If I am flying a long trip (several hours), I will go up 2000' and see
if I get an improvement in groundspeed. If I do, I stay up there and
my try another 2000'. Don't forget you burn less gas per mile up high,
so even if you just go the same speed, you are ahead. Sometimes I call
Fligh****ch and ask them for the winds aloft forecasts so I can plan
my altitude. In the summer, if I go up high enough, sometimes I can
get above the turbulence. But then you may slow down so you have the
age old turbulence vs airspeed tradeoff question.

If I am going west, leave in the morning, come back in the evening
will get me less headwind west and more tailwind east as winds
increase as the day goes on, statistically. Going east, leave late in
the day and come back the next day, if possible.

I do believe I have "outflown" the wind, that is, I have had more
tailwinds than headwinds due to being able to pick times and altitudes
flown.

Although there is software that calculates best solutions, I don't
have it. Might be interesting if the GPS mfgs put that function in
their GPS's. Could be done, I suppose.

ON long flights I don't have anything else to do, so might as well
mess around with trying to make time and saving fuel.


(Andrew Sarangan) wrote in message . com...
Except in high winds aloft or bad turbulence, I have found that flying
low (safety permitting) generally results in the most optimum
solution. Climbing higher for better tailwind doesn't buy more than a
few minutes. Of course, the ratio of climb time to cruise time has a
big effect too. There are too many variable to make a rule of thumb.
What I do is try a few altitudes on DUATs flight planner and pick the
lowest altitude that seems reasonable.



"John Harlow" wrote in message ...
I'd like to get input on opinions on the "best" VFR altitude for a route.

It seems to me it's largely based on distance, winds aloft and comfort
level. Do you have a "rule of thumb" trading off altitude (and therefore
safety margin) to avoid headwinds? Or, if winds aloft are to your
advantage, how high would someone go in a 172 class aircraft before returns
diminish?