I simply fly >FL210 next time 
Honestly I missed that as well, but am confident, that it’s going to be a no brainer, when it’s working well in the US. Although I’m currently VFR only I enjoyed flying the flightlevels as well.
That’s one of the nice features of the DFC90/100 and GFC700 autopilots: You change the QNH setting and the plane automatically re-captures the set altitude.
That’s one of the nice features of the DFC90/100 and GFC700 autopilots: You change the QNH setting and the plane automatically re-captures the set altitude.
Are there any autopilots which have ALT mode and which don’t do that?
The QNH setting is a multiturn pot inside the (encoding) altimeter which feeds the autopilot computer which then adjusts the desired altitude automatically. It is a slow process – of the order of 1 millibar in 10 seconds.
So there is nothing for the pilot to do apart from setting the new QNH.
Just to put this into perspective: There is currently no EASA effort anymore to harmonize transition levels in Europe. There was an EASA working group in 2011 which in the end decided that no action will be taken for the time being.
What Markus probably refers to is that in the UK there is currently a (second) consultation underway about what they want to do in the UK. See here.
Peter wrote:
Are there any autopilots which have ALT mode and which don’t do that?
Peter wrote:
Are there any autopilots which have ALT mode and which don’t do that?
I wasn’t aware that the KAP140 did that. The documentation doesn’t mention it. I’ll have to try in the air sometime.
What would be the benefit of the TA being 18000 ft?
If you want to harmonize, you can’t do it much lower because of terrain
Normally, altitude capture needs an encoder of some sort. If this is an altimeter (e.g. KEA130A) then that will also feed the QNH to the AP. If it is a dumb encoder then you won’t have that. So I would look at the type of altimeter. Altitude hold is normally done using a barometric sensor which is stable but not accurate, so the encoder is still monitored as a slow background process.
I would think all “glass cockpit” systems will do this transparently.
But if your AP doesn’t have capture (also called “altitude preselect”) then you will have to implement a QNH change manually, by adjusting the aircraft altitude manually and pressing ALT again (or some similar procedure).
I think a uniform 18k TA would be fine, but as Bosco says this may not be real. I spoke to Eric Sivel c. 2009, back in the days he was “running EASA” and he said any airspace unification is a political impossibility, due to national sovereignity issues. There is so much more to do in European airspace which is way more important (like, Italy 
).
An Avidyne glass cockpit with the S-TEC55X autopilot will not recapture altitude in case of a QNH change … AFAIK
Yes. But no big deal either: turning the righthand knob of the AP one click up or down will make the airplane climb/descend by 30 feet.
