5milesbaby
You've actually raised another point that while (briefly) blip driving at LATCC didn't quite get resolved. "xxx123 Descend FL70 to be level 10 miles before DAYNE/TNT etc."
Now......two schools of thought here
1. Descend at standard expected rate (1500 fpm) which could level out well before the 10 mile minimum, ie level out early
2.Descend at a computed rate to achieve level exactly at 10 miles before which could be a descent rate of anything from 500 - 2500 fpm.
There could be potential conflicts with either of these.
Another option which was dismissed was achieving a 1500 fpm descent to achieve level exactly 10 miles before, which meant delaying the start of descent.
We were told categorically that "Descend" meant now. "At your discretion" whenever, there wasn't anything in between. Why should there be? You don't qualify "Turn" "Climb" so why "Descend"?