While avoiding weather on the eagul RNAV STAR to phx; the flight crew of an A320 and ATC suffered a ...

Narrative:

Inbound to phx it became apparent that there were thunderstorms on the eagul arrival. The left was clear but this is the departure corridor and we had to stay to the right of it. On initial contact with center at FL340 I asked which way guys were going. The controller said cleared direct homrr and deviate as necessary. I was not given a descent clearance but it may have been blocked. We entered direct homrr in the box. Doing so; of course; wiped out all the intermediate waypoints and we were just passing slidr. We asked what altitude should we maintain and we got a lecture on how we had been cleared to descend via the eagul 4 26 transition. I told him that going direct homrr wiped out all the constraints. I then got a second lecture on how we were cleared to descend via the eagul 4 26 transition. We had to deviate right and then left and then back right to homrr without a floor on how low we could go. We were very far from the next constraint vnnom which was between 11;000 and 10;000. We became VMC and just guessed at what altitudes to stay above; not wanting a third lecture.it seems the phx RNAV stars have not been fully developed. ATC controllers need to understand how flight management computers work.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: While avoiding weather on the EAGUL RNAV STAR to PHX; the flight crew of an A320 and ATC suffered a communications breakdown with respect to the expected descent requirements.

Narrative: Inbound to PHX it became apparent that there were thunderstorms on the EAGUL arrival. The left was clear but this is the departure corridor and we had to stay to the right of it. On initial contact with Center at FL340 I asked which way guys were going. The Controller said cleared direct HOMRR and deviate as necessary. I was not given a descent clearance but it may have been blocked. We entered direct HOMRR in the box. Doing so; of course; wiped out all the intermediate waypoints and we were just passing SLIDR. We asked what altitude should we maintain and we got a lecture on how we had been cleared to descend via the EAGUL 4 26 transition. I told him that going direct HOMRR wiped out all the constraints. I then got a second lecture on how we were cleared to descend via the EAGUL 4 26 transition. We had to deviate right and then left and then back right to HOMRR without a floor on how low we could go. We were very far from the next constraint VNNOM which was between 11;000 and 10;000. We became VMC and just guessed at what altitudes to stay above; not wanting a third lecture.It seems the PHX RNAV STARS have not been fully developed. ATC controllers need to understand how Flight Management Computers work.

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	966183
Time
Date	201108
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	ZAB.ARTCC
State Reference	NM
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Commercial Fixed Wing
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Descent
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Captain
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Deviation - Altitude Crossing Restriction Not Met Deviation - Procedural Clearance Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence

While avoiding weather on the eagul RNAV STAR to phx; the flight crew of an A320 and ATC suffered a communications breakdown with respect to the expected descent requirements.