What a shot! How did the photographer get this picture? Aircraft are at FL340 and FL350. KIAS has to be around 300-some, maybe more. One shot is all you get at something like this. Makes me wonder about the vortex behind these birds...

Cool if it is real, but looks like Photoshop strikes again.(something wrong with the contrail in relation to spatial relation established by plane bodies, if that makes any sense)

just an opinion

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Cool if it is real, but looks like Photoshop strikes again.

I thought about that myself a few days after I posted it. FL340 is reserved for military flights. They fly on even-numbered levels. Commercial flies on odd-numbered levels. The jets do not appear to be 1,000 feet apart. I think 1,000 feet is permissible for vertical clearance. Maybe the good Captain will provide the answer to that one. I looked at the contrails. They appear to be different-- not just a transposed copy. Still, it's a neat picture...

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Originally posted by homebrewer:

I thought about that myself a few days after I posted it. FL340 is reserved for military flights. They fly on even-numbered levels. Commercial flies on odd-numbered levels. The jets do not appear to be 1,000 feet apart. I think 1,000 feet is permissible for vertical clearance. Maybe the good Captain will provide the answer to that one. I looked at the contrails. They appear to be different-- not just a transposed copy. Still, it's a neat picture...

Homebrewer,

Your information is a bit skewed. FL 340 is not reserved for military flights. In the USA in RVSM (Reduced Vertical Separation Minimum) Airspace FL 290 to FL 410 allows aircraft that are properly equipped to fly at 1000 ft intervals. Before RVSM regulations were approved above FL 290 we were required to fly at 2000 ft intervals.

Even flight levels are used for west bound aircraft, odd flight levels are used for east bound aircraft. I.E. A west bound flight can be filed at FL's 300, 320, 340, 360, 380, 400 an east bound flight at FL's 290, 310, 330, 350, 370, 390 and 410.

It has nothing to do with military status.

With modern navigation equipment such as IRS backed up with GPS we now fly very exact courses and it isn't uncommon at all to pass directly in line with opposite direction traffic either a 1000 feet above or below in fact I see it multiple times a day on an average trans con flight.

Now if you happen to be on an flight that is at the wrong FL for the direction of flight don't freak out. Traffic permitting we can do this occasionally for smoother rides or winds.

PS.. This isn't how it works on an oceanic flight which uses flex tracks all of those aircraft are at 1000 ft intervals but they are all going in the some direction. For instance during the afternoon there will be five east bound Atlantic tracks and one west bound. In the morning it's flipped around for traffic flow.

The Pacific has something similar but they also have fixed tracks called NOPACS, CEPACS and SOPACS. North, Central and South Pacific organized tracks systems.

There you go more than you ever wanted know about the international air route structure.

I don't know if I am "the" captain but I'm one of them on this site.

I hope that helps.

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I don't know if I am "the" captain but I'm one of them on this site.

The Captain is jetdrvr but you get my utmost respect, as well. Thanks for the information about EB and WB FLs. I drink up this stuff...