Originally Posted by
Say again s l o w l y
It can just create confusion which can be minimised by sticking to QFE approaches as the rest of the industry uses.
Sticking to standard practices can help cut down confusion.
That little bit of the industry where you live perhaps. QFE is unheard of in the greather part of the world. In large parts of the world, it is not possible to set QFE.
Use something that you can use everywhere, can always obtain and will always clearly show your altitude that you can compare to obstacles. Even the obstacles on aerodrome charts are shown AMSL.
As for confusion. Some airfields have circuit height of 800ft, some 1000ft, one I know is 1200ft and another uses 600ft, while yet another uses 1500ft and all are in the southern central part of England.
Prior to operating to another airfield, a pilot should note the level required for the circuit. It is simply a number that they will try to fly at on the altimeter. If that figure is 1700ft QNH then where is the confusion.
The only time I got close to obstacles was flying with a pilot who used QFE but forgot to set the altimeter joining the circuit resulting in the aircraft being 600ft lower than it should have been downwind. With a 800ft AAL downwind level, one would have expected the proximity of the trees and ground to be ringing alarm bells but no, they even initiated their descent out on base leg!..........all on a VFR flight!
Regards,
DFC