Alternative to EPR
Flying along the other night in a A346 (although this is irrelevant) I glanced across to the EPR gauges which read something like 1.050. I realized that the actual value didn't mean much to me. The relative position of the needle on the gauge means something but not the actual number. What am I missing here? This made me wonder if there might not be a better way of indicating actual thrust vs idle and max available thrust. Say for example, a thrust percentage gauge which compensates for alt/temp ect. I've flown EPR gauges on many different types (B727, B744, A319. A340) so I'm even surprised by my own question. Perhaps I'm an N1 man by heart.
Any thoughts?