Reduced Vertical Separation Minima
(In the U.S. and Canada, the foregoing information applies to flights under instrument flight rules (IFR). Different altitudes will apply for aircraft flying under visual flight rules (VFR) above 3000 ft AGL.)
Reduced Vertical Separation Minima or RVSM reduces the vertical separation above FL 290 from 2,000 ft to 1,000 ft. This allows aircraft to safely fly more optimum routes, gain fuel savings and increase airspace capacity by adding six new flight levels. Only aircraft that have been certified to meet RVSM standards, with several exclusions, are allowed to fly in RVSM airspace. It was introduced into the UK in March 2001. On 20 January 2002, it entered European airspace. The United States, Canada and Mexico transitioned to RVSM between FL 290 and FL 410 on 20 January 2005, and Africa on 25 September 2008.
- Track 000 to 179° – odd thousands (FL 290, 310, 330, etc.)
- Track 180 to 359° – even thousands (FL 300, 320, 340, etc.)
At FL 410 and above, 4,000 ft intervals are resumed to separate same-direction aircraft and only odd Flight Levels are assigned, depending on the direction of flight:
- Track 000 to 179° – odd flight levels (FL 410, 450, 490, etc.)
- Track 180 to 359° – odd flight levels (FL 430, 470, 510, etc.)
Read more about this topic: Flight Level
Famous quotes containing the words reduced, vertical and/or separation:
“Drill and uniforms impose an architecture on the crowd. An army’s beautiful. But that’s not all; it panders to lower instincts than the aesthetic. The spectacle of human beings reduced to automatism satisfies the lust for power. Looking at mechanized slaves, one fancies oneself a master.”
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963)
“In bourgeois society, the French and the industrial revolution transformed the authorization of political space. The political revolution put an end to the formalized hierarchy of the ancien regimé.... Concurrently, the industrial revolution subverted the social hierarchy upon which the old political space was based. It transformed the experience of society from one of vertical hierarchy to one of horizontal class stratification.”
—Donald M. Lowe, U.S. historian, educator. History of Bourgeois Perception, ch. 4, University of Chicago Press (1982)
“Reunion after long separation is even better than one’s wedding night.”
—Chinese proverb.