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John Cox is a retired airline captain with US Airways and runs his own aviation safety consulting company, Safety Operating Systems. Outside the U.S., or in case of no radar coverage, the flight plan contains the appropriate low altitude airways, or more likely the transition to the Standard Terminal Arrival Route (STAR). This cold medicine routine has helped me log nearly a full night’s sleep on most 10-plus-hour flights I’ve taken in recent years, and I now pass my professional traveler wisdom onto you.
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Also, being that high in the air gives airplanes and pilots the ability to safely navigate air traffic and maximize their safety while in the air and completing their normal traffic. A commercial aircraft on a so-called IFR flight, i.e. all passenger planes, will cruise eastbound at so-called "odd" flight levels. That means for example at 33,000 feet (which pilots and air traffic control will refer to as FL330) or 35,000 feet (FL350) in increments of 2,000 feet. A westbound flight will cruise at even numbered flight levels—say 32,000 feet (FL320) or 34,000 feet (FL340)—again in increments of 2,000 feet.
Near-record winds in Northeast give passenger flights a boost - NPR
Near-record winds in Northeast give passenger flights a boost.
Posted: Mon, 19 Feb 2024 08:00:00 GMT [source]
How it compares with shorter flights
Vertical SeparationThese VFR Cruising Altitudes provides a minimum of 1,000 feet clearance or vertical separation from other VFR airplanes heading in opposing directions. VFR Cruising AltitudesVFR Pilots flying on a magnetic course (track) of 0 degrees through 179 degrees should fly any odd thousand foot MSL (Mean Sea Level) altitude plus 500 feet. Example VFR Cruising altitudes would be 3,500 feet, 5,500 feet, 7,500 feet etc. Have you ever wondered why the view outside your plane window can be sunny one moment and rainy the next upon descending into your destination airport? Most planes are flying above the troposphere, where weather events usually happen, according to Traveller.
How High Do Planes Fly? Airplane Flight Altitude
So, the question of why we can’t often get the altitudes we want on shorter trips isn’t a mystery at all. The airspace in many parts of the country is so complex, that an arriving or departing flight a hundred or more miles away matters. To find out what altitude works on a short flight, all I can suggest is trial and error, or maybe ask the controller if the frequency quiets down so you can plan for the next time. On the other hand, flying too high could have negative safety issues. In some emergencies, such as a rapid decompression, pilots want to return to a lower altitude as quickly as possibe.
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How High Can Commercial Passenger Planes Fly? - Simple Flying
How High Can Commercial Passenger Planes Fly?.
Posted: Fri, 23 Jun 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]
These recreational airplanes are not designed to be flown as high or at the same high speeds as commercial airplanes, such as some of the Boeing or Airbus models. These recreational airplanes are less powerful and designed for shorter flights. Most Cessna 172s have a maximum altitude of 13,000 to 15,000 feet, which is much lower than the previously discussed models.
Ideal altitudes differ between planes...
At this altitude, 737 jets can still have great fuel efficiency and safety standards thanks to avoiding powerful winds and bad weather. Curiously, the altitude displayed at the flight levels and on your seatback display is not the actual, true altitude above the ground. Planes flying below 18,000 feet set their altimeter to a reported pressure setting.
These “roads” or “airways” in the sky are similar to traffic lanes to separate converging traffic. According to Thrillist, a plane's altitude is determined by its current weight and the atmospheric conditions at the time of flight. A flight's direction (as mentioned above), the amount of turbulence (based on reports by other pilots in the air), and flight duration are also factors. There's a lot to consider when you're picking your cruise altitude. But if you're thinking about obstacles, your plane's performance, and the weather and winds along your route, you'll have a smooth flight, and hopefully some happy passengers as well.
The paper considers optimizing the fuel consumption of a medium-haul aircraft during the cruise phase using sample data set on temperature, pressure, and wind speed. The proposed approach achieves a decrease in fuel consumption of 1.2% when optimizing with regard to real atmosphere. When it comes to aviation, airplanes, and flight dispatching, a key consideration for the career is understanding what the ideal cruising altitude for airplanes is.
There are certain rules for exactly where airliners can fly, and the direction of travel can affect what altitude they will climb to. Planes flying eastward, including northeast and southeast, will fly at odd altitudes, such as 35,000 feet. Planes flying in approximately westerly directions have to fly at even altitudes.
Commercial planes are one of the most common types of airplanes, which is why we will be focusing on them during this portion of the article. The normal cruising altitude for commercial airplanes is between 33,000 and 42,000 feet. This high altitude gives commercial flights the ability to have maximum fuel efficiency and reach high speeds because of the thin air.
Most airline passengers simply accept the fact that passenger jets fly very high. You fasten your seat belt, listen to the pre-flight safety demonstration (we hope), and prepare yourself for takeoff. After a few moments, the pilot comes on the overhead, "Ladies and gentlemen, we are now at our cruising altitude of 36,000 feet." If you know your feet don’t smell and you know that your feet are going to stay in your bubble and you’re not going to use the whole airplane as an ottoman, then OK, fine,” he said. But he added he always tells people to leave their socks on, “unless there’s a health and safety reason to do otherwise. We don’t want to shake and bake our passengers by being down low in the bumps when we could have climbed a few thousand feet and kept them cool and smooth, and had only a little more headwind.
But as we flew south into the busy arrival and departure corridors for O’Hare, we were sent down. Over 42,000 flights take place every day, with 5,000 planes in the sky at any one time, according to the FAA. With this much traffic, there has to be some official arrangement to make sure collisions do not happen, and there is.
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