Commercial Fixed Wing
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Workload; Human-Machine Interface
ATC Issue All Types
Weather; Human Factors; Procedure; Aircraft; Airspace Structure; Chart Or Publication
First... I do not believe the people that design these arrivals actually go out and fly them especially with multiple aircraft during real weather conditions and with traffic congestions. There seems to be no constant speeds or descent rates that work on any of the arrivals. They just change constantly. Second... with jet aircraft we have been taught to maintain max speed until 10;000 feet. Below that point everybody has to slow down anyway. So; to slow down early causes a traffic jam. These controllers were trying to avoid the traffic jam by keeping every ones speed up as long as possible. I applaud them for this. BUT; the problem is they should keep us at max speed until the 10;000 feet fix.We were given descend via GIBBZ2 except disregard the speeds on the arrival and maintain Max forward speed until you can maintain 300 knots or better all the way to the MOSLE intersection. MOSLE is posted 11;000 feet and 250 knots. The next intersection is 10;000 feet and 250 knots but only 5.5 miles away. We were able to maintain 320 knots to MOSLE but we had to do what would be equivalent to an emergency descent in order to make the next intersection and be on the altitude and the speed as well. We were able to make it but we had to pull out all the stops in order to do so. We both thought; it was asking just a bit too much on the flight crews to do this. These controllers were trying to avoid the traffic jam by keeping every ones speed up as long as possible. I applaud them for this. ALL!!! arrivals should have us maintain max speed until the 10;000 feet fix and then everything would work out as normal. Also someone needs to come up with a constant descent rate for the arrivals...like a 3 degree glide path like an ILS all the way from the top of the descent until joining the approach path which happens to be a 3 degree glide path in most cases then all you would have to do is adjust your speed with the traffic and this would not only reduce traffic delays but also save tons of fuel.
An air carrier Captain expressed his distress over complex STARs such as the GIBBZ at IAD. The reporter suggests that all arrivals should require 'max' speed to the 10;000 feet fix on a constant three degree vertical descent path and believes this approach would dramatically simplify flight path management; increase efficiency and reduce delays.