JD - I flew into KDEN a few times this week and it seems that the transition to Appr is made very late. In one flight, I was 20 miles from the airport and still at 15000 before told to contact approach and getting my descent and runway vectoring. Also, I was yelled at for not having my airspeed at 250 knots while level at 15000. I thought the "max 250 KIAS below 10000" was 10000 MSL, not AGL! :)-michael

Michael,15,000' is correct for the altitude of KDEN. Any high-altitude airport has a crossing restriction/APC handoff altitude of 15,000'. Airports below, I think, 4000' have a handoff altitude of 10,000'.Center will give you the crossing restriction altitude and speed ("Cross 40 miles from xxx at (alt), (speed)..."). But there are times when your final waypoint is more than 5 miles from the airport. At that time Center will tell you "Descend and maintain (alt). I need you down in 30 miles or less." In that case you aren't given a speed, but you can assume that you should be 250 knots or less by then. If not, you'll be asked to slow to 250 or less.As you use RC more you'll get the feel for what will be expected from our friendly procedure-retentive controllers. ;-)

>Michael,>>15,000' is correct for the altitude of KDEN. Yes - I'm ok with the 15000' - I pointed that out to show that I was roughly 10000 AGL and within the 40 mile ATC handoff to approach but had not been told to contact approach. This happened on two consecutive flights into KDEN using different flight plans. In both cases I was approaching KDEN from the NW and the landing runway was 34. At roughtly 20 miles from the airport I was told to contact approach (the field is now clearly in sight and I'm still 10000' AGL.) I requested 07. Approach acknowledged the runway change but did not vector me for the approach. I had to request short final to get approach to initiate a right turn and descent. By then I was over the airport.As I've been flying RC3 since it was released, I just find this a bit strange considering the "standard proedure" that I have gotten used to for other airports.I'm also still curious about that 250 knot "assumption" above 10000'. I would have thought that ATC would give me a "reduce airspeed to 250 knots or less" rather than me assuming it based upon the instruction "I need you down in 30 miles or less".BTW: Some years ago, in flying an Arrow III into Terre Haute Indiana, I was still at 9000' when beyond the point at which I should have started my descent. I inquired to ATC as to why I was still up there and ATC told me - "oh sorry, we forgot that you were landing Terre Haute". RC3 does not allow me to make that kind of inquiry so I forced it via the "short final" request. But, you cannot request short final until told to contact approach - so I was stuck waiting for that approach hand-off. :) -michael

Michael,If this does happen a lot, save a dat at 60 miles out. Then if you have the problem of not getting handed off to APC until 20 miles you can send that dat and related files to JD.Where is this happening and do you have a lot of chatter playing? Is everything eise working okay like your co-pilot getting weather at about 45-50 miles out (if she's on commms)?