
Somewhere over the Gulf of México at 34,000ft (10,300 meters)
In the aviation industry, we use feets instead of meters to measure the vertical distance (1 meter = 3.3 feets). Some places, like China and India, still using meters.
To refer to the vertical distance, there are 4 basics concepts:
Altitude: The vertical distance from sea level to a point in the space. This is expressed as Mean Sea Level (MSL).
Height: The vertical distance from the ground to a point in the space. This is expressed as Above Ground Level (AGL).
Elevation: The vertical distance from sea level to a point in the ground.
Flight Level (FL): Is the Altitude where the atmospheric pressure is equal to the standard atmospheric pressure (14.7psi / 29.92inHg / 1013.2mb). The beggining of the FL depends on each country. For example, in El Salvador, the Flight Level starts at 19,500ft MSL (5,900 meters MSL); in the USA stars at 18,000 MSL (5,450 meters MSL); and in some places just like Guayaquil, Ecuador, can be as lower as 3,000FT MSL (900 meters MSL).
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