Saturday, October 8, 2016

Why do some airline flights report higher altitudes than planned? Should they be flying the planned altitude?

Since flights are planned hours prior to take-off, dispatchers work from forecasted conditions. Weather and operational considerations are taken into account and the best guess is put on paper.

Once in the air, crews evaluate the actual conditions and make decisions based on reality. They often still consult with the dispatcher, who often has a lot of information not available to pilots, but the pilots are still making the decisions.

In the above case, there may have been forecast turbulence just at the top of climb. This would not preclude the flight from climbing once that was cleared, or if it didn’t materialize.



Read other answers by Tim Hibbetts on Quora: Read more answers on Quora.

from Quora http://ift.tt/2dIiIZL

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