Originally Posted by
Tomaski
Now, while I admire your attempt at precision, I would simply point out that the penalty for getting down early is burning a little extra fuel while the penalty for missing a crossing altitude could be an ATC violation. Unless you are really short on fuel, I would suggest that erring to the conservative side might be more in your interests.
I agree with that. I that case the best option is proper FMS preparation and monitor the descent with VNAV (or equivalent mode for other aircraft type).
The green banana is also a very useful tool, but I fly the NG so I don't know if the classic is equipt with this feature.