Airbubba:
Would this possibly apply in the LOC 18 or does the path automatically cross BASKIN at 2300 as depicted on the chart?
No, it doesn't apply to the LOC 18, it only applies to the circumstances in your quote. Based on what they said, I suspect the crew were a little hazy about this.
Does it look like they missed the fact that they could descend down to 2300 from 2500 when established on the localizer inbound to BASKIN?
Yes, I think so. Moreover, they could have stayed at 2500 and captured the path from there provided they made sure they didn't cross BASKN below 2300 but they didn't seem to appreciate that and the cvr chatter seems to indicate mild annoyance that they were fed in 200 ft high and that they thought they would have to drive down to the path from above using Vertical Speed mode to capture it. Note where they say.......
...yeah I'm gonna do vertical speed.
yeah he kept us high.
kept ya high. could never get it over to profile (we didn't) do it like that. uh uh I know
We've all seen it in the sim, especially in initial training, where we've forgotten something, and the "Football" path indicator doesn't appear, and the path doesn't capture and we think, "What the .....??" I rather suspect the captain thought the reason was because of the "high" feed in and that he thought he was well above the path and that is why he continued to drive down in VS. All the while, the real reason the path never appeared was because the box hadn't been sequenced correctly. Quite why all the other subsequent opportunities to abandon the approach were missed remains to be seen.
would there be path guidance out to COLIG if the FO had sequenced the approach correctly?
In theory, yes, although the "football" is not visible unless you are quite close to the path (within 200 ft I think), somewhat like an ILS in full scale deflection. The box actually constructs a glidepath at (in this case) 3.28 degrees backwards from the TCH all the way out to infinity. In theory you can capture it anywhere once Final Approach Mode has been activated and Profile has been armed. In practice, ATC and TERPS restrictions prevent this from happening.
Could the crew capture the profile prior to BASKIN?
Yes.
Would there be guidance but no capture with a discontinuity in the box before the approach?
No..... There would be no guidance and no capture.
Should the crew have briefed a D-DA of 1250 instead of a DA of 1200? That one may depend on UPS Ops Specs for the A300.
A 1200 ft DA was correct.