Scud - and Delta Tango...
Despite knowing the answer for once (not usual for me
) I was not authorised to play with this one...however, there is a thread running on ATC about pilot R/T phraseology...and this thread is about non-USA altimeter settings....
The point I was trying to make was that there are three distinct phrases to be used for the various altimeter settings - height, altitude and flight level.
Irrespective of the "vertical distance of the aircraft above the Earths surface", you cannot have a cruise
altitude which is refered to as a
flight level (Option 2 in Scuds original post.)
When cleared from FL260 to a vertical distance using a QNH (as per the example) it should be "descend to
altitude 6000 feet, QNH 1015.
...and' likewise, if in D.T.'s example of being cleared to a "
height UNDER the transition layer", the word
altitude should not be used - the word
height, should.