Since there's been some good discussions on descents lately, I thought I'd add two more RW examples that we used on this last trip.
Ex. 1
SEA-DEN on the MOLTN2. We were at cruise at FL370 and Denver Center wanted us to "Descend now to FL320, pilot's discretion FL240."
There are many ways to do this, but me having the attention span that I do, I like to have it ready now. Here's a clean/smooth way of doing it:
Reset the MCP to FL240 Enter a new cruise alt of FL320
If you're in VNAV PATH, the plane will descend and level at FL320 and at the T/D, it will start down to FL240. Sit back, enjoy the Pike Place, black, no sugar.
Ex. 2
DEN-SEA on the CHINS9. We're inside HUMPP, level at 15,000 and 270kts for AUBRN at 12,000 and 250kts. Since SEA wasn't too busy, they had us descend to 10,000. That way you get a little bit shorter downwind. We still needed to slow for 250 at AUBRN, but the 12,000 restriction was gone.
Here's what I did:
Set the MCP to 10,000 LVL CHG at the current 270kts Let the nose pitch down and V/S stabilize (around 2000fpm) V/S (now it locks in that 2000fps) Reset the MCP to 250kts Once the jet levels at 10,000, the speed slows to 250
Now, I could have done this with VNAV, but this was easy and smooth. I needed to reduce the V/S a bit as we descended to 1700fpm so the jet maintained 270. Had I been doing a VNAV approach, I probably would have staying in VNAV, but from this point it was all vectors, so I left VNAV behind for the day.
That's just how we did it, your mileage may vary.