Ace Rewrite

Chapter 5: Atmosphere and Speed

Altitude is a height above the local QNH, which is current pressure corrected to sea level.
Essentially it is your real height above sea level.

FL is your height above the standard 1013.25mb datum, not corrected for local surface pressure.
It is your density altitude.

In ISA, the standard air density is 1225 g/m3 at sea level.

Millibars are not evenly spaced out at 30 feet, this is an oversimpli cation. The true milibar height is found
by the formula:
absolute temperature* + actual temperature
96 × *= OAT + 273
pressure at current altitude

There are 0.0295 inHg to a millibar/hectopascal.

When ying a FL, to calculate your actual height above terrain, you need to:
1. Find the di erence between local QNH and 1013.25
2. Convert this pressure di erence into a height di erence - 1mb = 30 feet
3. Add or subtract this height from your FL.

Ex. At FL 140 local QNH is 1000mb: So your real altitude is 390 feet lower than your ight level, 13610 feet.

Barometric pressure error means that when an aircraft enters an area with lower actual pressure, the
altimeter reads higher than true altitude.

ISA temperature at an altitude : 15 + (altitude in thousands × −2)

ie. 27,000’: 15 + (27 × −2) = (15 − 54) = -39ºC

Use this method to calculate current ISA deviation.

The most common non-standard density errors are: Altitude error “From high to low (temperatures) look
out below (because altimeter is over-reading)” and Airspeed error.

1
Dynamic pressure (IAS) = ρTAS 2
2
CAS is IAS corrected for instrument and pressure errors.
EAS is CAS corrected for compressibility error.
TAS is EAS corrected for temperature and pressure (density) error.

LSS = 38.94 absolute temperature therefore, as temperature decreases, so does LSS.

Temperature is the main in uence on Mach num.
Mach Number = TAS / LSS

Descending at constant TAS, IAS increases.

Climbing at constant IAS, TAS increases.
Climbing at constant IAS, Mach increases.
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 If you y at constant IAS into a warmer area, TAS will increase.
(ie. see the altitude axis as pressure, a factor of temperature)

If two aircraft at di erent levels are ying at the same mach number, the lower aircraft will have a higher
TAS, CAS and IAS.
(think of this as a ‘descent at constant mach’ question)

When climbing through an isothermal layer at constant TAS: mach number stays the same, as it is a factor
of TAS and LSS (temperature). IAS decreases because density decreases with altitude.

If an aircraft climbs through an inversion layer at constant TAS: IAS decreases more than normal due to the
compound reduction in density of altitude+temperature increase.
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