1. Shotone. QFE is no better or worse than QNH at giving you your height above terrain. One tells you your height above sea level the other above runway threshold. If I have Valley QFE set (for example) it is not going to stop me flying into Snowdon any more than the Holyhead QNH if I am stupid enough to be tooling around at low level with low SA. Since there are no airfields in the UK below sea level the worst that could happen, if I accidentally left QFE set, is that I would be higher than I think I am whilst blundering around in Snowdonia.
2. Boudreaux Bob. I hear your argument but let's use the example of a display pilot flying an aerobatic routine over an airfield. Would you rather know your height above sea level or your height above the runway? Clearly my thoughts are influenced by a well known example at Mountain Home (where QFE would not have been practical) but in the UK it would work very nicely. Landing in poor weather has similar connotations and I like knowing my height above the runway whilst having SA on surrounding terrain.
For the record I currently fly in Canada where QFE is not utilised or practical (the highest airfield I have been to recently was Rocky Mountain Municipal in Boulder and QFE sure as hell wouldn't work there) but I have flown a lot in the UK. I can cope fine with either system and I really don't care one way or another but I really can't work out why some people think QFE is unsafe.
I guess it depends what you've grown up with. Everyone in this country drives on the wrong side of the road but I've managed to adapt. Mostly.
BV
