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Old 25th Sep 2008, 12:39
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Contacttower
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Temperature doesn't really come in to it as such. Say the pressure is 1025 or something (which may indicate it is hotter than a standard day but not always) and you are at an airfield 360ft AMSL. You set 1025 and you have the true altitude AMSL displayed. If you then to set 1013 you have wound the altimeter back 360ft and is now reading 0ft...which would be your pressure altitude. Temperature only comes into it in terms of its incidental effect on pressure.

On a slightly different point.... the altimeter itself is affected by temperature a bit....in very cold temperatures it will under read a bit and over read a bit when hot (there is altimeter correction table in FAR/AIM I think) but the effect is very small and generally disregarded for operations at normal temperatures.
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