On Sat, 28 Jan 2012 09:16:27 -0800, T8 wrote:

QFE is so wrong in so many ways... it's amazing to me that this keeps
popping up. I really don't give a fig about certain well known friends
of mine that insist on doing this despite the inevitable communication
problems "Xray Lima, say altitude" / "I'd rather not, thanks" (:-)),
but if there are still instructors teaching students QFE, they really
need to be taken to the woodshed and this needs to be stopped.


Understood.

FWIW I carry two altimeters, a standard mechanical one and my SDI C4 vario
which is also an altimeter. I normally set the mechanical to QFE and the
C4 to 1013mb. This works well since my local airspace designations are
split roughly 50:50 between height AGL and flight levels with a slight
excess of AGL.

We're taught to ignore the altimeter in the circuit in favour of looking
out the window because this is all that works for a field landing, just
as all UK glider landings are effectively short-field landings for the
same reason. Further, very few glider fields share with GA so what the
altimeter has to say around the airfield is unimportant: its interesting
to see how high the winch launch was and if you're well above winch
height if you want to cross the field but that's about it.



--
martin@ | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
org |