C208 at FL320?
 

YouTube - Man vs Wild:Extreme Desert (1/6)
In the Man vs. Wild episode where Bear Grylls skydives from a C208, the aircraft's instruments are shown briefly. I don't know which variant of the C208 the plane was, but from what I've found via quick searches the highest performing aircraft's ceiling is FL300. However, the altimeter appears to be showing FL320.
http://i.imgur.com/xPml3.jpg

Are aircraft able to go beyond their service ceiling by this much, or could this simply be a mis-calibrated altimeter? The instrument panel has at least two inoperative equipment indicators, leading to my other suspicion that this could just be a poorly maintained plane. Am I just bad at reading altimeters?

Err, that altimeter shows FL232, doesn't it? :ok:

Three-point altimeter again shows its ugly side... :E

In answer to your last question. Yup.

I hope you had permission to post that screen shot.

What interest do you have in how well/poorly the aircraft is maintained?

Well, the C208 doesn't have a pressurised cabin and from my understanding, service ceiling is the max figure at which the airplane can hold a survivable environment. So in an unpressurised airplane, service ceiling is merely based on performance. But then again, you mis-read the altitude by some 9000ft :E

I'm not particularly familiar with the Caravan but one of the inop things is the electric trim, no biggie there. The one to the right of the altimeter seems to be the FMA; I would expect this thing to have no autopilot. And on the radio stack I see another two labels; one of them appears to be a KLN90B GPS (or a similar one, at least) and below it, looks to me like it's the ADF. Fair enough for a skydiving aircraft, methinks.

Service ceiling has nothing to do with cabin environment. It is the altitude under standard conditions with the engine or engines running at max continuous thrust (lots of tech stuff about rate of climb and angle of climb speeds) where the plane can maintain a 100 fpm rate of climb.

toolowtoofast
one word......

JOBSWORTH!:ugh:

I am with FlyingStone and STBYRUD.