Originally Posted by
SmoothTraveler1
Was my US Airways kidding when he said we'd be cruising @ 49,000 Ft in the CR-J?
Yes.
The flight Attendant said "they flew at 59k feet days earlier to avoid some big storms".
I'll guarantee you they didn't!
What is also kind of wired is that I looked up the flight on “Flight Aware” afterwards, and the plane was on record of just flying at 29,000 feet for the longest time. I find it hard to believe it was at 29K, because it flew as high, if not higher than any flight I’ve ever been on. I thought we were in astronaut training, lol.
So, next question: How reliable is “Flight Aware”?
Flightaware is very prone to occasional glitches and bad data but usually for just "one sweep of the radar" (so to speak). When I've looked at tracking logs in Flightaware the outlier on altitude, rate of climb, groundspeed, etc. usually jumps out immediately - you might see a string like:
Time 10:01 29000
Time 10:02 29000
Time 10:03 600
Time 10:04 29000
Time 10:05 29000
If the detailed track log on Flightaware showed your flight as level at FL290 for an extended period of time, I will wager a large sum of money that your flight was actually level at FL290 for an extended period of time.
Originally Posted by
AllanAtlanta
I've definitely been over 40,000 but no way near 50,000! I think they burn way more fuel at those heights.
Actually way
less fuel (once they can actually get there). The trouble is that you can only get up to those altitudes when light (fuel in the tanks weighs a lot). Most longhaul flights will have initial cruising altitudes that start out lower and then step climb up as they burn off fuel and get lighter and can maintain altitude at the more efficient higher flight levels. For the average transatlatic/transpacific flight, the highest cruising level reached will be the last one before starting descent for the destination.
As mentioned by others, some bizjets are certfied for operations up to the low 50s. Cabin pressure differential and structural issues are some of the other factors that go into determining how high an airplane's service ceiling is - aside from the obvious one of being able to maintain lift!