Most popular cruising altitudes
 

I'm running a small poll to find which cruising altitudes people tend to choose the most often.

Discussion is fine, but please try not to mention specific numbers to avoid biasing later respondents.

Many thanks!

Any 1,000s of feet plus 200.

Hi,

It's been a long day, and maybe I've missed something, but

a) I don't understand the question described on the poll. Are those numbers representative of hundreds of feet ??
b) any reason they're not in numeric order
c) given that it's VFR flight, I presume you're referring to height AGL rather than altitude

Joel :ok:

I think it would depend a lot on mission, equipment, terrain, weather, aircraft, distance to fly etc...

Most popular cruising altitudes
 

Below 50 feet AGL. Unfortunately pax have a tendecy to feel uncomfortable in that regime. Have no sense for fun, them bastards. :-)

As JT, I also clearly missed something there.
(Ignore one of the x600's, I wanted see what was next.....nothing!)

Anyway, my answer to 'the question', with a few assumptions, would mainly depend on which way I was going.

Is this another trick CAA ATPL question:ok:

I don't understand it. I presume you can't answer anything except whole thousands of feet so I couldn't answer

:mad:

C*cked up!
 

Well I just c*cked that one up - I took the chance that some other option would pop up if you chose one of the options but it doesn't. I give up. :ugh:
2S

Thanks Silsoe,

I thought I was going a bit daft.......
I see he's not yet answered :confused:

Joel :ok:

Wondering why x000 is there.

Good Man, Hun

Perfect - and you can frighten the chickens. My sisters, (her chickens you deviants) spent weeks up in the Wisteria after a quite low pass.

Happy days..................:O

...after the 212 low pass (below 50'), no eggs in a next one month!:E:}

JR

Ok may be I am missing the joke but it seems quite strait forward. Answered and will not mention my answer but, I take it most people cruise at x thousands of feet on the dot on a QNH. I was always taught to go for a few hundred feet above or below say 2000ft and therefore an extra margin of safety????

Is this not what is being asked?

I'm sorry if I inadvertently broke any of the rules on PPRUNE - I hadn't realised that permission was required to post a poll and wasn't (and remain uncertain) who to ask for permission. If the moderator who pulled the link would like to PM me, I'd be happy to discuss its purpose.

In outline yes, I am interested to see whether people are clustering around particular altitudes or using the airspace more fully. It's just for personal curiosity - I'm not affiliated to an university or any other institution.

Okay, I'll bite.

The question seems fair to me and what abgd is asking is whether we all tootle off into the wide blue yonder cruising along at 2,000 ft on the regional QNH as we we all probably taught eons ago when doing our (VFR only) PPL navex's.

If so the collision hazard is going to be higher than if we made better use of the airspace available. The other "popular" level to cruise at I suppose is just beneath the local cloudbase. But this again could create a higher risk if we all scud along at 200 ft below the cloud base.

Personally, I think it best to follow the quadrantal rule and if too low for this to be practical, to fly at an "odd" level say 1,800 ft rather than 2,000 ft just to avoid all the others out there that a. might be tooling along at 2,000 ft (+/- 100 ft!) and b. not keeping a good look-out.

I know that this is not a guarantee of avoiding a mid-air, but psychologically I think I am mitigating the risk, and you can't ignore all the military types, gliders, microlights and balloons that are out there too, which all seem to have their own ideas.:}

Just my 2c.

MB

Since everybody seems to be flying at "odd" altitudes I think I'll fly spot on in future. It sounds safer!

My 2c is to ask all pilots flying aircraft with a Transponder Mode C / Alt: Please use Mode C, not just Mode A.

Those of us operating aircraft with TCAS/TAS will use it to avoid you; we will know you are there and at what altitude. We can then use that information to help deconflict, well before you see us. If you don't use Mode C it makes the system much less effective.

abgd I didn't see your poll, but get the drift. There are a couple of things that need to be remembered when flying helicopters, neither of which are in your syllabus.

1. Fixed wings always fly faster and neither they nor your rotary colleagues can see you if you are just below their horizon. Experiment with this and use radio advisory carefully..

So take care in selecting a cruise altitude, especially as it seems most here are selecting their own away from conformity, Any that are tracking anywhere near your position either above you from your aft positions or perhaps below you at your forward positions are extremely dangerous.

2. When you fly out bush with its vast distances between settlements of any sort, let alone another drop of fuel away from the great populations of fuel pumps, rampant air traffic controllers and everyone else there is only one rule.

Always shop around for and find the best tailwind or at least the least headwind. With GPS nowadays that is easy, not so easy before but a very godlike discipline.

cheers tet

Fixed wing always fly faster? Not here they don't. If you're talking Robinson maybe but in UK many helicopters fly faster than light FW.

Yes Shy,
but look at it this way. Not everyone can skite about bird strikes on the trailing edge of their sync elevator, as a late friend of mine, Geoff Brown, used to quip whilst he tooled past in the RAAF rescue S 76.
tet