Narrative:

ATC held us up past our top of descent. Issued a clearance to descend via an RNAV arrival. Descent was going to require a descent in excess of 3;000 FPM. In a rushed mode in order to make the descent I quickly spun the vertical descent knob on the autopilot control panel the wrong way and engaged. Airplane started an aggressive climb. I disengaged the vs mode spun the descent mode in the correct direction and reengaged. Airplane did not respond and kept climbing. Disengaged autopilot; started the descent and informed ATC.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Pilot flying selected a climb vice a descent on the vertical speed dial.

Narrative: ATC held us up past our top of descent. Issued a clearance to descend via an RNAV arrival. Descent was going to require a descent in excess of 3;000 FPM. In a rushed mode in order to make the descent I quickly spun the vertical descent knob on the autopilot control panel the wrong way and engaged. Airplane started an aggressive climb. I disengaged the VS mode spun the descent mode in the correct direction and reengaged. Airplane did not respond and kept climbing. Disengaged autopilot; started the descent and informed ATC.

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.