Best posts made by Vela77

Thank you for the help. I've been on the boat the last couple of days (working on it, not sailing :-( Tomorrow I'll study up on these different options.

@William-Caine said in Winds:

I am trying to understand the the elevation of winds. I do not know what exactly to type into a browser to find this knowledge. Can someone help explain what the designations me, that is, such s “FL140”. What elevations can be applied to these?

Conventional airplane altimeters use barometric pressure to determine altitude. When you are taking off and landing, it is important to know your height above the ground. So you set your altimeter's barometer to match the local pressure. But someone taking off from an airport far away might have set a different local pressure into their barometer. So you and he may be flying along, thinking one is higher than the other, but because of the difference in how your instruments are set, you could end up at the same altitude.

So when you are flying any distance it is more important to know the altitudes of other aircraft flying around you. So everyone sets their altimeters to a standard barometric pressure. Then everyone's altitude relative to each other is known and you can maintain separation - you are less likely to crash into someone. These altitudes are known as "Flight Levels" in order to differentiate them from true altitudes above ground or sea level. Flight levels are measured in 100s of feet. So FL140 would be an altitude of 14,000 feet as measured by standard barometric pressure.