RVSM flights

[EHM-1001 Robert]

I found another topic to dusicuss.  

I am a bit confused after the last 2 events for Lisbon. When we flew out of Madeira toward East (to Lisbon) I expected an odd flight level, so both times entered FL330 into the flightplan. Then both times ATC corrected me to FL340, just because of RVSM airspace... :s

I made a searching on IVAO and found this:



But it does not say that I cannot fly on FL330 Eastbound in RVSM airspace...so how is it

[EHM-1759 Ricardo]

It was decided by IVAO-PT staff that inside Portuguese Airspace the flights to northbound might be Even and to southbound might be Odd.

[EHM-1703 Philip]

Hi Robert,

This is the age old N/S RVSM versus the W/E RVSM. Allow me to explain. Santa Maria or LPPO airspace is in the normal W/E RVSM system used above. So when leaving Funchal or Ponta Delgado you will initially fly an ODD flight level. As you transition to Lisbon Ctr or LPPC you will switch to the North/South system which says that if you fly between 090-279 degrees you will fly odd Flight Levels and 270-089 degrees use even flight levels!!!! It's all to do with the direction of the majority of the traffic flow. If this is unclear as I can be confusing at times, here are the pages that explain about each of the two Portuguese FIR's:

http://www.ivaopt.org/fir/whats_lppo.htm
http://www.ivaopt.org/fir/whats_lppc.htm

By the way, this mirrors real life procedures for these FIR's.

Hope that helps!

[EHM-1617 Iain]

In a sentence, it is the same as the normal W/E system but rotated 90* to the right.

[EHM-1001 Robert]

Thanx for explanation !

It was clear, do not worry Phil I just do not like things, when a logical system is modified after a different thinking, and the newly born system seems also logical :s It would be good to use the same logic by everyone...maybe it could result less confusion and much less probability for collission.