QNH or QFE approach?

[frostbite]

I often hear local ATC ask this question.

Can't work out why they want to know - what difference does it make to them?

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

Probably so that they then know whether to pass the pilot the QNH or QFE!! I don't know of any other reason, but then I never wore a blue suit. I suppose at an airfield with a high elevation they might need to know so that appropriate separation can be provided around the aerodrome..

[almost professional]

Probably for an SRA-so the ATCO can give the correct advisory heights/altitudes

[dartagnan]

military student pilots use QFE.

[cavortingcheetah]

Altimetry is rather like alchemy, very troubling stuff!
A pilot wouldn't really use QFE when flying in the vicinity of an airfield. he would set those numbers on final approach so that his altimeter would read zero at the touchdown point/reference point. On a subsequent go around, as the gear came up, he would normally reset QNH.
You wouldn't use QFE at an airfield such as FAJS, that's Johannesburg. Most altimeters don't wind down far enough to enable an altimeter to read zero when the airfield elevation is about 5,000ft.
The British have had a love affair with QFE for decades. Most of the rest of the world wonders why. It's yet another altimeter setting to be confused with reality when the going gets tough. Perhaps it's the Light Brigade syndrome, suicide the hard way, such a divinely English way to die........

[frostbite]

Thanks for the rapid responses!

I think Mr A Professional has narrowed it right down - the aircraft probably were on SRAs when I've heard the question asked.

Being thick, I was wondering why a variation of around 30-50 feet would matter to an ATCO!

[chevvron]

Bren- you're obviously out of touch; the standard pressure setting for iaps now IS QNH,( and that includes SRA's) it's up to the pilot to request QFE if he needs it, but having said that, a lot of ATCOs still offer a choice! Radar controllers must have advisory heights and altitudes available for SRA's