Date: 201211
Local time of day: 1801-2400
Location: ZME.ARTCC, TN
Flight conditions: VMC
Light: Night
Aircraft: Regional Jet 200 ER/LR (CRJ200)
Operator: Air Carrier
Operating under: Part 121
Flight plan: IFR
Mission: Passenger
Flight phase: Descent
Airspace: Class A ZME
ATC / advisory: Center ZME
Aircraft component: Flight Dynamics Navigation and Safety
Component problem: Design
Reporter organization: Air Carrier
Reporter function: Pilot Flying; Captain
Reporter qualification: Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Human factors: Situational Awareness; Training / Qualification; Workload; Distraction; Human-Machine Interface; Confusion
Anomaly: Deviation - Altitude Crossing Restriction Not Met; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance
Detector: Person Flight Crew
When detected: In-flight
Result: General None Reported / Taken
Contributing factors: Aircraft; Chart Or Publication; Human Factors; Procedure
Primary problem: Procedure

Narrative: I am submitting this report to document that the ODP (Optimized Descent Profiles) RNAV STARs into Memphis are still problematic despite the company's recent ops message and the associated newsletter article. If done on a regular basis the [compliance] methodology would probably become routine and the procedures doable. But it had been a month since I had flown my two previous ODPs (both FNCHR STARs; one badly and one better) and even though we had the LTOWN STAR loaded in the FMS [for today's arrival] I was not thinking 'descend via' until cleared as such. I had printed copies of the publications in my flight case and had read them previously but there was no time to review and bring all the fine points to mind.Both pilots were thinking of setting a 'hard' altitude in the alerter. But there is none until 3;000 feet at DINKE which is about where the turn to the base leg is. It doesn't seem right that you would put 3;000 feet in the alerter when you are at FL280 just west of Nashville. I was trying to stay focused on just following the snowflake; but it disappears from view during the level-off periods and with the short segments between some fixes you don't always catch its return. VNAV guidance on the MFD was a distraction. In retrospect; I think it would have been better to deselect it. Contributing factors are: Not doing the procedure on a regular basis. Even Atlanta only has a few of these arrivals and they are seldom used. This type of procedure needs to be very clear to the pilots so that they know what to do and when to do it. So they will notice when something is amiss. If this is the future of ATC it needs to be implemented all the time. VFR or IFR; day or night. ATC cannot expect crews to be proficient with such complicated procedures if they are exposed to them on an infrequent basis. Charts are too cluttered with information blocks located in a haphazard manner due to there being not enough space on the page to arrange the information in a logical order that is more user friendly. The LTOWN STAR chart is also unique in that it is set-up as two panels with the western portion of the arrival on the right side and the eastern portion on the left such that the procedure starts in the middle of the page and flows left and down; then requires you to go to the other panel at the top right of the page and flow left and down again. The LTOWN probably should be done on a fold out page as it has so much information. Even during daylight this is a difficult approach to follow. We had a dark cockpit with the small chart of fine print lit by map lights. And we had good weather and no distractions. If we were dealing with a maintenance issue or the Flight Attendant was having passenger problems that would require one of the pilots to be distracted; I would probably advise ATC that we could not do the 'descend via' and request a specified altitude. Most of the speeds were flown where depicted; but not all due to multitude of fixes with so many varying parameters of altitude and speed. And I never remembered to go to the VNAV page to input the speed for each segment.I recommend a very short procedure checklist be added to the airport information page for MEM that has only five or six bullet points that a crew needs to properly comply with the ODP. Such as: 1. Optimized Profile Descents are very labor intensive. Review procedures during departure preparations if possible; or early in the flight. 2. Once cleared to 'descend via' the pilot flying must stay focused on the procedure and the pilot monitoring will need to do everything else plus monitor the arrival progress. Get as much done prior to the arrival as possible. 3. Remember; only set the next 'hard' altitude; not any 'at or below' or 'at or above.' Do NOT delete or change any altitudes on the LEGS page 4. Ensure VNAV DESC page is set to page three and the speed set for that segment.5. Only follow the snowflake for vertical guidance using a rate of descent that is groundspeed times five.6. Be prepared for brief level-offs and short legs between fixes.7. If cleared for the ODP into the approach; both pilots stay in white needles until established inbound within 30 miles of the airport; then: 'Sync the heading; Select Heading mode; Activate green needles; Select approach mode.




Synopsis: A CRJ-200 Captain reported his continued concerns regarding the complexity of Optimized Descent Profiles into MEM and contributed a proposed flight crew do's and don'ts checklist to simplify compliance.