Flying on the step?

In article k.net,
" wrote:

I'm reading "Fate is the Hunter" and just read something interesting. Gann
states that they would climb to 100 feet above their cruising altitude and
then descend the 100 feet back down. He called this "flying on the step."
He claims that it bought them a few more knots of airspeed.

Has anyone heard of this? Is it normal practice? Or is it one of those
practices that have been disproven?

Personally, I've never heard of this practice.


Brought back a very old memory of my first visit to the Soviet Union,
eons ago (maybe 1969?), being driven in from the airport to a Moscow
hotel by a research institute driver who repeatedly accelerated to maybe
50 mph, turned off the engine, coasted back down to maybe 15 mph (with
the clutch disengaged), then repeated the process.

I was told it was a hangover from WW II days, and many Russians were
convinced it substantially increased gas mileage.