Simviation Forums

Ok, so I haven't yet mastered flying the 747, but I was wondering how long does it usually take to climb to say FL350? Well any flight level above 30,00ft, lol

20 mins is not too long...well it depends on your weight.
Fully loaded 747's will climb very slowly after 30.000ft, at times as low as 400-500 feet per minute in order to maintain the M 0.82 or whatever their climb speed is...I'm no wiz on the 747, perhaps some of the other 747 drivers can pinch in here

Well that's good  :) I noticed that it was getting harder and harder to climb (I kinda expected it) but I thought I was doing something wrong because in real world, it seems like they get up there with no problem, lol  ;D Thanks!

Hello,
have a look at the climb tables in the FM from here:

Aircraft Performance Data
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/hsors/FS_Soft/acftdata.html

Ian

Yup, a fully loaded 747 will climb pretty slowly above 25,000ft.

You might consider "stepping" your climb to allow acceleration between climbs.

TSUNAMI  Rick Barker is on the right track. What I usually do when flight planning is to request an initial altitude of 20,000 fet or so then when at that altitude I request altitude changes in increments of 5,000 feet. This gives the plane a little time to regain any lost speed.

Ive noticed that generaly in the sim it seems like a long time to climb up to cruise. When your the passanger it feels like a minute.

yeah u notice the pitch when u first take off as a passenger but then they made level off a bit and hard to make out if you are climbing or not although you probably will be. just a quick question.. how old is a 747-200 typically and should it still be flying?

just that i went to florida on a virgin atlantic 742 and it seemed quite old for a company that has said to have one of the youngest fleets. my guess would be about 1992? not up to scratch on the 747

I think Virgin ordered their 747-200's in the late 80's.
Its not that old, if the passanger cabin is fine then they will keep flying it until it has flown out its life.

One time during a flight home I asked the pilot on my way out what climb rate he used, he replyed with 3000-4000fpm depending on load.

Thanks for all your help! I've tried the "steps" technique on a 737 and it worked well.  ;D Now time to try it on the 747  8)