I've operated mainly as a military pilot, both in the RAF and with the USN, but lately I've been a civvy. Whilst operating in an aircraft with a limited bang seat performance during and immediately after take-off I suppose it was nice not to have to do a sum when it all turned to s**t, but that sum could easily have been performed prior to the excitement. Since the height of ground is usually referenced to sea level it makes sense to me to use QNH. This is especially true if the RAF are planning to operate aircraft with reasonably modern equipment like EGPWS, where the terrain database is also referenced to QNH. We will make this clever system, which will be fitted to Nimrod MRA4, ASTOR and A400M (and anything else that comes after them), completely useless during the approach. Any long range aircraft operators will be used to using QNH anyway; asking US and many other controllers for QFE will cause more problems than it will cure. How clever is a system that: 1) Is different to everybody (just about) elses. 2) Disables equipment that is designed to protect you. 3) Requires two different pressure settings to be set during the transition to an approach. If we are flexible enough to use QNH when we go abroad or go to civil airfields, how about being flexible enough to allow those Groups within the RAF to use the system that is appropriate to their operations, rather than impose the limitations, largely brought about by fast jet operations, on everybody. If it is not FJ ops, but rather Training Command that has imposed QFE on everybody, then we have a serious case of the tail wagging the dog.