In-fact , one of my old pilots wanted to go higher than the P3 would let him when we were near flying vertical at 31k, after we were flying on our way to Sicily, someone on the radio asked to be cleared to flight level 6 5 0 which is 65,000FT, ATC said yea the entire continent is cleared at that altitude, if you can get up there, have fun. Then next thing we heard was , "Roger, DragonLady 63 now descending to flight level 6 5 0 " Within six months my pilot had transfered to the air force as a major and now fly's on the dragonlady birds. When i was in iraq last time while flying we heard him talking over the ATC freq. there and he recognized our voices and had us switch to common freq. and we BSed with him for about a hour and a half as he fly over the top of us at 70,000 + ft.