In tutorial 2 (KBNA-KMEM) ATC issues an instruction that I understand to say"Climb to FL190 at or above 15 thousand"(I'm at about 14000 at the time). This doesn't make sense to me. I've run the tutorial several times and listened hard...everytime, this is what I am hearing him say. What does this mean?Thanks

It means, when you reach 15000 feet local barometric pressure, continue your climb and at 18000 feet switch your altimeter to standard pressure, 29.92, and climb to FL190, 19000 feet.There's a pretty good discussion of Flight Lever vs. altitude here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_level

Thanks Superslide,I understand flight levels. The problem is the "at or above 15000". If I am going to climb from 14000 to FL 190 I have to go through 15000. The instruction "at or above 15000" seems redundant and useless information. What's the significance of the "at or above 15000"

Edited January 28, 201214 yr by CajunRon

It appears that in this case, 15000 feet is the Transition Level established by ATC for this flight. At or above this altitude, ATC will control your vertical position by reference to flight level.Take a look at your RCV4 manual.There is also a discussion of altitude and "at or above" commands in the FAA Altitude Assignment and Verification section here: http://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/publications/atpubs/ATC/atc0405.html#HB72f8atc

do you have your altitude, speed and heading deviations set to some wild numbers? like 1000 ft, or 45 degrees?send me a log, instructions pinned to the top of the forum. i'll look and see if there is something strange going on, on your machine/configjd