If you frequently observe aircraft flying over China, Mongolia, or North Korea, you will find that the cruising altitude of flights flying over these countries is completely different from that of aircraft flying over other countries or regions, such as cruising altitude 321, 331, 341, etc., instead of the usual 320, 330, 340, etc.
This is because these three countries use a “metric altitude layer” that is different from the “foot altitude layer” used by the vast majority of countries and regions in the world.
Taking China as an example.China has implemented RVSM in Metric level system since 16:00 UTC, November 21st, 2007 between 8900 meters (29100 feet) and 12500 meters (41100 feet), inclusive.
After RVSM implementation, 300-meter vertical separation is applied between 600 meters and 8400 meters (maintain current situation unchanged); 500-meter vertical separation is applied between 8400 meters and 8900 meters; 300-meter vertical separation is applied between 8900 meters and 12500 meters; 600-meter vertical separation is applied above 12500 meters. Airspace from 8900 meters to 12500 meters is defined as RVSM Airspace. Aircrafts entering RVSM airspace should maintain RVSM capability at all times during this airspace. The Flight Level Allocation Scheme (FLAS) is attached.
Meanwhile, in order to ensure that the vertical separation between two pairs of flight levels is equal or above 1000 feet after converting metric flight level into feet and rounding the result by 100 feet:
·For Metric flight level from 8900 meters to 10700 meters, the corresponding flight level in feet shall be rounded down to the nearest 100 feet. For instance, 8900 meters (namely 29199 feet) shall be rounded down to 29100 feet;
·For Metric flight level from 11000 meters to 12500 meters, the corresponding flight level in feet shall be rounded up to the nearest 100 feet. For instance, 12500 meters (namely 41010 feet) shall be rounded up to 41100 feet.
For Infinite Flight, a cruising altitude difference of only 100 feet does not have a significant impact. So if you continue to use the feet level in mainland China, Mongolia, and North Korea, there won’t be too many problems.But if you want to pursue a more authentic flying experience, I suggest you learn the “metric altitude layer” mentioned above.
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