Hello, before I start my test, I had a question about the correct altitude for an aircraft when transitioning above air space. I have looked at info but it never really makes sense. Can anyone help me clarify or make it easier to understand?
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To calculate transition altitude you take the airport elevation and add 2500 feet and round up to the nearest 500 feet
For example, if an airport had a 230 feet elevation, you add 2500 feet to get 2730 feet then round up to 3000 feet which is the transition altitude 🙂
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As Fly said is a perfect example. I always remembered 2500 and i always round up for safety. Transitions aren’t really common anyways in expert server, but are crucial during the test.
Good luck!
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Hi @Mr_Sealboy
I would recommend you check out the IFATC Mentorship Discord.
Feel free to DM me if you are interested and I can invite you to join.
You’ll be paired with a mentor who can guide you up to the standard required to pass the IFATC practical!
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Hi thanks for the message, I just passed the written but im going to need help with the real life scenario test (I forget the name of it). Do you guys help with that?
Yes, absolutely.
DM me your discord!
A transition is the lowest altitude an aircraft is allowed to fly through your airspace without landing at your airport. The pattern altitude is always 1500 feet above the airfield. To let a transition maintain separation to the aircraft’s in your pattern, the transition altitude is typically 1000ft above the pattern altitude rounded up to the next 500ft.
Hope this explanation helped
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If the airport altitude is like 10 ft do you still have to round up?
No, the margin is 50ft, under that you can round down.
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You always need to keep 1000ft or more vertical separating between pattern traffic and transition traffic, so yeah you need round up imo
No, because at an airport elevation of anything below 50 feet, the pattern altitude is 1500ft, not 1600ft
If you are going for VFR separation, you don’t need to round for 10ft as you don’t need 1000ft but 500ft of vertical separation. For IFR separation though, you would need to round even with 10ft to have 1000ft of separation with pattern work aircraft.
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