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| Flight levels in UK | |
Graeme Brown   1st Oct 2009 22:32:59 | I notice the guys doing ATC tonight are using flight levels rather than altitude. This caught me out a bit as I thought that flight levels were only used above the standard altimeter level at 18,000ft. This is the case in the US at least, is it different in the UK?
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| Matthew Firth 1st Oct 2009 23:14:53 | Flight levels are used above the airports transition altitude which varies from airport to airport, but 6000 feet isn't uncommon for the UK. This is different to the American system which is 18'000ft flat.
Also East Bound Flights have Odd Flight Levels West Bound Flights have Even Flight Levels Matthew |
Richard Stuchfield  1st Oct 2009 23:29:34 | And in addition, altitude is flown on the QNH given to you by the controller for the airspace you are in whereas Flight Levels are ALWAYS flown on altimeter setting of 1013mb (29.92 in) regardless of where you are.
Richard |
Dave Wave  1st Oct 2009 23:30:59 | I believe 18000 feet is used in the US so planes clear the rocky mountains.
We also use QNH instead of Altimeter, in fact so does most of the world but fsx was written by Americans! That's the reason I started hacking FSX to get QNH in the control tower. Free for anyone to use in the download section for those of you who haven't seen it. |
Jack Shaw  2nd Oct 2009 23:33:43 | http://academy.ivao.aero/node/303 |
Victor Finstad 5th Oct 2009 15:43:26 | The actual altitude where FlightLevels occur (Transition Level TL), depends on the local altimeter/QNH setting and Transition Altitude (TA). An example:
EGNX East Midlands. TA is 4000 ft. QNH is 1028. TL is decided by ATC according to this formula: QNH 1028-1013=15 / 15*30=450 / 450 + TA 4000ft.= 4450 which rounds up to TL45 or FL45. (note that 30 is a constant factor) The use of FL is basically for IMC conditions where local settings may be very different. To "push tin" effectively around, FL is used at lower altitudes here than in US, where local settings dont change that much. |
| Victor Finstad 5th Oct 2009 17:52:28 | And I must add this. For ATC to ensure minimum vertical separation(1000 ft.) in the example above, TL must be set to FL55. |
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