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  • Chapter 8: Flight Instruments › Types of Altitude

    Indicated altitude—read directly from the altimeter (uncorrected) when it is set to the current altimeter setting. 2. True altitude—the vertical distance of the aircraft above sea level—the actual altitude. It is often expressed as feet above mean ... level (MSL). Airport, terrain, and obstacle elevations on aeronautical charts are true altitudes. 3. Absolute altitude—the vertical distance of an aircraft above the terrain, or above ground level (AGL). 4. Pressure altitude—the altitude indicated when the altimeter setting…

  • Chapter 8: Flight Instruments › Altimeter Operation

    altimeter indicates an altitude above the actual field elevation. If the barometric pressure setting is reset to the current altimeter setting of 29.68 "Hg, then the field elevation is again indicated on the altimeter. This pressure change ... easily noticed in flight since aircraft fly at specific altitudes. The aircraft steadily decreases true altitude while the altimeter is held constant through pilot action as discussed in the previous section. Knowing the aircraft’s altitude is vitally important…

  • Chapter 11: Aircraft Performance › Climb Performance Factors › Range Performance

    NOTE: The straight line that is tangent to the sea level power curve is also tangent to the altitude power curve. The effect of altitude on specific range can also be appreciated from the previous relationships. If a change ... altitude causes identical changes in speed and power required, the proportion of speed to power required would be unchanged. The fact implies that the specific range of a propeller-driven aircraft would be unaffected by altitude. Actually, this is true…

  • Chapter 4: Principles of Flight › Pressure › Density Altitude

    Density Altitude SDP is a theoretical pressure altitude, but aircraft operate in a nonstandard atmosphere and the term density altitude is used for correlating aerodynamic performance in the nonstandard atmosphere. Density altitude is the vertical distance above sea level ... density of air has significant effects on the aircraft’s performance because as air becomes less dense, it reduces: • Power because the engine takes in less air • Thrust because a propeller is less efficient in thin air • Lift because…

  • Chapter 11: Aircraft Performance › Density Altitude

    Under conditions higher or lower than standard, these levels cannot be determined directly from the altimeter. Density altitude is determined by first finding pressure altitude and then correcting this altitude for nonstandard temperature variations. Since density varies directly with pressure ... inversely with temperature, a given pressure altitude may exist for a wide range of temperature by allowing the density to vary. However, a known density occurs for any one temperature and pressure altitude. The density of the air, of course…

  • 8 Atmospheric Pressure and Altimetry › 8.4.1 Altitude › 8.4.1.5 Density Altitude

    Density Altitude Density altitude is the pressure altitude corrected for temperature deviations from the standard atmosphere. Density altitude bears the same relation to pressure altitude as true altitude does to indicated altitude. Density altitude is indirectly related to atmospheric density ... density increases, the density altitude decreases, and conversely, as air density decreases, the density altitude increases. Airports with higher field elevations (e.g., Denver) have lower pressure, lower density, and, therefore, higher density altitudes than airports with lower field elevations…