Narrative : B767-300THIS IS A NARRATIVE OF THE SEQUENCE OF EVENTS THAT LED TO AN ALTDEV ON FEB/TUE/02, LHR-JFK. THEALTDEV STEMMED FROM AN INADVERTENT DEV FROM SOP. OUR FLT DEPARTED EGLL ON RWY 27R, WOBUN2F DEP. AFTER FLYING AT 6000 FT FOR APPROX 10 MINS, WE WERE INSTRUCTED BY LHR CTL TO TURN R,CLB 8000 FT. I WAS HAND FLYING AS WE INITIATED A VNAV CLB AS WE HAD PREVIOUSLY BRIEFED PRIOR TODEP. AS THE ACFT WAS CLBING TO 8000 FT, LONDON CTL REQUESTED FLT LEVEL LEAVING. AT THIS POINT,BOTH PLTS RESET THEIR ALTIMETERS FROM 0093 MILLIBARS TO 1013.2 MILLIBARS. THE INDICATED ALTCLBED TO APPROX 8450 FT. LONDON THEN INSTRUCTED US TO DSND AND TURN L TO APPROX 360 DEG HDG.NO TCASII ACTIVATIONS OCCURRED. ALTHOUGH THE TRANSITION LEVEL WAS BRIEFED NUMEROUS TIMESBEFORE TKOF, BECAUSE OF WORKLOAD AND TASK PRIORITIZATION PROBS, ALL OF US HAD LET OURSITUATIONAL AWARENESS DETERIORATE. IN RETROSPECT, SEVERAL CRM/SOP DEVS CAN BE DETECTEDAND ANALYZED. SITUATIONAL AWARENESS: FAILURE TO RESET 1013.2 MILLIBARS IMMEDIATELY AFTER THECTLR GAVE THE TURN/CLB INSTRUCTION TO 8000 FT. WORKLOAD MGMNT: AS THE PF, IT WOULD HAVEIMPROVED MY CREW'S PERFORMANCE IF I HAD BEEN USING THE AUTOPLT. THERE WOULD HAVE BEEN LESSWORKLOAD ON THE PNF AND I COULD HAVE DIVERTED MORE ATTN TO THE SITUATIONAL AWARENESSASPECTS OF THE FLT. AT THE TIME I WAS TRYING TO KEEP MY PROFICIENCY CURRENT ON HAND FLYING. INTHE FUTURE, I WILL MORE CAREFULLY EVALUATE MY AUTOPLT/HAND FLYING OPTIONS. HUMAN FACTORS: 1)HIGH WORKLOAD FROM LHR CTL IN RESPECT TO HDG CHANGES AND TA'S. 2) MANEUVERING -- SLOWINGATC INITIATED TURN TO AVOID CUMULUS CLOUDS. 3) LOW PRESSURE OF 0093 MILLIBARS MAGNIFIED THETRANSITION ERROR. 4) NONSTANDARD TRANSITION LEVELS, DEPENDING ON COUNTRY, ON CLB, AND ONDSCNT. 5) FAST CTLR INSTRUCTIONS. WHEN NOT ACCUSTOMED TO FOREIGN ACCENT, THE FAST PACE OFINSTRUCTIONS SOMETIMES REQUIRES A MOMENT TO PROCESS. MANY TIMES, ALL 3 CREW MEMBERS WILLCONFER AND DISCUSS WHAT WE THINK WE HEARD, BEFORE READBACK. SUPPLEMENTAL INFO FROM ACN539620: AFTER SEVERAL HDG CHANGES, THE THIRD PLT ASKED TO RANK THE IRU'S. PRIOR TO SELECTINGTHE FMC PAGE, WE RECEIVED A CLRNC FOR A R TURN AND A CLB TO 8000 FT. I SET 8000 FT INTO THE ALTWINDOW AND POINTED TO THE ALT, AND THE FO POINTED AS WELL. I WENT DOWN TO THE FMC CLB PAGEAND SELECTED CLB DIRECT AS BRIEFED. I THEN SELECTED THE FMC PAGE TO RANK IRU'S. DURING THISPROCESS, THE CTLR ASKED FOR OUR ALT. WE THEN NOTICED WE HAD FAILED TO SET 1013 MILLIBARS OUTOF 6000 FT. WORKLOAD MGMNT. CAPT DID NOT PRIORITIZE HIS WORKLOAD AND WAS USING THE FMCLEAVING THE TRANSITION ALT. HIGH WORKLOAD FROM ATC WAS A FACTOR. HUMAN FACTORS INVOLVED:HIGH WORKLOAD FROM ATC, HIGH RADIO TFC FROM LONDON. A DIFFERENT TRANSITION ALT THAN NORMAL.SUPPLEMENTAL INFO FROM ACN 539622: CAPT WAS SELECTING CLB DIRECT IN THE FMC SO THAT FO COULDUSE VNAV. I ASKED CAPT TO PULL UP THE POS REF PAGE SO I COULD BEGIN THE CLASS II CHKLIST PRIORTO COAST OUT. AFTER A FEW MOMENTS IN THE CLB, ATC QUERIED OUR ALT.Synopsis :AN ALTDEV OVERSHOOT OCCURS WHEN A B767-300 FLC FAILS TO RESET THEIR ALTIMETERS TO QNE WHENLEAVING 6000 FT FOR 8000 FT ON THE DEP PROC FROM EGLL, FO.Crew Resource Management MY QUESTION= Why is the transion level not standard!!

