"Normal enroute climbs are performed with flaps up and full throttle and at speeds 5 to 10 knots higher than best rate-of-climb speeds for the best combination of performance, visibility, and engine cooling." An Easy Rule-of-Thumb If You Don't Have A Published Vcc Enroute climb (Vcc) is published at 75-85 knots. The 172's sea-level Vy is published at 74 knots. It depends on the plane, but in general, the higher the performance, the more likely you are to have a published cruise climb speed.īut even the Cessna 172S has a recommendation for cruise climbs. Remember this tip if you have a sick passenger, young child, or baby on board. If you're flying an unpressurized aircraft, the reduced rate of climb can also help mitigate pressure changes that your passengers experience. Plus, a reduced pitch attitude can make your passengers feel more relaxed. After all, you're supposed to be looking out the window for traffic. You do lose some climb performance, but in most aircraft, it's an acceptable (and sometimes almost imperceivable) loss of climb performance, in exchange for faster forward airspeed in the climb.Īnd finally, you get better forward visibility in a cruise climb. Second, cruise climb gets you to your destination faster. That's especially important for high-performance piston aircraft. First, increased airflow keeps your engine cooler in the climb. Benefits of flying VccĬruise climb helps you in three ways. So what aircraft have a cruise climb speed, and what types of aircraft benefit most from it? We'll get to that in a bit, but first. Once you've reached pattern altitude or 1,000', transitioning to cruise climb speed might be a good idea. Unless a steep climb is required to avoid terrain or to fly a departure procedure, cruise climb speeds allow you to fly faster, with a relatively small loss of climb performance. Vcc is commonly called "enroute climb speed", and it's always faster than Vy. If Vx is your best angle of climb (used to reach an altitude in the shortest lateral distance) and Vy is your best rate of climb (used to reach an altitude in the shortest amount of time), then what exactly is Vcc, or cruise climb speed?