Originally Posted by
SLFinAZ
Trying to maintain 5000 ft. just doesn't seem like a prudent decision....
5,000 feet is the lowest altitude for which there are pitch and power settings for level flight in the QRH Flight with Unreliable Airspeed table. To me, the decision to continue climbing to 5,000 feet suggests that the crew had briefed for a UAS event before the flight. There's other evidence - the requested speed check from ATC - that they probably reviewed UAS in the FCTM as part of their brief.
The curious thing is that there is only data for VREF40+70 at 5,000 feet and they were faster than that. Coincidentally or otherwise, they seem to have targeted 280 KIAS and that is the Climb, Cruise and Descent UAS target speed.