{"id":191,"date":"2014-04-20T17:11:55","date_gmt":"2014-04-20T07:11:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/foxbatpilot.com\/?p=191"},"modified":"2014-04-20T17:11:55","modified_gmt":"2014-04-20T07:11:55","slug":"what-height-do-you-like-to-fly-at","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/foxbatpilot.com\/?p=191","title":{"rendered":"How high do you like to fly?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>We&#8217;re talking about light, single engine aircraft here &#8211; not jetliners or high performance multi-engine aircraft.<\/p>\n<p>Some people love to fly high &#8211; often 8,000 feet and higher. They tell me they like to fly this high for lots of reasons &#8211; it&#8217;s usually much cooler (particularly in the summer), it&#8217;s usually much smoother (it takes thermals a while to build up to reach these altitudes), and sometimes the wind is stronger (useful if you&#8217;re going in the right direction). On a clear day, the view can be almost unbelievable, with the horizon many tens of kilometres away.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/foxbatpilot.files.wordpress.com\/2014\/04\/up-high.jpeg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-large wp-image-196 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/foxbatpilot.files.wordpress.com\/2014\/04\/up-high.jpeg?w=627\" alt=\"Up high\" width=\"627\" height=\"470\" srcset=\"https:\/\/foxbatpilot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/up-high.jpeg 1280w, https:\/\/foxbatpilot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/up-high-300x225.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/foxbatpilot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/up-high-1024x768.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/foxbatpilot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/up-high-768x576.jpeg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 627px) 100vw, 627px\" \/><\/a>There is also an argument that if the engine stops, you have a lot more choices if you&#8217;re up high. This may be true if you fly a typical spam can brick but today&#8217;s breed of light sport aircraft will glide far further than our fathers could ever have dreamed, so height is not always necessary. Last and not least, for the high-flyer there aren&#8217;t many hills at this height to get in your way, so you can fly directly from A to B.<\/p>\n<p>And in my mind that really summarises high-flyers &#8211; getting from A to B.<\/p>\n<p>Personally, I&#8217;m a low-flyer. Not illegally low, I hasten to make clear. Just that my preferred height is between 500 and 2,000 feet above the ground. Yes, it can be bumpy. Yes, it can be a bit hotter. And yes, you may have to make detours around the topography. But if you take-off and fly early in the day and catch the smooth cool air, the rewards are well worth it. While you don&#8217;t get the &#8216;see-forever&#8217; views of the high flyer, you do get to see much more detail on the ground. Farms, mines, wind-farms, beaches, even animals &#8211; which in Australia includes kangaroos, camels, goats, emus and even crocodiles. Even the hills look great from lower down, so long as you don&#8217;t get too close.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/foxbatpilot.files.wordpress.com\/2014\/04\/down-low.jpeg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-large wp-image-197 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/foxbatpilot.files.wordpress.com\/2014\/04\/down-low.jpeg?w=627\" alt=\"Down low\" width=\"627\" height=\"376\" srcset=\"https:\/\/foxbatpilot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/down-low.jpeg 1500w, https:\/\/foxbatpilot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/down-low-300x180.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/foxbatpilot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/down-low-1024x615.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/foxbatpilot.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/down-low-768x461.jpeg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 627px) 100vw, 627px\" \/><\/a>A friend of mine (who also prefers the low and slow approach) jokes with high-flyers about the lovely &#8216;hills&#8217; they are missing on French Island in Westernport Bay, south of Melbourne. Even from 2,500 feet, the place looks quite flat. Only when you get down to 700-800 feet do the hills appear.<\/p>\n<p>So low and slow is my preference &#8211; enjoy the journey!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We&#8217;re talking about light, single engine aircraft here &#8211; not jetliners or high performance multi-engine aircraft. Some people love to fly high &#8211; often 8,000 feet and higher. They tell me they like to fly this high for lots of &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/foxbatpilot.com\/?p=191\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[17,506,614],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/foxbatpilot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/foxbatpilot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/foxbatpilot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foxbatpilot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foxbatpilot.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/foxbatpilot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/foxbatpilot.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foxbatpilot.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foxbatpilot.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}