An air carrier flight crew was slow to line up with the proper runway at elp on a night visual appro...

Narrative:

Cleared for a visual approach to runway 22 about 5 miles north of newman VOR. There was company traffic turning final for runway 22 and we had them in sight. We began to configure. I was referencing runway 26L instead of runway 22. I had in my head that runway 22 was biggs AFB and the angle of our position on base leg made it difficult to discern the lateral position of the aircraft on final. I continued to call for landing configuration changes; feeling that we were 'looking good' because I was referencing runway 26L. The captain pointed to runway 22 and said; 'are you landing on runway 22?' my situational awareness was restored and we were well to the left of centerline and slightly high. I turned towards the runway 22 and called for flaps 30 and landing checklist. We did not make a 1000 ft call and were focusing on maneuvering the aircraft to land. We were lined up with the runway 22 at 500 ft and got a 'too low flaps' warning. We had run the before landing checklist; but the captain had set flaps 25 instead of 30 and I just said 'flaps 30' and did not verify the flap gauge. The captain selected flaps 30 and we continued the approach to a slightly long landing. We should have gone around for two big reasons: unstable approach and a configuration warning. Learned much from this event but the most prevalent item that sticks is to plan the approach and be willing to go around when things get bad. Don't try to 'salvage' a bad approach.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An air carrier flight crew was slow to line up with the proper runway at ELP on a night visual approach; resulting in an unstabilized approach that was concluded satisfactorily.

Narrative: Cleared for a visual approach to Runway 22 about 5 miles north of NEWMAN VOR. There was Company traffic turning final for Runway 22 and we had them in sight. We began to configure. I was referencing Runway 26L instead of Runway 22. I had in my head that Runway 22 was BIGGS AFB and the angle of our position on base leg made it difficult to discern the lateral position of the aircraft on final. I continued to call for landing configuration changes; feeling that we were 'looking good' because I was referencing Runway 26L. The Captain pointed to Runway 22 and said; 'Are you landing on Runway 22?' My situational awareness was restored and we were well to the left of centerline and slightly high. I turned towards the Runway 22 and called for flaps 30 and Landing checklist. We did not make a 1000 FT call and were focusing on maneuvering the aircraft to land. We were lined up with the Runway 22 at 500 FT and got a 'Too Low Flaps' warning. We had run the Before Landing checklist; but the Captain had set Flaps 25 instead of 30 and I just said 'Flaps 30' and did not verify the flap gauge. The Captain selected Flaps 30 and we continued the approach to a slightly long landing. We should have gone around for two big reasons: Unstable approach and a configuration warning. Learned much from this event but the most prevalent item that sticks is to plan the approach and be willing to go around when things get bad. Don't try to 'salvage' a bad approach.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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	849853
Time
Date	200908
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	ELP.Airport
State Reference	TX
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Night
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Commercial Fixed Wing
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Initial Approach
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	First Officer
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 193
Person 2
Function	Pilot Not Flying Captain
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Inflight Event / Encounter Unstabilized Approach

An air carrier flight crew was slow to line up with the proper runway at elp on a night visual approach; resulting in an unstabilized approach that was concluded satisfactorily.