Good afternoon forum,
I know in North America, the transition altitude is 18,000 feet. I am currently planning a trip from KOPF to MUHA (Havana Cuba) and after looking at the charts, see that the transition altitude for most of Cuba is 3,000 feet.
What I am not 100% certain on is when does the transition altitude come into affect? I am assuming it is at the FIR?
Depart KOPF and cruise to MUHA at 6,000ft.
Altimeter would be set on takeoff based on KOPF ATIS and then updated en route based on ATC
Once I hit the Havana Fir, I would then switch to 29.92 until I reach the transition altitude then adjust.
Is this correct?
Generally correct. The Transition Altitude is defined by the country aviation authorities, which mostly correspond the FIR boundaries. Especially in Europe it’s possible that an airport is controlled by a different countries FIR by local procedures and country agreements.
ATC wise, upon entering Cuban airspace the controller will instruct for Flightlevel (FL) 60, which basically means flying at 6000ft with standard altimeter setting. Mind that Cuba uses hPa as pressure unit, so your standard is 1013 hPa.
There’s also a Transition Level (TL) assigned by ATC depending on local pressure, ensuring minimum of 1000ft vertical separation between 3000ft on local altimeter and the lowest usable level, i.e. FL40 or FL50. However ATC will tell you and your cruise altitude FL60 is safe anyway. The Jeppesen chart says: “Trans level: By ATC” accordingly.
Hope this helps…
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That helps greatly, thank you very much!
Flight went great and Pilot2ATC behaved correctly for the changes in transition altitudes. Also noticed it switched from Altitude 6,000 to FL060 when I was handed over to Cuba, and then back to Altitude on the return trip once handed over to centre in US.
Nice that it accounts for all those differences.
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