> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://seat-airlines.gitbook.io/seat-airlines-docs/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://seat-airlines.gitbook.io/seat-airlines-docs/how-it-flies/flight-model.md).

# One number flies the plane

Market cap is altitude and the five-minute move is attitude. Here is exactly how.

Nothing on the aircraft is flown by hand or scripted. Every instrument reads the token's market, so the aeroplane you are looking at is the chart.

## Altitude — market cap

Altitude is the market cap read straight across as feet. A $163K market cap flies at **163,000 ft**; $2.4M flies at **2,400,000 ft**. The milestones are literal, and each one changes the world outside — see [The five levels](/seat-airlines-docs/how-it-flies/altitude-bands.md).

## Pitch — the five-minute move

The price change over the last five minutes sets the nose attitude: up when the price is rising, down when it is falling. The curve is logarithmic, so a quiet ±2% still visibly moves the nose while a huge move levels off instead of standing the aircraft on its tail, and a rise and a fall of the same size pitch by the same amount.

| Five-minute move | Pitch           | Airspeed           |
| ---------------- | --------------- | ------------------ |
| ±1%              | 0.8°            | 215 kt             |
| ±5%              | 3.3°            | 229 kt             |
| ±12%             | 6.3°            | 253 kt             |
| ±25%             | 9.8°            | 297 kt             |
| ±50%             | 13.9°           | 382 kt             |
| ±100%            | 18.4°           | 552 kt             |
| +300% or more    | 26° (the limit) | 688 kt (the limit) |

A fall can never be more than 100%, so the steepest dive the market can produce is about **18° nose-down**.

## Bank — how fast the move is changing

A steady trend, however steep, flies wings-level. A market that is **turning** — the five-minute move itself speeding up or reversing — banks the aircraft into the turn, up to 11°, and the compass heading swings with it.

## Airspeed and vertical speed

* **Airspeed** is conviction in either direction: 212 kt when the market is flat, climbing with the size of the move to a limit of 688 kt.
* **Vertical speed** is the altimeter's own rate of change: the five-minute move applied to the current market cap.

## Phase of flight

The flight deck's mode line names what the aircraft is doing:

| Five-minute move        | Phase                 |
| ----------------------- | --------------------- |
| above +40%              | **MAX CLIMB**         |
| above +8%, up to +40%   | **CLIMB**             |
| above −6%, up to +8%    | **CRUISE**            |
| above −22%, down to −6% | **DESCENT**           |
| −22% or lower           | **EMERGENCY DESCENT** |

## Smooth, but never invented

The market is read every 20 seconds; the instruments ease towards each new reading at the screen's frame rate, so the horizon moves smoothly between readings. If you have asked your device for **reduced motion**, the instruments ease more slowly and the aircraft banks and pitches half as far, so it still flies without the sway.

{% hint style="info" %}
The flight crew can occasionally take the controls for show — a roll, the flaps, the time of day or the weather — and every visitor sees it at once. They cannot change the altitude or the attitude: those always come from the market.
{% endhint %}


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