Narrative:

Assigned CHSLY3 RNAV star into clt; first officer was PF; I was pm. Cruising at FL380 atl center gave us a pilots discretion descent to FL340. First officer had checked ATIS and noted that runway 23 was in use. He also mentioned at that time that since runway 23 is on the ATIS we would most likely get that runway from our direction. So FMC was planned with runway 23 during cruise. First officer checked all arrival fixes and altitudes in FMC and also made bluej a hard altitude of FL270 to get a better geopath going for descent. No other modifications were made. All good planning on his part. ATC later gives us descent to FL290 and descend via the CHSLY3 arrival. During descent; anit-ice was turned on and first officer noted that the right engine tai (thermal anti ice) indication was slow to annunciate and did after a while without any abnormal indications. I spent a short amount of time thinking about this. Later during descent ATC asked are you ok with descent can you make it? I recalled seeing us cross chsly at FL220. This is the upper altitude on that gate. Chsly is shown as between FL220 & 13000; thinking in my mind that these boxes are preprogrammed to be at the top altitude all the time I responded we can make it. We were on the path. Shortly after that the aircraft's nose tucked over to cross nodew between 9000-8000. Aircraft was on path or slightly above it and accelerating rapidly. With boards pulled and attempting to stay on path; it became apparent that we were too fast on the arrival. At about that time the first officer asked what should I do? I said start slowing. About that time ATC asked what our speed was. We replied 320 kts. Approach saw our problem and said nicely; I'm going to spin you around and get you back on a heading to intercept localizer for 23. All went well after that. Shortly after landing we were given a number to call. I spoke with two individuals one was the approach controller working our flight the other was a controller that was working departure but could hear every exchange sitting near the other controller. He seemed to know we were not going to make it. He does a lot of opd (optimized profile descent) work in clt and said this is a huge problem with this arrival. The windows are too wide and advised if again landing south use only the lowest altitude shown or you won't make it. He also mentioned that prior to us they had two other aircraft with the same problem - an airbus and a crj. First officer is very experienced in the aircraft and it left him saying 'what just happened?' this arrival sets you up for trouble and it would be nice to get a heads up on it if it's posted somewhere. We had reviewed the flight plan and notams. The company page mentions a brief paragraph on opds but nothing really of substance to help you out on the arrival. A better review of the STAR would have (alerted me to the steep segment of FL210 (top of slpoh) to 9000 ft top of nodew) in 7.4 miles. Steep to say the least.we're not 100 percent convinced that the VNAV in this older aircraft gives you accurate path information as it seems to quickly change its mind when it goes over one fix to another. I have found out the hard way that this aircraft will not come down and slow down simultaneously. Suggest better planning of arrivals during cruise to include the actual gate heights of what is realistically possible. Phone call with opd guy was enlightening as he says this is a huge ongoing issue in clt and that north and south flows should have different more realistic altitudes with them. One gate for all directional flows fall short and create problems for all. Our inability to get down has an effect on his departures. In the future I will modify all window gates to the lowest limit vs the upper limit that the box assumes is best.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B737 Captain reported not making some of the crossing restrictions while flying the CHSLY3 STAR to CLT.

Narrative: Assigned CHSLY3 RNAV Star into CLT; FO was PF; I was PM. Cruising at FL380 ATL Center gave us a pilots discretion descent to FL340. FO had checked ATIS and noted that Runway 23 was in use. He also mentioned at that time that since Runway 23 is on the ATIS we would most likely get that runway from our direction. So FMC was planned with Runway 23 during cruise. FO checked all arrival fixes and altitudes in FMC and also made BLUEJ a hard altitude of FL270 to get a better geopath going for descent. No other modifications were made. All good planning on his part. ATC later gives us descent to FL290 and descend via the CHSLY3 arrival. During descent; anit-ice was turned on and FO noted that the right engine TAI (Thermal Anti Ice) indication was slow to annunciate and did after a while without any abnormal indications. I spent a short amount of time thinking about this. Later during descent ATC asked are you ok with descent can you make it? I recalled seeing us cross CHSLY at FL220. This is the upper altitude on that gate. CHSLY is shown as between FL220 & 13000; thinking in my mind that these boxes are preprogrammed to be at the top altitude all the time I responded we can make it. We were on the path. Shortly after that the aircraft's nose tucked over to cross NODEW between 9000-8000. Aircraft was on path or slightly above it and accelerating rapidly. With boards pulled and attempting to stay on path; it became apparent that we were too fast on the arrival. At about that time the FO asked what should I do? I said start slowing. About that time ATC asked what our speed was. We replied 320 kts. Approach saw our problem and said nicely; I'm going to spin you around and get you back on a heading to intercept localizer for 23. All went well after that. Shortly after landing we were given a number to call. I spoke with two individuals one was the approach controller working our flight the other was a controller that was working departure but could hear every exchange sitting near the other controller. He seemed to know we were not going to make it. He does a lot of OPD (Optimized Profile Descent) work in CLT and said this is a huge problem with this arrival. The windows are too wide and advised if again landing south use only the lowest altitude shown or you won't make it. He also mentioned that prior to us they had two other aircraft with the same problem - an Airbus and a CRJ. FO is very experienced in the aircraft and it left him saying 'what just happened?' This arrival sets you up for trouble and it would be nice to get a heads up on it if it's posted somewhere. We had reviewed the flight plan and NOTAMs. The company page mentions a brief paragraph on OPDs but nothing really of substance to help you out on the arrival. A better review of the STAR would have (alerted me to the steep segment of FL210 (top of SLPOH) to 9000 ft top of NODEW) in 7.4 miles. Steep to say the least.We're not 100 percent convinced that the VNAV in this older aircraft gives you accurate path information as it seems to quickly change its mind when it goes over one fix to another. I have found out the hard way that this aircraft will not come down and slow down simultaneously. Suggest better planning of arrivals during cruise to include the actual gate heights of what is realistically possible. Phone call with OPD guy was enlightening as he says this is a huge ongoing issue in CLT and that north and south flows should have different more realistic altitudes with them. One gate for all directional flows fall short and create problems for all. Our inability to get down has an effect on his departures. In the future I will modify all window gates to the lowest limit vs the upper limit that the box assumes is best.

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.