Timeline for why are regional cruising altitudes higher than those of international much longer flights?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
8 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Sep 6, 2015 at 5:11 | comment | added | curious_cat | @Terry Thanks. I will convert these into a question. | |
| Sep 6, 2015 at 2:48 | comment | added | Terry | @curious_cat You've got two questions there, which I think you should ask as proper questions rather than in a comment. I tried to answer here as a comment, but ran out of room. If you do ask the question about the ground distance, I suggest you use "climb airspeeds" rather than "climb rates" because it's the airspeed rather than the climb rate that is targeted. Also, which max altitude are you referring to? The initial max altitude it's capable of and can go no higher until it burns several thousand pounds of fuel? | |
| Sep 5, 2015 at 18:16 | comment | added | curious_cat | If you used typical climb rates how long a ground distance does it take for something like a 747 to reach its max altitude? Do short routes have enough distance to try to climb to their optimal heights & then descend? | |
| Sep 5, 2015 at 13:47 | comment | added | Jan Hudec | Regional flights are usually much shorter than the range of the aircraft in use, so the performance argument does explain why regional flights typically fly higher. They start lighter, so they can climb to higher altitude straight away. | |
| Sep 5, 2015 at 6:31 | comment | added | Terry | @TheCat-alyst For aircraft with normal cruise altitudes above 30,000 feet, I doubt that the terrain altitude below is itself much of a flight planning consideration, but that's not an area of expertise for me. If you're operating within a few thousand feet of the terrain, certainly it would be. Orthographic lifting, though, dies out fairly quickly as you ascend. However, if that lifting (combined with heat and humidity) causes a thunderstorm, you might say the terrain has been a factor. | |
| Sep 5, 2015 at 0:26 | comment | added | The Cat-alyst | Would the fact that the Winnipeg to Vancouver flight probibly flies over part of the Rockies play much a roll in the altitude choice too? I know the Vancouver to Manchester does too I believe, the map wouldn't load so I couldn't check. Iknow things get turbulent over mountains, so planes tend to go higher around those areas too. | |
| Sep 5, 2015 at 0:23 | vote | accept | The Cat-alyst | ||
| Sep 5, 2015 at 0:24 | |||||
| Sep 5, 2015 at 0:11 | history | answered | Terry | CC BY-SA 3.0 |