What's your cruise altitude ( AGL )

kgruber said:
Nobody cruises in relation to AGL.....................if they are going somewhere.
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Sure if you have a 180+ hp plane with 5+ hours of fuel on board you climb to "altitude". In the Cub, (and the other old taildraggers I fly) you have 1.5 hours of fuel, tops.
I'm not going to waste fuel climbing to X,000 feet. If I did my entire flight would consist of take off, climb to altitude, and land at the same airport I left from.
Of course, you could argue the "going somewhere" statement. "Somewhere" can be a little subjective.
Two weeks ago, on one of my "long distance" flights, it took me just over an hour to fly 55 miles. At one point I did have to climb to 2900' MSL to maintain my 500' AGL height.
Last Friday I was tearing up the sky. Almost 80 miles, 3 airports, one refueling, in 1.75 hrs. Had to hose the plane down to cool it off. OK it was actually to get the bugs off.
 
One thing a good friend and CFI has told me is "altitude is your friend, altitude gives you more time to sort out emergencies like engine stoppage". Best glide in my Sport is 90mph, that gives you 2 miles per 1000 ft.
 
Typical is 6000-8000 MSL in the East if there are no other factors. May go higher to stay above MEA or undercast, or lower to stay under potential convective weather if able. For IFR, it is always desirable to be above, below, or between layers in cruise whenever possible to have some view of the weather. Higher or lower may also be necessitated by winds aloft. Westbound in the fall in the northeast, high altitudes can encounters winds that reduce ground speeds below driving speeds on the Thruway. I'm rarely above 10,000 or below 4000 in my region for XC flight.
 
AKBill said:
One thing a good friend and CFI has told me is "altitude is your friend, altitude gives you more time to sort out emergencies like engine stoppage". Best glide in my Sport is 90mph, that gives you 2 miles per 1000 ft.
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Absolutely true.
BTW: Where do you go, up in your neck of the wood, when the engine stops? :) I've seen your pictures. Yikes!
Not long ago, I had an engine failure while at 1,500' in the pattern about 2/3s down on the downwind side. I immediately turned towards the runway and just. barely. made. it.
The Cub I fly has a glide ratio of < 7ish:1. Even worse if the doors are open.
Not many places to go in an emergency in the Berkshires that aren't all trees and rocks. I look for roads, horse farms, lakes/ponds and pine trees or something similarly soft.
 
Depends on a lot of factors. I prefer to stay low and enjoy the view but I’ll go higher if I need to.
 
Mtns2Skies said:
If I'm staying local I'm usually at 500-1000'AGL. If I'm going somewhere I'll go up to 5000-9000MSL for better cruise speeds.

If I'm crossing a body of water (Lake Michigan) I'll usually be around 12,500'MSL or so for glide range.
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I was going to say... "I'm usually around 100' agl, that keeps me below those guys like Austin", but then I was remembered a funny story from back when I was first learning to fly helicopters.

I had been flying airplanes in Alaska for a living and during a short time off, I went down south to learn to fly helicopters. One day we were flying around the pattern just shy of 500' AGL and I was leaning over looking down out my door.

My Instructor saw me and said "It looks a little different from this altitude doesn't it"?

I said, "Yeah, I"m not used to being this high"
 
MauleSkinner said:
For those who believe a N/A airplane gains in cruise/descent what you lose in the climb, read up on Max Conrad.
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Wow after a quick google search this guy was crazy!!!
And I mean crazy amazing!

Flying from Casablanca to LA NON STOP In a piper Comanche!
 
Shepherd said:
Absolutely true.
BTW: Where do you go, up in your neck of the wood, when the engine stops? :) I've seen your pictures. Yikes!
Not long ago, I had an engine failure while at 1,500' in the pattern about 2/3s down on the downwind side. I immediately turned towards the runway and just. barely. made. it.
The Cub I fly has a glide ratio of < 7ish:1. Even worse if the doors are open.
Not many places to go in an emergency in the Berkshires that aren't all trees and rocks. I look for roads, horse farms, lakes/ponds and pine trees or something similarly soft.
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Where do I go if an engine failure is a good question. If I'm on top of the ice field, I hope to have enough altitude to hit the shore, I shoot for 8,500 or 9,500 that is 1,500 to 2,500 feet above the ice field. I'm normally not more than 5 miles from the drop off that goes to the shore of the channel. If I'm flying up the channels there are several beaches to land. I have them all in my head location wise. I don't want to end up in the trees so if the beach is not an option as close to shore as possible. Beaches are real rocky, boulders the size of a small car...:(
 
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Home field at 5500 msl and in the middle of a 80nm diameter bravo airspace which starts at 7600’ and has a further shelf which extends 20nm that starts at 9500 msl.

short answer is that I can seldom climb as high as I’d like once I’ve escaped from under this airspace because by that stage I’m already usually half way to where I’m going.
Turbocharged and with oxygen so if going a long way I’ll try to get up to 13-15k feet, depending on the wind.
Height buys options if something goes wrong - I’d almost always like to be higher
 
Altitude is money in the bank. Unless I'm doing some kind of intentional sight seeing, etc., I fly as high as reasonably applicable, unless of course winds become a big issue. In the summer being able to get up towards 8K or higher you can definitely notice cooler cabin temps as well, even on inversion days
 
With my wife and both dogs in the airplane, I restrict myself to non-oxygen-requiring altitudes. Basically anywhere between eight and 11,000 feet.

When it’s just my wife and I in the airplane, and we don’t mind putting on the cannulas, then we can go up a little higher. But I generally only do them on eastbound flights, not so much on westbound.
 
Jeff767 said:
10500 or 11500
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Same here if I'm going over the Cascades. Need the altitude to clear the rocks with some margin.

geezer said:
Comments above "Nobody plans a flight in AGL", I do look at the sectional, and plan at least 4,000 feet above the highest MSA from the corners of the grid of the sectional chart. This provides a suitable margin of time to deal with anything that may happen. Altitude above ground is your most valuable insurance, buy it, even if you have a moderate head wind.
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Good luck with that around here if you're flying across the state. When Mt. Rainier is the cause of the highest MSA I'm not flying in Class A airspace (for a number of reasons, one of which is that a 172 or 182 won't go that high). :D
 
I just flew from Reno to Ft. Worth and filed for (and received) 12,000’ the whole way. We made a stop along the way, and it was nice to get an opposite direction altitude so I didn’t have to go to 13,000’.
 
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