setting altimeter

[B1reum33]

Here's one of my peeves of the sim.

After reaching cruise altitude, ATC will contact me and tell me that I need to expidite my climb to whatever FL. Eventually my IFR gets cancelled and I swear at my computer. I know this problem is due to me not being able to set the altimeter to the correct setting. I constantly update it as ATC contacts me, but eventually, I lose whatever value it should be and frequently become a drifter. My quesion is, how do I keep my altimeter up to date? ATIS only works so far, and the ATC contact commands have their limits. This is starting to drive me insane!

Thanks!

[Richard_UK]

Below 18,000 the easy way to set the altimeter is just to press the 'B' key on your keyboard which will make sure it is set correctly. Of course, above 18,000 it should be set to the default level of 29.92.

Are you sure you are resetting at 18,000 as ATC will not cancel your flightplan whilst still climbing???

Richard

[topboy]

There is a thing called the transition altitude(TA) in aviation.
This is 18,000 feet, and the altimeter needs to be calibrated to use the transition altitude. To do this the general TA setting around the world is 29.92 QNH or 1031 millibars. Enter this in to your alitmeter at 18000 feet and it should be ok.

The reason for this is that there are alot of various different pressures as you fly around different parts of a country or the world. To overcome this in the jetways or IFR flying, this standered was devoloped so that if flying the jetways, there would be no need to change pressure reading as all the jetways fly at all there respective altitudes.

hope this helps

Topboy

[Simon Evans]

Good advice Topboy...

Use FSUIPC..? Then it incorporates a hot key selection for setting 29.92 at any time. I use Ctrl-Shift-B, as opposed to just `B` for setting the below-18,000 barometric pressure.

A clue from ATC is the term `Flight Level` - this is the definition of an altitude from Standard barometric pressure, and has nothing to do with the height above ground, or the effective pressure altitude. This is what enables the definition of an `airway` as aircraft at FL190 are all are flying at the same indicated altitude of 19,000 feet, not 19,212 or 18,500. ATC is intolerant of deviations from FL and this is why the IFR is being cancelled. As real as it gets...

The only annoying thing about this is that TA varies around the World and is not an `industry standard` 18,000 feet. Here in the UK it can be as low as 3,000 feet, but there is no local variation in the sim.



Simon Evans

[B1reum33]

My sincere thanks

[Nickster]

Topboy,
Standard pressure setting is 1013 millibars ,
or at least I hope it is. I have my final Interview to become
an Air Traffic Controller tommorow.

[FlytheSpitfire]

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON Jan-15-02 AT 04:18PM (EDT)[/font][p]Here's another tip when flying below FL180. Below FL180, we must use the most current Altimeter setting. If on a long flight, every so often, use the "Shift-Z" function, and display your altitude (the red numbers in the top left hand corner). If your altimeter reading is out as compared to the "Shift-z" reading, simply adjust the altimeter until it matches the "shift-Z" reading. This will keep you in the ball park, when flying below FL180.

Cheers