Two questions regarding altitude

[Guest allblack]

Hi.Hopefully someone can help. I have two questions regarding altitude in FS2K2.1/I'm flying a default 737 to SLLP. Being the highest airport in the world, I'm at FL300, and looking down at the very close ground about 50 miles out.Question:Obviously I'm 30000 ft above sea level, but is there any way I can tell my height above GROUND level? Must be about 7000 feet.2/Same flight, I'm hitting the 'B' key fairly often so my barometer reading is in line with what ATC thinks I should be doing, and every time I hit it, I'm all of a sudden 20 feet above FL300, and dropping accordingly. No problem there, happens all the time.Then ATC pipes in and tells me to "expedite my climb to FL300"!!!Hang on, I'm hitting the 'B' key, and I'm descending to FL300, but ATC tells me to climb. It tells me about three more times, then throws its toys outta the cot and I'm suddenly having my IFR flight plan cancelled.Thanks very much!Am I misunderstanding the whole 'B' key/baro reading thing?I though that climbing or descending in line with using the 'B' key would be in line with what ATC thinks? If I'm coming down to FL300, why is it telling me to expedite my climb?? Surely I'm too high and I need to descend?Looking forward to someone's words of wisdom, because if I can't sort this out, I'm never going to get my head around IFR navigation.ThanksAllblack

[Guest]

Lets see if I can help:1. Is there any way I can tell my height above ground level?Yes and No. Some planes/panels have a "radar altimeter" guage. It determines your distance from the ground with radar echoes. Also, you could find out the altidude at an airfield underneath you and do a little math. There is not really any other way to determine your altitude above ground level (AGL).2. Am I misunderstanding the whole 'B' key/baro reading thing?There is whats called a transition altitude (FL180 or 18,000 ft.) here in the US. At this point all airplanes set there altimeter to standard pressure (29.92). This helps ATC with seperation since everyone is reading the same numbers, and there is not anywhere in the US that terrain becomes an issue at this altidude.It is a limitation of FS2k2 that any time you are above FL180, regardless of your height AGL, that you should use standard pressure.Hope this helps!-------------Michael

[Guest]

Allback,every airport has a so called "transition altitude".let's say an airport has a transition altitude of 4500 feet (you can find this on charts of that airport).if an aircraft departs,it will have its altimeter set to the correct current pressure (like you said,you can do this by pushing "b").but when the aircraft passes that transition altitude during its climb,the pilot will have to set his altimeter to the standard pressure setting of 29.29 (1013MB).so above the transition altitude,you must not push the "b" button,but you must set your altimeter to 29.29.when you pass the transition altitude of your destination airport (actually then it's the transition level,but we won't make it too complicated),you set the current pressure in your altimeter again by pressing b.now,in the US the transition altitude is everywhere FL180.as FS2K2 only has a transition altitude of FL180 in the whole world,you'll have only to press the b key while your beneath FL180.hope this helps a bitp.s.:every altitude beneath transition altitude is called in thousands of feet,e.g. 5000 feet,above trans.:flightlevels

[alastairmonk 0]

I guess this is why flight plans are filed. If you know your destination (SLLP) and you know its elevation:Name: El Alto IntlIATA: LPBICAO: SLLPLa Paz, BoliviaLatitude: 16

[Guest]

I think both of these have been answered already although just to add to them:1) FSFlightMax will give you height above ground level graphically as well as quite a few other "useful" displays.2) Although I don't use IFR (since it is a bit of a pain), when you contact a "center" and you are below TL "center" will give you the barometer setting to use, as others have pointed out above TL you set to 29.92 - if you press the "B" key then it will set to the local setting rather than the one ATC is telling you to use.If you use "real weather" then you can come across some strange variations in pressure - I was flying in Alaska yesterday & the Commander I was flying started climbing like mad (1000's of feet)because of the variations in pressure, I assume this was a error in the data, but it was quite disconcerting !!!!