Good FL for a fully loaded delta 339?

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I’m flying from new york to san diego and wondered what a good FL would be for a fully loaded delta A339, 270 something pax and full cargo, roughly 7 hrs of fuel onboard too.

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I suggest stepclimb. Start at FL340 and as time pass by go up to FL360 and up to FL380.
If your looking for an FL where you don’t want to climb, I suggest FL320 or FL340

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Step climbing is the best way to be efficient with your fuel, especially when fully loaded.

Usually you would want to start at a low level altitude like FL310 (eastbound) and FL320 (westbound) after maybe an hour or so slowly climb at a FPM rate under 1000ft.

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How does 400 VS for FL340 sound?

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Would take 5 mins to reach the next 2000 ft.

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I would start at fl360 and later climb to fl380.

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Have you checked the winds? I’d start there and work it out. Sometimes going lower works (300/320) as you can avoid string head winds

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I suggest you go to Flightaware, check for the Delta A339 route you want to fly, and then imput the FL into Simbrief. Make the flightplan and keep the “stepclimb” option checked. That’ll will give you what you need.

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I haven’t because I don’t know how really

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Since it is a transcontinental flight and I’m guessing the flight time is about 6 hrs, I would recommend Step Climb and start a low alt like FL330, then work your way up like FL380 or FL400.

FL400 may be a little high for a fully loaded flight…

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Thanks, I realized this because the plane seemed to struggle at the FL400 I put it at, I’m decending to 370 now

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Hello N179LH, that’s a great question, just a small tip, for this kind of questions it is better to give info of your ZFW and the weight of your fuel rather than telling the number of passengers and how many hours of fuel on board (the available hours can also change due to external factors).

I’m not able to tell you your best cruise level but I would like to give another info.

Depends on your cruise altitude, higher you fly less fuel you spend however if you are overweight for a certain flight level, you will spend more fuel on trying to fly at that altitude than actually cruising. (you may notice if your plane tilts up in an extraordinary way and flying at full throttle.)

This is why step climb is used.

You can have many different cruise levels during the flight, for example first 600nm at FL290, then until certain place flying at FL330 and then until you descend flying at FL350 etc…

If you use a webpage like https://fpltoif.com/ to make your flight plan, it automatically gives you the best altitude and cruise speed because it is making the flight plan according to date and time you enter.

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Thanks for this!! very helpful

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I’m glad that it helped you.

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