What do you mean when you ask "Why is transistion level not standard"?Transition level is the lowest available flight level for use with 1013.25MB set on the altimeter. You set this as you pass transition altitude. The transition level depends on the difference in pressure between QNH at the airfield and 1013.25mb.If you have a large pressure differential, then at transition altitude, when you dial in 1013.25, you get a large change in altitude readout from the altimeter. For example:Let's say you departed on QNH 993MB and you're approaching a transition altitude of 5000ft.There's also someone above you at FL060...but he's got 1013mb set. The pressure difference from local QNH is 1013-993 = 20mb which is 600ft! So, the guy who is at FL060, his real altitude is 5400ft....which is 400ft above you!!! WAY TOO ILLEGAL! So, they decided that ATC must change the transition level according to the pressure changes so that at anytime, an aircraft at the transition altitude will have 1000ft clearance from an aircraft above the transition level. in this case, the transition level would be FL070 so anyone at FL070 would have a true altitude of 6400ft, and you at 5000ft would have 1400 vertical seperation.Hope this helpsJoe

Why is it not 18,000 feet everywhere?

Because Americans decided that they need their own.Transition level is the flight level where you change to local pressure setting while descending. It's different from transition altitude, which is the pressure altitude where you change to standard pressure setting while climbing. Obviously these two altitudes are same only when local QNH = std pressure. The reason why Europeans choose to convert to flight levels early (5000-6000ft most often) is unclear to me. Being a European, I'm glad about it though, because it's easier to handle flight levels in language, FMC and cognitively as well. I see no reason to wait until 18,000 to change to FL's, but there must be a good reason.Also, there must be a good reason as to why Europeans have lower TAs, and why they differ from location to other.Someone who knows, tell us :DTero

Thankyou for the replys! I figured it would be an ICAO standard, to ovoid confusion?

same question as:... why don't people speak Emglish everywhere?... why don't we have the same currency everywhere?... why don't we keep the right side of the road everywhere?... why not use kg/m/s everywhere?... and so on, and so on;-)Nicowww.nicokaan.nlhttp://www.pic767flyingclub.com/fc.php?vat...D1&a=pic767.jpg

Hi!Well unfortunately it's not that easy.In the US, you have a fixed transition altitude and a fixed transition level (ie 18000ft and FL180). What does this mean? The highest altitude ATC may give you (or the lowest FL) is always different to make sure the transition layer (the difference between 18000ft on local altimeter setting and 18000ft on standard setting) is at least 1000 ft.In Europe things are done differently. Here the transition altitude is fixed (in Germany 5000 ft) and the transition level differs according to air pressure to make sure the transition layer is at least 1000 ft "wide". In this situation you can always assign any altitude up to the transition altitude and any FL which is above the transition level.Now to the question why this isn't standard:In most European countries and most of the USA you can cruise at the lowest FL without running into terrain. I'm not sure if this applies throughout the US, but for example in Germany, it applies to everywhere except for the Alps. Note, over the Alps, you also have a higher transition level for this reason.What is better? Well, as long as you don't standardize it, it's better that the transition level is pretty low in Europe as otherwise aicraft flying from a country to another would have to change from FL to altitude and vice versa if they weren't flying higher. (If the TL would be 18000 ft as in the states)But no, the transition lever nor the transition altitude are ICAO standards. The only standard is that between the last allowed altitude and the first allowed flight level the difference has to be at least 1000 ft.Now I wonder how this works in Russia ;-)Regards,Mark

Well, I've never flown in Russia, nor have I been formally trained to fly in Russia, but I do have some old Jepps of Russian airports that were apparently qualified as alternates for use by UAL on their 747 routes back in the '90s, plus, I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night, so I will take a stab at it.It appears that the Russians like to use QFE when below the transition level, which means they set their altimeters to reference "0" at the nominal field elevation, regardless of the actual elevation above sea level, as opposed to QNH used in the west where you read height above sea level. And, of course they read altitude in meters. The transition alt/FL seems to be variable between different airports also, usually well below FL100.I suppose QFE is simpler if you were born and raised with it, since all the altitudes for succeeding fixes on the charts are pretty much the same everywhere, ie 900m, 600m, 200m, 100m etc. However on these Jepps written for a westerner, you've got to deal with three different conversions. QFE in metric, QFE in feet, and all that converted to QNH in feet for us westerners.Knowing all this, I'm sure now you are well armed to prevent yourself from driving your plane into the ground now, right?

If you read the ASRS report under Human Factors, Quote " NONSTANDARD TRANSITION LEVELS, DEPENDING ON COUNTRY" Even these qualifyed 767 crews see that something need's to be changed?