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It’s a pressure-sensitive barometer, but instead of telling the pilot how much the air pressure has changed, it shows its readings in feet (or meters). This device doesn’t measure the distance to the ground-it measures air pressure. Pretty much every aircraft has a sensitive altimeter onboard. But these only work below 2,500 feet or so, and only the biggest planes have them. There are radio altimeters on large aircraft like airliners that measure the plane’s height above the ground. A plane doesn’t naturally know how high it is. To do all of these things, they need to know how high they are.īut measuring altitude is a tricky business. A pilot needs to clear obstacles, fly over mountains, and maintain safe separation from other planes. It’s clear that pilots need to be concerned with altitude, right? Few things could seem more important than knowing how high the airplane is flying. To make things easier for certain purposes, pilots refer to their height above 29.92 inHg, which is the pressure altitude. The standard pressure at sea level is 29.92 inHg, but it moves around depending on the weather. Instead of referencing something physical, like sea level or ground level, pressure altitude is the height above standard pressure. Pressure Altitude Versus Density Altitude.Why Pressure Altitude is Important to Performance.
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