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RPS and QNH mixed messages

Just when I thought I had the differences between the UK and North America sorted. WTF. This is nuts. Second to what Skydriller said!!

As a foreigner, if I heard ‘regional pressure setting’ on the radio I would have interpreted that as British Speak for QNH. In fact, by the grace of god, I have apparently not infringed whilst flying in the UK. Every day is a school day.

Sans aircraft at the moment :-(, United Kingdom

Just avoid flying with RPS altogether. I have no idea why after 15 years of people complaining about it that it’s still there.

RPS/QFE are solutions to problems that appear to exist elsewhere (hitting terrain) but not to those in the UK problem (airspace busts), “Mt” Ben Nevis is barely 5000ft

How about one transition level at FL80 (or FL120) and single airport QNHs, those flying IFR on Altitudes should be able to read elevations on the map?For the regular GA flyers, the problem will be solved: they fly in days where Flight Levels are higher than Altitudes, in the same days the ground is clearly visible (to legally fly in low altitudes they need to keep surface in sight anyway )

Last Edited by Ibra at 10 Feb 11:25
Paris/Essex, France/UK, United Kingdom

I’ve been given to understand that the RAF are in favour of retaining RPS for low level sorties.

Egnm, United Kingdom

Let the RAF retain it. They can request it if they need it, millitary controllers can give it to military aircraft on UHF.

For everyone else, it should have not merely been deprecated but got rid of years ago. Train pilots to ask for the most appropriate QNH.

Andreas IOM

It’s always fascinating to read about some of the UK particularities.
As said before, RPS is not in the European Syllabus, and hadn’t it been for the military, I’d never have heard of that concept.
And again there seems to be a different name for the same thing in the UK. In Germany, RPS is called “Area QNH”- aren’t we all NATO, by the way? Can’t they agree on one term?!

Anyway, it has never crossed my mind to use it in a small airplane. I only ever thought of the area QNH as something for low-flying fast jets that simply can’t ask for and dial in local QNHs quick enough to keep up with their speed.

Train pilots to ask for the most appropriate QNH.

That’s what I was taught in 2014, and German FIS also explicitly hands out the QNH of the nearest controlled airport, e.g. “Wittmund QNH 1008” or “Hannover QNH 1010”

Last Edited by CharlieRomeo at 13 Feb 11:43
EDXN, ETMN, Germany

“Fascinating” is the word

The “problem” with continually getting the nearest QNH is that most CAS owners don’t readily (or at all) offer a service OCAS. For example, if flying near the London TMA, near Gatwick EGKK, you would have to dial the EGKK ATIS. Of course you can do that, but it is never trained, and the usual pilot guides PPLs use won’t list Gatwick info because of zero GA using it.

So if flying from say SE UK to SW UK you might get QNH from ATISs frequencies at Lydd, Shoreham, Solent (Southampton) or Bournemouth, then there is a gap (Boscombe maybe), Exeter, Newquay. You will have to dial up each of these, or call them up for a service.

It’s ok but you have to work at it. And the procedure is not trained in the PPL. The other option is to fly way below any CAS base, say 1000ft below.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

flybymike wrote:

I’ve been given to understand that the RAF are in favour of retaining RPS for low level sorties.

Hard to believe as these are done bellow the radar and even so controllers don’t give much importance to “vertical separation”, few have secondary radars or transponders now claiming they need RPS to fly at 300ft is a good one…

Last Edited by Ibra at 13 Feb 12:57
Paris/Essex, France/UK, United Kingdom

Peter wrote:

The “problem” with continually getting the nearest QNH is that most CAS owners don’t readily (or at all) offer a service OCAS. For example, if flying near the London TMA, near Gatwick EGKK, you would have to dial the EGKK ATIS.

It would sufficient if the UK’s FIS used radar (to incentivize pilots to remain on FIS in instead of some local ATC unit) and had a screen which shows the FISO the current QNHs of all airports, so he can read the appropriate one out to the pilot. That is how the German FIS works.

It all comes down to the fragmented ATC puzzle that you have in the UK, without any wholistic approach.

Mainz (EDFZ) & Egelsbach (EDFE), Germany

Peter wrote:

So if flying from say SE UK to SW UK you might get QNH from ATISs frequencies at Lydd, Shoreham, Solent (Southampton) or Bournemouth, then there is a gap (Boscombe maybe), Exeter, Newquay. You will have to dial up each of these, or call them up for a service.

Or use an ADL device and have the METARs all at one, sorry could not resist ;-)

www.ing-golze.de
EDAZ
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