Welcome Guest. Sign in or Signup

1 Answers

Cruise performance Charts

Asked by: 6444 views , , ,
Private Pilot, Student Pilot

What do the altitudes on the cruise performance charts represent?  When I'm planing a cross country how do I use them? Would I select a cruise altitude (say 5,500) then do I look at the 5,500 cruise performance chart to get my numbers?  Sorry I'm in a self study. 

Ace Any FAA Written Test!
Actual FAA Questions / Free Lifetime Updates
The best explanations in the business
Fast, efficient study.
Pass Your Checkride With Confidence!
FAA Practical Test prep that reflects actual checkrides.
Any checkride: Airplane, Helicopter, Glider, etc.
Written and maintained by actual pilot examiners and master CFIs.
The World's Most Trusted eLogbook
Be Organized, Current, Professional, and Safe.
Highly customizable - for student pilots through pros.
Free Transition Service for users of other eLogs.
Our sincere thanks to pilots such as yourself who support AskACFI while helping themselves by using the awesome PC, Mac, iPhone/iPad, and Android aviation apps of our sponsors.

1 Answers



  1. Mark Kolber on Dec 30, 2013

    That’s exactly right.

    If you are self-studying, you are hopefully learning about how altitude (more particularly density altitude) affects aircraft performance. What the numbers in the chart are telling you for example (I’m looking at a Cessna 172S chart) is that, in order to produce approximately 65%power at 2000′ pressure altitude on a day when the temperature is standard, you will need 2400 engine RPM and your TAS will be 110 KTS. But at 8000′ pressure altitude on a day when the temperature up there is 20° above standard, you will need a little better than 2600 RPM to produce the same power and that this will result in a 117 KT TAS.

    I bolded some terms for a reason. If they, or any of this explanation are confusing, it means there are gaps in your self-study program and you may want to sit down with a CFI al least to work on a more directed approach.

    0 Votes Thumb up 0 Votes Thumb down 0 Votes


The following terms have been auto-detected the question above and any answers or discussion provided. Click on a term to see its definition from the Dauntless Aviation JargonBuster Glossary.

Answer Question

Our sincere thanks to all who contribute constructively to this forum in answering flight training questions. If you are a flight instructor or represent a flight school / FBO offering flight instruction, you are welcome to include links to your site and related contact information as it pertains to offering local flight instruction in a specific geographic area. Additionally, direct links to FAA and related official government sources of information are welcome. However we thank you for your understanding that links to other sites or text that may be construed as explicit or implicit advertising of other business, sites, or goods/services are not permitted even if such links nominally are relevant to the question asked.