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Flying 10,000 miles in the sky would take the plane's pitch into consideration.
Airbus A321 Cruise Speed: 515mph
23.75 minutes at 515mph is roughly 203.85 miles along the Earth's surface.
The pilot should have dipped the nose to compensate for over 5 miles of curvature!
But it didn't.
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You'd be absolutely correct if you believed that planes are magical mechanical devices that ignore gravity instead of machines that work in conjunction with the laws of physics.
Now, I'm not a pilot, and neither are you. But I can safely make one of two assumptions:
1: When flying, gravity continuously acts upon the plane. Because, of course it does, and therefore, gravity keeps the plane level while flying at a steady speed. The pilot would have to use more thrust and angle to escape a level reading. Your assertion that a plane would naturally, continuously fly upwards is making the assumption that planes don't adhere to the laws of physics.
2: However, if I'm not correct about that, it stands to reason that pilots (or more precisely, automated systems built into the plane's CPU) wouldn't have to suddenly account for their mysterious ascent. It would be as simple as a very, VERY slight downward pitch through the duration of cruising at altitude. This wouldn't visibly effect a level.
One of those two things is correct.
You know what's not correct? Flat Earth.
