Route Planning via Airfields, smart?

[Roundsounds]

I fly everywhere at 500’ AGL, too high for Ag aircraft and Drones, too low for the EFB crowd.

I avoid populous areas and airfields, I’ll climb to circuit entry height approaching my destination. 

[old man emu]

10 hours ago, RossK said:

I'm not sure that's current OME.

I'm pretty sure that you are correct. I could only find diagrams of hemispherical cruise altitudes for VFR. I wonder which mental giant decided to ditch the quadrantals, which clearly would abolish the current problem and improve safety. That quadrantal system worked for years when the volume of traffic must have been less. Now with increased traffic we move to  the transgender "See to be Miss..ed".

 

 

[Thruster88]

In theory with the current system there is 100% separation between IFR and VFR aircraft with 50% separation between all VFR and 50% between all IFR aircraft. In practice the actual separation benefit is much less because aircraft spend time climbing and descending. They usually do this because of some attraction on the earth's surface like a runway. In the vicinity of the runway we all fly in the same place at the same altitude. 

 

 

[skippydiesel]

12 hours ago, Roundsounds said:

I fly everywhere at 500’ AGL, too high for Ag aircraft and Drones, too low for the EFB crowd.

I avoid populous areas and airfields, I’ll climb to circuit entry height approaching my destination. 

Birds, some very big ones, might just be sharing the same air space. Probably safe from most other aircraft though. I hope you never have an engine out, cause your choices of where to land might be quite limited.

[Jabiru7252]

23 hours ago, Roundsounds said:

I fly everywhere at 500’ AGL, too high for Ag aircraft and Drones, too low for the EFB crowd.

I avoid populous areas and airfields, I’ll climb to circuit entry height approaching my destination. 

Well at 500' your with the birds and if the engine quits, you're options are limited. I like height, out of the bumps, less chance of bird strike and time to act if the rubber band breaks.

[old man emu]

Who would fly IFR below 10,000 in day VMC? One might follow IFR procedures for tracking and reporting in VMC, but that does not preclude flying Quadrantal. 

 

Does anyone not flying IFR go full reporting these days?

[Roundsounds]

1 hour ago, Jabiru7252 said:

Well at 500' your with the birds and if the engine quits, you're options are limited. I like height, out of the bumps, less chance of bird strike and time to act if the rubber band breaks.

I’d rather mix with birds than people flying with the autopilot engaged and head buried in their EFBs. As for engine failures, I have my plan sorted and the airplane I fly either runs or doesn’t so I don’t have tank changes, pumps etc. 

[pmccarthy]

Autopilot lets me look outside more. Less watching heading and alt.

[facthunter]

There's traps in use of autopilots . The only safe mode is airspeed in pitch.  Think  about it and discuss if needed. Nev