Calculators / Conversions / Vertical Speed Conversion

Verify before flight. Check the POH/AFM for aircraft-specific limits and performance.

Conversions

Vertical Speed Conversion Calculator

Convert vertical speed from feet per minute to feet per second and meters per second for climb and descent calculations.

Vertical speed

fpm

Feet/sec—

Meters/sec—

Feet/min—

500 ft/min in ft/sec and m/sec

500 ft/min divided by 60 is 8.33 ft/sec; multiplying by 0.3048 gives 2.54 m/sec.

A vertical speed is not a climb gradient. Add groundspeed before converting ft/min to ft/NM.

Vertical-speed units are converted from feet per minute into feet per second and meters per second.