If anyone wants to know what the tropopause is sitting at, just look at the sigwx chart. Those little sqaures with numbers in it are the tropopause, it can change a lot. i have seen it as low as 220 and up to 600+!!!
We dont live in a perfect world so that met stuff we had to learn for our ATPL is not realistic.
talking about prop efficiency is one thing but look at the performance for the aircraft, it isn't just prop efficiency that dictates performance.
something that has intregued me for a while is why so many people look at saving fuel as if it is everything, if you save 50L but take 30mins longer is that really a saving to the company. 10mins of MR time may be worth more than 200L depending on your aircraft, it might just be worth sitting down at lower levels to get that increased TAS, but this is very specific to the aircraft.
every presurised aircraft i have flown sits close to max diff at normal cruise levels. Cycles are just counted as every time you have pressurised and depressurised, to what diff never enters into the equation.
I probably have a heap of spelllllling mistakes and punctuation errors as i am half asleep, and just got home from a big night, so for this i apologize
Have fun, and dont hit anyone in thise great NAS
DoD