Wrong Altitude for Direction of Flight

[Unregistered]

I made a dumb mistake and chose a wrong altitude for direction of flight.

I was using flight following and was handed off from Center, to Approach, to Approach, to Center. The last Center controller advised me of the wrong altitude for direction of flight. He later asked me for my plane type. There were no close encounters with any other plane.

Should I be expecting a letter from the FAA? I have over 500 hours of cross-country experience and this is the first time I used the wrong even/odd altitude.

I have heard controllers tell other pilots they were at the wrong altitude and thought to my self, "that should not happen." I will of course never let this happen again.

 

[Jim Logajan]

Seems unlikely the FAA will do anything. Since it was inadvertent, can't hurt to file an ASRS.

As an aside, I've flown with an almost due north magnetic course where a couple degrees difference would have put me in violation. I may or may not have drifted by that amount, making me in technical violation at times.

I think flights within about +/-3 degrees of due north or south are pretty much a crap-shoot in terms of satisfying the hemispheric rule.

 

[Jim Logajan]

I requested and got 10k for a flight from Wyoming to Lincoln NE. No one had a problem with it. 10k put me in between two cloud layers and allowed me to stay VFR and out of icing conditions.

ATC has asked me several times to fly at non-standard altitudes. I always did what they asked.... I wouldn't worry about it. Also, if you are in FL, it's different anyways....

Well, 91.159 does have the clause "unless otherwise authorized by ATC...."

 

[Jim Logajan]

How do you strict VFR altitude folks wrap your head around cross country soaring flight?

91.159 says:
"... in level cruising flight ..."

A glider should be so lucky. The are either climbing or descending or turning (and hopefully climbing.) The rare times they in straight and level flight are when they are flying along a ridge - well under 3000 AGL.

 

[Jim Logajan]

So if you are a sloppy pilot and don't fly in level flight the rule doesn't apply, excellent.

The rule works only to the extent that self-preservation motivates pilots to follow it. I imagine enforcement is otherwise difficult. It does appear you can zig-zag vertically indefinitely - that may actually have some statistical safety enhancement since it would presumably lower your time-averaged collision cross-section with aircraft in level flight. But it would increase the collision cross-section with aircraft that are also ascending and descending - though the increase would probably be comparatively lower.