777fan From United States of America, joined Jan 2006, 2402 posts, RR: 3 Reply 3, posted (5 months 1 week 6 days 23 hours ago) and read 3247 times:
I know for a fact it's been FL410 on several occasions, one of which was on a 757 (ORD-BWI) just a few years ago. In nearly every instance, it was part of an unanticipated effort to avoid weather.
I swear that as a kid (early to mid-80s), we once topped off at FL420 on a ORD-HNL flight (UA 747-200), although technically, I'm not even sure if that was possible.
B747forever From United States of America, joined May 2007, 16574 posts, RR: 11 Reply 4, posted (5 months 1 week 6 days 23 hours ago) and read 3243 times:
I don't believe FL410 is open for flights... It's not valid cruising altitude I the United States/ most of the world. RVSM stops at FL410 eastbound and then the next jump is FL430 westbound and so on upwards alternating directions every 2000 feet.
airplaneguy From United States of America, joined Dec 2009, 48 posts, RR: 0 Reply 12, posted (5 months 1 week 5 days 23 hours ago) and read 3030 times:
Wow, awesome information. I guess mine wasn't 42,000, but if I do remember correctly, it was somewhere in the 40,000's. Now, 55,000, that's something!!!
daviation From United States of America, joined Sep 2008, 432 posts, RR: 1 Reply 14, posted (5 months 1 week 5 days 19 hours ago) and read 2992 times:
I'm not sure if my memory is correct. DL 757 from PBI - ATL, 43000 feet. My children were toddlers then, so I was very preoccupied, but I do recall saying holy s__t, that's the highest I've ever been! I was particularly struck because it was such a short flight.
flymia From United States of America, joined Jun 2001, 6296 posts, RR: 6 Reply 15, posted (5 months 1 week 5 days 19 hours ago) and read 2989 times:
Quoting Citationjet (Reply 10): My highest altitude was FL410 in a Citation Mustang. My highest altitude occurred in the smallest jet I have flown in.
Same here. For people who have flow in Biz Jets this is probably fairly common given they almost always fly higher than the airliners.
Quoting daviation (Reply 14): I'm not sure if my memory is correct. DL 757 from PBI - ATL, 43000 feet. My children were toddlers then, so I was very preoccupied, but I do recall saying holy s__t, that's the highest I've ever been! I was particularly struck because it was such a short flight.
Is it possible?
42,000ft is the max altitude for a 757. So maybe it was FL420.
"It was just four of us on the flight deck, trying to do our job" (Captain Al Haynes)
Viscount724 From Switzerland, joined Oct 2006, 21480 posts, RR: 24 Reply 16, posted (5 months 1 week 5 days 19 hours ago) and read 2986 times:
Quoting AR385 (Reply 13): I seem to recall going up to 45,000 one time on an AR 747SP on the LIM-EZE part. I could be wrong. Can the SP fly that high?
Maximum certified operating altitude for all 747 models is 45,100 ft. with only 2 exceptions:
-400LCF (the "Dreamlifter", the 4 heavily-modified -400 freighters used to carry 787 components) - 43,100 ft
-8F freighter - 42,100 ft (not the passenger -8 which is 45,100 ft. like all earlier 747 models)
jetblue777 From United States of America, joined Jul 2009, 1427 posts, RR: 1 Reply 17, posted (5 months 1 week 5 days 19 hours ago) and read 2985 times:
Citationjet From United States of America, joined Mar 2003, 2235 posts, RR: 3 Reply 19, posted (5 months 1 week 5 days 7 hours ago) and read 2931 times:
Quoting Citationjet (Reply 10): My highest altitude was FL410 in a Citation Mustang. My highest altitude occurred in the smallest jet I have flown in.
Quoting flymia (Reply 15): Same here. For people who have flow in Biz Jets this is probably fairly common given they almost always fly higher than the airliners.
I was the only passenger on the 4 pax seat aircraft, and I remember sitting there watching the larger airliners flying below us.
AllegiantAir From United States of America, joined Sep 2006, 1729 posts, RR: 2 Reply 22, posted (5 months 1 week 4 days 17 hours ago) and read 2834 times:
Which is quite high for said plane. I've only taken her up to 4500, which over here is measured in FL already. From fellow pilots I've heard the Tomahawk can reach 10000, but only in the right conditions and the last 1000 feet will go very slow...
one mile of road leads to nowhere, one mile of runway leads to anywhere
25 jetmech: The highest I've been was 41,000ft in a DJ 737-700 doing SYD-MEL. I was amazed that one would bother getting up so high for such a short sector. View
26 Vhqpa: I can top that FL410 (albeit very briefly) ROK-BNE DJ 737-700 to avoid storms. I believe it was only 5 minutes between TOC and TOD. I've been at FL41
27 longhauler: In Canada the big issue is what happens in the cockpit. When the aircraft is above FL410, then one pilot must be wearing an oxygen mask, and supplying
28 Viscount724: It's also common in Europe. I've been on several KL 737NGs, especially the -700s, at 40,000 or 41,000 ft. even on 1-hr flights like GVA-AMS (13 nm sh
29 longhauler: I remember reading in a performance textbook that the most efficient flight profile is a parabola. Going from climb thrust and climbing right to idle
31 jetmech: Fair enough. It's obviously very much worth the effort to get high even for such short sectors. I suppose it's no real trouble for a 737-700 to get u
32 MH017: and me 9500 feet once in a Cessna 152: you feel very 'small' at that altitude in that 2-seater, I tell you !!!
33 rolypolyman: Interesting note -- a stock DC-8 Series 40 managed to get up to FL520 during the famous test flight where it briefly went supersonic. It would be inte
34 B6JFKH81: FL410 on almost every B6 E190 flight I've been on that is longer than 90 minutes....
35 Viscount724: They had very little fuel. More details in this article. http://www.airspacemag.com/history-o...here-Boeing-Will-Never-Try-It.html
36 MadameConcorde: Concorde - 58 to 60 or slightly more Kft. No other passenger transport aircraft will ever surpass Concorde - like it or not. https://www.youtube.com/w
37 Viscount724: Doubt it was more than 60K as that was the certificated maximum operating altitude.
38 Citationjet: See TCDS: http://rgl.faa.gov/Regulatory_and_Gu...538625768000667af2/$FILE/a45eu.pdf
39 MadameConcorde: Thank you for posting this. Always been looking for it.
40 redzeppelin: I'm sure I've been to FL410, although I can't say exactly when. It's not something that I log. The highest that I have hiked to is 12,668 feet: Idaho'
41 warren747sp: Pan Am 747SP FL45000 JFK-NRT toward the latte part of the flight!
42 Citationjet: Either you mean FL450, or you definitely have the record for the highest altitude.....
43 warren747sp: Hi, Citation must gone to the moon, 45000ft
44 Goodbye: FL410 on CX CNS-BNE. I was quite surprised that on a shortish sector (2hrs or so) we got so high!
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