On Feb 6, 10:04 pm, Thomas Borchert
wrote:
Chris,

There's a couple of other differences that spring to mind as I type
this -

Worldwide, there's a ton.

I am starting to realise that! How does someone get on going across
Europe? I presume it's only the French who actively dislike speaking
English on the radio, but there's gotta be lots of traps for young
players...


our flight levels start at 13,000 feet versus 18000 in the
US.. It is 18000, right??

Ours start at 5000 feetin Germany. And coming back down, the transition
level is given by ATC, depending on QNH (err, altimeter setting). It is
either FL60,70 or 80, whichever is closest to, but above 5000 feet.

Wow, that's low - not many mountains there, right??



And we use the English Q codes and the US doesn't.. We use QNH for
our altimeter setting, and QFE for altimeter setting that makes the
field elevation zero.

Not only that, we also use SI units for that, IOW Hectopascal, not
inches Hg.

Our units are all mixed up - we use knots for speed, feet for
altitude, but metres for runway length and visibility and as you
pointed out, hectopascals for QNH. Although at least one of our club
planes has a dual scale altimeter. Not terribly useful here, but there
you go!

This country is also a bit different geographically - at a lot of
places, especially in the North island, you can see from one side to
the other at quite a low altitude.. Hard to get lost, all you gotta
do is head east or west and you can follow the coast home..
And thats why our cruising levels are designated north/south as
opposed to the east/west of other countries.
Oh, and the air is nice and clean here, an average day is 50km vis,
I've seen it as high as 100km! Makes it easy to go somewhere with a
landmark like a mountain, you can see it an hour before you get to
it!!!



In Russia, IIRC they still use meters for altitude.

Yep, so all those Yak 52's that are now coming into this country all
have screwy instruments..


--
Thomas Borchert (EDDH)