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What altitude do you consider best for flying VFR XC? (excluding useing radio Nav.)

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3 Answers

  1. Best Answer


    Mackey on Feb 16, 2020

    I’m adding on my to original question. What AGL do you like to use when teaching Pilotage and to your students?

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  2. KDS on Feb 16, 2020

    The “best” altitude is highly variable for a number of reasons. For teaching purposes, I want to do some at all the various reasonable altitudes. Along with that, we’re learning and experiencing the pluses and minuses of each altitude choice.

    Going back to my earliest days as a student, I was in a course where we were not allowed to go above about 4,000′ AGL. So, of course, when I was out solo one day I just had to climb up higher to see what the world looked like from greater altitude. I took a look around, got a very uncomfortable feeling because I’d never seen the ground look like that before, and quickly got down to my familiar altitude. I don’t want to train a student and send them out on their own without an adequate education in what they might experience.

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  3. Mark Kolber on Feb 16, 2020

    I’m a fan of 3,500 or 4,500 AGL based on direction of travel. It’s slow enough to require pilotage without too large a view in the distance, which promotes learning to recognize things closer by. (In some parts of the country, at 5,000 or 6,000 AGL you will easily see your destination more than 50 NM away)

    At the same time, it is high enough to use the hemispheric rule, reducing the risk of opposite direction traffic which we get at 3,000 AGL and below.

    But that’s generally speaking. I also expect my student to consider surface winds and winds aloft. That’s not only about headwinds and tailwinds, but also about smooth air vs turbulence.

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