If flying VFR, flight levels would be 025, 065,125 etc flying 000-179 and 035,095,135 etc. Obviously, at altitudes above 12,000', one may want to carry breathing oxygen as ya don't want to suffer from hypoxia (it really is strange).

Technically, you are supposed to set to the field altimeter for approach. For me, personally, since my home base is so close to KIAD, I get a "Dulles Altimeter" read to me while talking to Potomac Tracon and its always the same as the home base. If you are flying to the actual large airport (i.e., the ones a 747 or MD-11 would typically serve), it is likely to have approach control and have it given to you well before you get to the tower. You are still supposed to listen to ATIS to get winds and the like, but honestly, ATIS can be an hour old, and can be no longer useful if the facility in charge of updating doesn't update it. I think automated ones update automatically based on observations. Personally , if I'm landing and its windy, I might ask tower for a "wind check" to give more current information on final. Pretty rare to need that kind of updating in a heavy, but it happens.

Ahm, ATIS is (better yet: should be...) updated every 30 minutes at :20 and :50, and when one of those manually voice-recorded ones was updated late in real life is was maybe by two or three minutes maximum. Again, not talking US here, don't know about their habits, so whoever can is invited to elaborate here. If conditions change significantly within these 30 minutes they will issue special reports. Like sometimes when a strong front comes in with a few CBs inside the QNH might change by >10hPa in an hour, for instance.Field altimeter makes a lot of sense, think of a baro-referenced CAT I ILS DA. There is no reason to reference your DA to something else than your destination field... LOL :rolleyes:Could think of some extreme example here: Say the pressure is continuously falling due to said front. You listen to the ATIS at :19 and set QNH accordingly. You conduct your approach almost half an hour later, (yeah you're flying single engine prop and you've had some headwinds to there...). Pressure has already dropped by ~5 hPa. Your DH should be 200', and you are flying CAT I and baro-referenced (no RA in that prop anyways har har). You don't happen to know how much the QNH has changed in the meantime. You descend towards your DA. Once you read DA on your altimeter, you are amazed to find yourself at a mere fifty feet above the ground, which is, whooops, a good height for CAT III (big whoops!) but not for you... Luck your QNH was "only" 30 minutes old. :( Again, quite a worst-case scenario but I think you get the point of how important current information should be. :(

as ya don't want to suffer from hypoxia (it really is strange).

Didcha try it? It sure must be something... :(:(

 

Didcha try it? It sure must be something... B):(

Actually, I have. Anyone who flies, at least in the Navy and Marines, be it suck and blows, trash haulers or if one is gonna be a rotorhead, has to go through flight physiology training and the altitude chamber and play games without the oxygen mask at 25,000', just like in An Officer and a Gentleman. I had the neat task of writing my name (they wanted it in cursive, but they couldn't read it so I had to print in block letters) then subtract 3 from 1000 and so forth and so forth. The answer is not 9997, 9994, 9991, 9988 etc. either, yet that is what I came up with.  :( :(

I have only read about it in the flying textbooks, but hypoxia sure does sound like a scary thing. I was shocked at how quick it can make you useless as a pilot.

I can attest that at 25,000', it does not take long for hypoxia to affect someone. I can only guess at what Payne Stewart and his crew went through as they went through all the stages of it.

Technically, you are supposed to set to the field altimeter for approach. For me, personally, since my home base is so close to KIAD, I get a "Dulles Altimeter" read to me while talking to Potomac Tracon and its always the same as the home base. If you are flying to the actual large airport (i.e., the ones a 747 or MD-11 would typically serve), it is likely to have approach control and have it given to you well before you get to the tower. You are still supposed to listen to ATIS to get winds and the like, but honestly, ATIS can be an hour old, and can be no longer useful if the facility in charge of updating doesn't update it. I think automated ones update automatically based on observations. Personally , if I'm landing and its windy, I might ask tower for a "wind check" to give more current information on final. Pretty rare to need that kind of updating in a heavy, but it happens.

Thanks for the info Doug, and all others. Sorry I haven't replied lately to give my thanks but I honestly haven't had the working brain cell available to put this all to memory. I think I'll start putting some of these answer on a text file in my backup folder for future ref. There's some good stuff here that I know I'll forget eventually. I have several more questions I wrote down on the train today, but should have the time to do some good reading and searching tonigh and will be sure to post anything I still can't figure out, thanks again guys!*As for the Hypoxia goes. I have taken several flights in some very very cold C141's and C130's. I wonder if I ever had it? I normally tried to sleep through it and the cold would put me out fast. In my military days and being stationed in Baumholder Germany and Fort Drum NY, I had hypothermia 7 times (and thats only the documented times haha).In my Scuba hobby I have gotten nitrogen narcosis a ton of times also. But at least thats fun to have :)

Actually, I have. Anyone who flies, at least in the Navy and Marines, be it suck and blows, trash haulers or if one is gonna be a rotorhead, has to go through flight physiology training and the altitude chamber and play games without the oxygen mask at 25,000', just like in An Officer and a Gentleman. I had the neat task of writing my name (they wanted it in cursive, but they couldn't read it so I had to print in block letters) then subtract 3 from 1000 and so forth and so forth. The answer is not 9997, 9994, 9991, 9988 etc. either, yet that is what I came up with. :( :(

Bringing up that topic actually made me watch a ton of Youtube videos this whole morning. I certainly see where this can end. Sometimes it's hilarious to watch but it really is a serious matter. B) Hope I will never get caught by a decompression, be it rapid or slow! :( I am really trying hard to find what those worksheets they do in the chambers look like (especially after the demonstration, of course). Anyone have a hint for me?

