Originally Posted by
rickair7777
There's more to it than that.
Those are reasonable numbers, and check with my own experience.
Company assigned cruise speeds (ECON) can be MUCH lower than what many experienced CRJ pilots would consider prudent. Folks who comply with ECON speeds blindly have little to no margin at the bottom and would therefore need to maintain a MUCH higher level of attentiveness than is the norm for jet aircraft in cruise flight. Like 100% attentiveness.
Well said. We have access to lots of information to safely accomplish high altitude flight, including predicting performance. At cruise I periodically check ISA deviation, as well as use the excellent Delta high alt met charts that have a wealth of data that contribute to predicted performance.
The vast majority of our pilots do the same... But as you said, the ECON speeds can throw off some who clearly don't know their craft very well. Honestly, I find this whole thing extremely embarrassing for our pilot group.