ATC Altimeter Settings

O. Sami Saydjari wrote:
You should get the altimeter setting for the airport nearest your
location which has weather reporting.

So, if ATC gives you a setting on initial contact out of the airport you
just took off from, you use the airport's setting, not ATC's?

I think I may have confused you with some sloppy wording. What I
meant was, "The altimeter setting ATC gives you will mostly likely be
for the airport nearest your current location".

The bottom line is anytime ATC gives me an altimeter setting, I reset
my altimeter to whatever the controller gives me.

Or do you just listen to every AWOS/ASOS enroute
and change to the closest one?

Well, I do that too. Maybe not *every* one, but on a long flight, I
will certainly tune in the occassional ATIS as I go by airports. It's
also a good way to stay aware of weather trends; if the altimeter
settings keep going down, you know you're flying into worsening weather.

What do you consider "quite different"? Unless there's some severe
weather going on, it's unusual to have to change the setting more than
a couple of 1/100's at a time.

I have seen differences of 0.5 inches....that is alot!

0.5 inches is a HUGE altimter setting change. Are you sure about
that?