed and descent. It was surprising to us as a crew that the Controller wasn't aware of these conditions especially given the field was IFR. We are only bringing this attention for safety reasons because we feel it placed an undue burden on a crew during a very challenging part of flight. Also; we were restricted to the LOC due to an MEL issue. With all the automation these days; controllers must still understand that crews may not always have that capability available.'

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	1680288
Time
Date	201908
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Place
Locale Reference	SAN.Airport
State Reference	CA
Environment
Flight Conditions	IMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	B737 Undifferentiated or Other Model
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Initial Approach
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Pilot Not Flying Captain
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP) Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Multiengine
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 471
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Deviation - Speed All Types Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence

B-737 captain reported a communications breakdown between flight crew and ATC which placed undue burden on flight crew while on a near minmums non-precision approach.