You will probably find that helicopter pilots will find this more useful than fixed wing pilots, due to the fact that helicopters tend to fly lower, slower, and land off-airfield where elevation isnt so readily available compared to airfields where elevation is published in the AIP / Pooleys etc.

Helicopter Performance Class 1 calculation is one area to benefit from this. Situational awareness while flying can be improved too. As a pilot, I'd like to have the information to hand, and make my own decisions how I'm going to use it. If it's not there, that just reduces my decision making ability.

As we all know there are less helicopter vs fixed wing pilots so our voice tends to get drowned out by the majority fixed wingers, both in software and in regulation.

As a developer myself, I understand the balance between bloated software and simple UI. This addition leans more toward simple than bloated.

+x

plume_tray - 11/24/2017 9:04:59 AM

You will probably find that helicopter pilots will find this more useful than fixed wing pilots, due to the fact that helicopters tend to fly lower, slower, and land off-airfield where elevation isnt so readily available compared to airfields where elevation is published in the AIP / Pooleys etc. Helicopter Performance Class 1 calculation is one area to benefit from this. Situational awareness while flying can be improved too. As a pilot, I'd like to have the information to hand, and make my own decisions how I'm going to use it. If it's not there, that just reduces my decision making ability. As we all know there are less helicopter vs fixed wing pilots so our voice tends to get drowned out by the majority fixed wingers, both in software and in regulation.As a developer myself, I understand the balance between bloated software and simple UI. This addition leans more toward simple than bloated.

‌You can add gyro pilots ... 

Well, I am a gyro oilot, too. And I don't need this functionality.

-- Chris.

I can confirm that we've enhanced the PLOG to include elevation, SR and SS times even when the takeoff/landing point is not an aerodrome. It therefore works for user waypoints and in fact any waypoint. Hopefully that will help our helicopter pilots.

I'm not ready to commit to the proposed ELEV mode on the altitude readout though. Would I be right in summarising the main part of the requirement to tell the exact terrain elevation at your current position as being that the GPS altitude reading itself isn't reliable, so there's a desire for elevation so a calculation can be used with your altitude as derived from the pressure altimeter? The objective being to use this primarily to avoid airspace whose vertical limits are defined AGL. ‌‌

Hi Tim

That's the requirement, but not quite the objective. Airspace isn't an issue as that's always based upon the local QNH therefore the altimeter is fine. The real objectives could be many, including:
- In mountain flying, ensuring that you have adequate ground clearance for the forecasted winds to avoid the repercussions of downdrafts (the plog change will be useful for this as we can now check the height of unpublished crossing points)
- A guide to remain legal when flying low
- A guide to remain legal when instructors are choosing go-around heights for PFLs
- A second check for safe altitudes when in marginal VFR or IFR off-airways

Hi. I am a fairly new pilot (1 year since my skilltest) and I fly mostly in mountain areas. I have some experience doing low level flying (not for the more experienced guys), both SAR and once flying people looking for reindeer. I always stay on the high side as I am very cautious of downdrafts and such while doing manouvers close to high mountains. I only recently acquired SD, as I've been using AirNavPro until now. I find ANP very cluttered, at least for higher level flying, but on my last trip in the mountains, I missed the AGL feature in ANP, which gives your height AGL as this post suggests. We all know this is an VFR app and the shortcomings of measuring elevation with it, but I would find it useful. I will probably still use ANP for this reason when doing this kind of flying.

There is another potential solution. Have SkyDemon read barometric altitude directly rather than use GPS altitude. After all, we fly on barometric, not GPS altitude. Then the height readout would be as accurate as altimeter-elevation, but without the arithmetic?

Cat Burton
SFI
Aeros Cardiff

Lars, SkyDemon does have a height reading. Simply touch the Altitude instrument to change it to Height. That isn't what this thread is about.