What is your sweet spot altitude (for best TAS)

[Hank]

@A64Pilot, it seems the @jetdriven is correct. The car comparison falls apart because there you are looking at distance per unit fuel, and with our planes the fuel flow is constantly and we are looking at how far we can go.

It is often possible with.an airpla e to burn more fuel and reach the destination both sooner and on less fuel. My little C, for example, cruises right at or barely below, 9 gph; but I travel "with" friends in 172s with cruise fuel burns of 7.5 gph. But I reach the destination in abiut a third less time and on 10-15% less fuel, even though I burn almost 30% more fuel per hour.

Example:

• Me = 9 x 2.5 hours = 22.5 gallons
• Them = 7.5 x 3.2 hours = 24 gallons

Except the trips we've taken are more dramatic than this fictional creation.