transition altitude I understand as it will basically be 2500’ above (1500’ for jets pattern altitude plus 1000’ separation)
Am I correct there?
If so would a transition altitude for an airport that is 250’ MSL be 3000’ because you always want to do the next 500’ interval?
Yes you are correct from what I have learned.
That’s correct, although that’s for a surface elevation airport.
Yep, you’re correct here as well. :)
To quote 6.3.4 of the Public ATC Manual, “Using the above example, if the tower controller has 2 jet aircraft in the pattern, with an airport elevation of 1000ft, they would be expected to fly the pattern at 2500ft, therefore a transition for another aircraft must be given that still allows it to stay within the tower’s
airspace (up to 6000ft) but also gives separation to those that are in the pattern. 3500ft
would be a sensible target in this particular example (see 10.3.2 below).”
that just makes it more confusing
1000 + 2500ft = 3500ft if I still know how to count.
Let me simplify how to find the transition for ya.
Airport elevation + 1500 (you’ll get the altitude for the highest someone will be remaining in the pattern) + 1000ft for minimum separation requirements. Once you get your number after adding it all up round that up always to the nearest 500.
To answer your question and take it through it above, we start with 250ft elevation as you said. Adding 1500ft gives you 1750ft. Now we add 1000ft for separation which comes out to 2750. With that altitude we now round up to the nearest 500 which gives you a transition of 3000ft. Hope this helped. If you need any more help pm me and I’ll go more into detail.
Howdy!
It’s your IFATC trainer here. You know you could have DMed me for this, right?
As others have said, what I’ve taught you is correct. The minimum acceptable transition altitude provides 1000’ of separation from the highest pattern altitude which is by jets at 1500’ AAL.
Therefore, if we have an airport at let’s say 3750’ MSL, the jet pattern altitude would be 1500’ above that, which is 5250’, add 1000’ to that for separation and you get 6250’, and then to the nearest 500’ above is 6500’. The transition for an airport at 3750’ MSL would be 6500’ MSL.
What’s easier is adding 2500’ to the airport elevation and then rounding to the nearest 500’ above.
An airport at 750’ + 2500’ = 3250’, nearest 500’ above is 3500’. Transition for an airport at 750’ would be 3500’ MSL.
To answer your question - 250’ + 2500’ = 2750’, nearest 500’ is 3000’. An airport at 250’ would have a transition of 3000’ MSL.
In the future, I hope you’ll use our DM for any questions you have. That’s what I’m here for! :)
And to make things even more confusing, GA aircraft fly in the pattern at 1000ft AAL, as opposed to 1500ft AAL for jets. That would probably only be considered for GA only airports.
That has nothing to do with anything we’re talking about. GA aircraft fly their patterns below jet aircraft. They’ll have enough separation with transition aircraft assuming the jet aircraft do.
No need to make this more confusing than it has to be.
Sure it is related. What if you have GA aircraft transitioning?
They’ll still be at the same airport elevation + 2500’…
Transitioning over other GA aircraft in the pattern. Specific scenario, don’t worry.
OP was asking about transition altitudes. All I did was give the only scenario where the +2500ft AAL rule doesn’t have to apply :)
I have flown with only GA aircraft in the pattern under IFATC control before, that’s all.
If we’re assuming there’s not a single jet aircraft in the pattern, and all aircraft are GA flying at 1000’ AAL for their pattern altitude, I don’t see why you couldn’t do airport elevation + 2000’. That’s a very specific scenario though and probably not that likely in IF.
That’s not what the question in the OP was asking, so if you want to elaborate, feel free to DM me.
we have already answered the in second post
@Joseph_Spinner I meant to but above ground level
OP request