I was on a hop in a T-39 from Clark AFB back to Kadena AFB after 10 days in the Philippines (before I took the aforementioned training and about half way through the flight, an alarm went off and the masks dropped down. I was grabbing that thing really fast. There was no cabin pressurization loss, but just a fault somewhere that set everything off. The AF actually gives preflight safety briefings (I had to give them too when we carried a crew to Luke AFB so they could expect some grounded birds) before flights with pax.

I have never experienced the high altitude chamber before but I would like to. I would be one of those guys that you couldn't tell if I was experiencing hypoxia because when they give me a question like 1000-3 and I give the wrong answer..........well that's just normal. Of course we watch videos in training and go through the reports on past accidents based on hypoxia but to experience it is something else. I remember the fighter pilot that was in the chamber at a pressure altitude of 40000 feet or so and they gave a rapid decompression. He didn't even have enough time to get his mask on and he was out. Scary stuff. Its hard to imagine how some of these accidents do occur with all the external signals around you telling you whats going on but that sometimes is whats scary about these accidents. Its easy to sit back and watch the video and point fingers but if you weren't there it's hard to grasp and say "why didn't they do ........."Jack C

I was on a hop in a T-39 from Clark AFB back to Kadena AFB after 10 days in the Philippines (before I took the aforementioned) training and about half way through the flight, an alarm went off and the masks dropped down. I was grabbing that thing really fast. There was no cabin pressurization loss, but just a fault somewhere that set everything off. The AF actually gives preflight safety briefings (I had to give them too when we carried a crew to Luke AFB so they could inspect some grounded birds) before flights with pax.

I was not awake when I posted this. Fixed some errors.Yeah, Jack, things happen fast though at 25,000, you still have some time to understand what is going on. At higher altitudes, not so

I have never experienced the high altitude chamber before but I would like to. I would be one of those guys that you couldn't tell if I was experiencing hypoxia because when they give me a question like 1000-3 and I give the wrong answer..........well that's just normal. Of course we watch videos in training and go through the reports on past accidents based on hypoxia but to experience it is something else. I remember the fighter pilot that was in the chamber at a pressure altitude of 40000 feet or so and they gave a rapid decompression. He didn't even have enough time to get his mask on and he was out. Scary stuff. Its hard to imagine how some of these accidents do occur with all the external signals around you telling you whats going on but that sometimes is whats scary about these accidents. Its easy to sit back and watch the video and point fingers but if you weren't there it's hard to grasp and say "why didn't they do ........."Jack C

Yeah, now as a commercial pilot who is not required to go into an altitude chamber how do I know my symptoms? I don't at all. I just hope I will never get into this. I figure a really slow, subtle deco might be worse in the question if you recognize your symptoms. If it's happening faster you might probably realize something is wrong faster too.

It has been a long while since I went through the training (84) that while I was cognizant of the fact that my name started getting bigger in size the more times I wrote it as in this example and with each letter as I wrote out my name, I was not cognizant of the fact that my math was not right and the time frame couldn't have been more than 5 minutes between the 2 exercises. I didn't know that it was wrong until I went back on oxygen and saw my work. The problem is, I felt fine even though we were off O2 for no longer than 10 minutes. Going through the training gives one an idea of what is happening and to help recognize symptons, but as noted, it was at 25,000'. At 36,000', you have less time to understand what is happening, if you properly recognize it in time. 

Yeah, now as a commercial pilot who is not required to go into an altitude chamber how do I know my symptoms? I don't at all. I just hope I will never get into this. I figure a really slow, subtle deco might be worse in the question if you recognize your symptoms. If it's happening faster you might probably realize something is wrong faster too.

AFter the Helios 737 incident we have been getting the CABIN ALTITUDE LIGHT installed. So now we have the horn that will go off AND the light in front of you so it SHOULDN'T be missed if something was ever to happen again (at least on the machines that are having this installed). But on the Helios flight there was multiple of things that could have been done to recognize and prevent the demise of this flight. But that is the case with most accidents. Jack C

AFter the Helios 737 incident we have been getting the CABIN ALTITUDE LIGHT installed. So now we have the horn that will go off AND the light in front of you so it SHOULDN'T be missed if something was ever to happen again (at least on the machines that are having this installed). But on the Helios flight there was multiple of things that could have been done to recognize and prevent the demise of this flight. But that is the case with most accidents. Jack C

Well I am certainly aware we've got the warning, I was more thinking about my own symptons. But you are right, the chance that the warning would not come up AND you fail to recog any symptons is probably very low. So let's just hope for all of us we won't have to face this situation. :(

Disregard, I created a new topic on this since it would be fun to see what others find.