Originally Posted by
sushi lover
Typical airliner cruises about 2 or 3 degrees nose high. Some might be as low as 1 or as high as 4, but none that I know of go as high as 10 degrees. The only time you will see 10 degrees is on takeoff it will get up to almost 20 degrees, but only for a short period of time. I would say that within 5 minutes it down around 5 degrees until cruise altitude. Cruise pitch also will depend on weight, speed, etc.
I think the pitch attitude for 744 at cruise is right around 1.5-2 degrees up (so probably not noticable), but I don't have a reference, just stuck in my mind. Not sure about 763 (as these are the only two we care about in this discussion re: UA, right?).
Of course, as mentioned, this is "standard" which is relative, but some sort of loading close to max gross and cruise around .85 mach.
I don't know how this works for large airliners, but it's interesting to mention that a lot of small GA planes fly slightly nose low when heavily loaded and far aft CG (which I found slightly counter intuitive initially).
Again, not sure about 744, but I believe SOP for few others (73 and 75) is about 18 degrees nose up for takeoff, or about 23 degrees if they need max climb (this attitude is usually not maintained for more than 1000ft or so).
Anyway, after all this tech talk, back to seats and comfort, I'd say that the nose up pitch in cruise will definitely not offset sliding in case of LH for example. In a truly flat seat, one may or may not notice that slight angle, I'm guessing this will be personal and thankfully now you can always choose the backward facing seats and have just the right angle in the right direction (~2 degrees, head up).