September 23, 201213 yr It seems that the climb and descent rates of airliners is a hot topic both in flight sim and real world aviation circles. Flightradar24 has recently introduced a vertical speed feature (nice!) and I decided to play with it to see what sort of climb/descent rates airliners actually do. I've always been curious about this particularly when it comes to simulating flights in FS so this new feature is really interesting. After spending a couple of days on Flightradar24 tracking flights over my part of the world, some of the climb/descent rates of the average airliner have left me quite amazed. Makes the default +/-1800fpm in MSFS look like a shopping mall elevator! Qantas operates 767 services from Sydney to Melbourne and Brisbane. I knew these aircraft are rockets on short haul trips but get a load of this: Nearly 7000fpm climb rate!!! same flight.. 5600fpm same flight again, climb rate 2400fpm at nearly 38,000ft !!! This is a Boeing 767 flight from Sydney to Melbourne... 3000fpm at 34,000ft There is a daily United 747 flight from Melbourne to Sydney, obviously a 747 flying a 705km route isn't going to have much fuel, and the result is an initial climbout of over 4000fpm 35,000ft and still climbing at 2200fpm! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Now for descent rates. This Melbourne-Sydney 767 hit over -4000fpm Sydney-Melbourne 737 descending a 4200fpm Gold Coast-Melbourne 737 descending at over 4500fpm!!! Same flight, over 3500fpm out of 13,000ft And this Sydney-Melbourne 737 flight hit a descent rate over 5200fpm! :shok:
September 23, 201213 yr Those guys can be happy that Concorde isn't flying anymore. ^_^ But a nice topic that is, some pretty V/S indeed. I'm missing some 757 values though.
September 23, 201213 yr Gee, now my -3500 fpm descent to SLC the other day seems not to bad. I made a rookie mistake and blew TOD. :angry: Those aussie's get her down quick! ORBX- the way to go Sincerely, John McGee
September 23, 201213 yr With pressurization you can go as fast as the plane will allow. When I flew a 767 from SBGL to SBGR ( 40min Flight ) with like 20 passengers on board, man... That was quite a climb! Alexis Mefano
September 23, 201213 yr 25 Minute re-positioning flight in an A333 with no passengers, no cargo and only two up front, now that's what I call a rate of climb! ^_^ B) Regards, Ró. Rónán O Cadhain.
September 23, 201213 yr Any particular reason you push a large jet into a 6500 fpm climb rate????? Just curious! Anthony O'Brien
September 23, 201213 yr Any particular reason you push a large jet into a 6500 fpm climb rate????? Just curious! Because you're able to... :biggrin: Rónán O Cadhain.
September 23, 201213 yr The last one (VOZ894 B738) Bloody hell! Those PAX must of had awful ear/head pains after that descent!
September 23, 201213 yr The last one (VOZ894 B738) Bloody hell! Those PAX must of had awful ear/head pains after that descent! Depending on what the cabin altitude was they might not have felt a thing. I love being able to set the cabin altitude perfect and not feeling a thing on the way down. Chris Miller
September 23, 201213 yr Depending on what the cabin altitude was they might not have felt a thing. I love being able to set the cabin altitude perfect and not feeling a thing on the way down. Thats a very thoughtful thing to do, in terms of passenger comfort etc!
September 24, 201213 yr One time I had finished a cold or something and we were descending. It felt like someone was moving a knife around the inside of my ear drum. 10700k / Gigabyte 3060
September 24, 201213 yr Thats a very thoughtful thing to do, in terms of passenger comfort etc! I only do it in the King Air because it has a semi-automatic system. The airliners are all automatic now and do their own scheduling. Chris Miller
October 5, 201213 yr Author Gee, now my -3500 fpm descent to SLC the other day seems not to bad. I made a rookie mistake and blew TOD. :angry: Those aussie's get her down quick! I always thought doing climbs and descents of 3000-4000fpm in FS was probably a bit much and unrealistic, but I am surprised to find climb/descent rates of nearly +7000fpm / -5000fpm in the real world! Quite amazing stuff for a passenger airliner. I often do a bit of spotting at Melbourne Airport, and those 767s often takeoff mid-field RWY 16/34 and rotate after barely 10 seconds of roll. Any particular reason you push a large jet into a 6500 fpm climb rate????? Just curious! Those 767's would be very light on fuel. Still an insane rate of climb for sure! Alot of flights between Melbourne and Sydney reach cruising altitudes of 41,000ft, with a straight-line distance of only 705km. Even Melbourne-Adelaide flights hit FL400-410 and Melbourne-Hobart 737 services (only 620km) often climb to FL380 and I've seen a FL400 atleast once on flightradar24. Flights on the Melbourne-Launceston route, which is only 480km, also routinely hit FL360.
October 5, 201213 yr Passing 7200 feet QF520 was flying a gradient of 1 : 5. That's pretty steep for walking, cycling, driving... but not, it seems, for a big jet. I'm astonished. Could that VS last?-- would the airspeed be decreasing with that sort of gradient? And... would the initial steep climb be for noise abatement? I see the plane accelerated as it climbed so I suppose the initial climb wasn't necessarily the most efficient. Regards, D
October 5, 201213 yr Yes those rates do seem a little unbelievable. Could they be momentary peaks/troughs caused by turbulence happening at the exact same time the aircraft sends its data to the radar station?
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