The manual states: Destination Airport Served by ApproachYou might get a pilot

Hi Michael,How far was it from your final wp to the airport?When it is more than a certain value you get the '10000 in 30 miles or less' message.Under these circumstances I thought you should get the initial message as 'expect a clearance cross 40 miles from (aiport)' but maybe this bit is left out.I'll check on my next flight.You can, however, assume that if you don't get the expect part of the message you will need to be at 10000 feet when 40 miles from the airport.All the best,John

John,BAsed on what you said, this might be a borderline case. I was flying the Big Sur Two (BSR.BSR2) arrival into SFO. I was level at FL240 approaching CARME and given the PD to 16000. I had the crossing restriction of 12000 at SKUNK dialed in on the FMC (using Project Magenta). I initiated my PD descent at a rate sufficient to get me to 12000 at SKUNK (anticipating further descent clearance since I would have to level at 16000). BOLDR is the fix after SKUNK and it has a 10000 ft restriction. So, if I am on track to hit SKUNK per the published procedure altitude, I was suprised when the controller told me to give him a better descent rate.BORDER is roughly 30 miles from KSFO (34 DME from OAK).-michael

>>assume that if you don't get the expect part of the message you will need to be at 10000 feet when 40 miles from the airport.<

Thanks gentlemen I fully understand.Merry Christmas ...BTW: Doug - Great product! It makes the sim experience an order of magnitude more interesting.-michael