How To Figure Pressure Altitude Helicopter Online Ground School

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How To Figure Pressure Altitude Helicopter Online Ground School.
Pressure Altitude, and this is always fun. To figure pressure altitude, you need your current pressure setting and your airport elevation. Once you have those, you have to figure this by hand.
I want to start the story out by my very first student in 2001, I think it was, airplane CFI, we didn't do a bunch of ground because he said, "Hey, I want study on my own and I'll know this stuff and I'll learn it." He did a real good job and he was really sharp, and I never made him figure pressure altitude by hand. I just figured he could do it, because he was a CFI. That was my bad for not making sure he could do it. He was flying the Robinson R-22, and he needed to figure pressure altitude, and he couldn't remember how to do it, and he was like, "Well I can use my computer, duh duh duh," and the examiner was like, "No, you have to do this by hand. What if you're in an aircraft and you've got to be able to figure out whether you're going to be able to hover somewhere when you land, and you need your pressure altitude?" Anyway, you've got to know how to do this by hand. The question is, is the pressure higher than standard? Is the pressure lower than standard? You're going to work the problem two different ways whether the pressure is higher or lower for the day when you're working your problem. Depending on which it is, you're either going to add or subtract. Let's start with a lower than standard pressure, standard pressure is 29.92, let's say your barometric pressure that day is 29.55. You're going to subtract that from standard, and that's going to give you .37. After you get that, you're going to drop the decimal, you're going to add a zero, and that's going to give you 370. Now I just made up an airport elevation of 5000 feet for where you're working your problem. You're going to add the 370 to the 5000 and give you a pressure altitude of 5370. Now again, this is because the pressure is lower than standard, you add to airport elevation. Seems kind of backwards possibly, but this is the way you work the problem. Let's work one in reverse. Let's go to a higher than standard pressure setting. Let's use 30.92, so we're going to subtract standard, 29.92 from the larger number, 30.92, and it's going to give us 1.00. So we're going to do the same thing again, we're going to drop the decimal, we're going to add a zero, that's going to give you 1000. Then take your airport elevation again of 5000 feet, and you subtract 1000 from your airport elevation of 5000, which gives you a pressure altitude of 4000. If you remember, I'm not sure if I've covered this earlier in the ground school, a 1-inch change in pressure equals 1000 feet. Right there's where you can see it. There's your 1-inch change, and it is directly related to 1000 feet change. There is how you figure pressure altitude. As I said, you have to know how to do this, and you have to know how to do it by hand. The key is to remember, drop the decimal, add a zero, if the airport elevation, I'm sorry, if the pressure is lower than standard, you add to airport elevation. If the pressure is higher than standard, you subtract from airport elevation. I just got through doing this, I did it two hours ago and I'm remaking the whole thing because I actually screwed this up, and it's very easy to make a mistake with this. Practice with it, commit it to memory, because you're going to have to know how to figure pressure altitude to work some of these charts. How To Figure Pressure Altitude Helicopter Online Ground School

[@jakew9887]

Great Video. Thanks

[@HelicopterGround]

Thank you!

[@michealalkour1452]

Cheers fella. Top bloke

[@HelicopterGround]

Thank you!

[@alexs551]

awesome tutorial...cheers

[@Frogman172]

Kenny, this was a great example also. Thanks.

[@njbpaul]

Thanks very much

[@HelicopterGround]

Thank you for the feedback!

[@vinnyhendrix1683]

Nice and sweet!

[@HelicopterGround]

Thank you for the feedback!

[@Dilennn]

thank you. This is an amazing tutorial video :)

[@captOrange1]

Thank you Sir :)

[@jeffvic7991]

Good explanation!!

[@samsam7444]

Awesome!!!thank sir!!

[@HelicopterGround]

Most welcome!

[@HelicopterGround]

Thanks @Jeff Vic

[@mothanna2320]

what great explanation thanks so much 👌

[@HelicopterGround]

Glad it was helpful!

[@HelicopterGround]

Your very welcome!

[@HelicopterGround]

Thanks and it's now available on DVD!

[@davidwallace5738]

Great simple explanation. Thank you sir!

[@HelicopterGround]

Thank you David!

[@tajproductions2011]

Very well explained Kenny. Good example of what the Students / Pilots can get from the online ground training !!!!

[@beshoybasem]

Awesome explanation!!!

[@HelicopterGround]

Thank you!

[@coa2138]

This is great explanation!! very easy to get it!! Thank you!!

[@HelicopterGround]

Your welcome and thank you for commenting!

[@charliekeyes6206]

you just gave me a very awesome explanation, thank you so much I really appreciate it

[@HelicopterGround]

Thank you I appreciate that!

[@HelicopterGround]

Thank You @alex sinclair

[@Roca891]

Thanks SO much. Working on my CFI and for some reason this explanation is almost impossible to find. Most other sources reference the charts in the written test. Very helpful!

[@HelicopterGround]

Your welcome and thank you!

[@michaelkennedy996]

Is it ok I watched this? I fly fixed wing 😆 great help thanks

[@HelicopterGround]

Absolutely! Hahaha. I fly helicopters and airplanes👍

[@pkaser]

Thank you! I had forgotten how to do it this way. I always used the altimeter method.

[@HelicopterGround]

Thank you Pat!

[@pkaser]

@@HelicopterGround did you fly out of Burke back in the day?

[@HelicopterGround]

Yes!

[@charlessalvador7251]

you all prolly dont care at all but does anybody know of a tool to log back into an instagram account?? I stupidly lost my account password. I would appreciate any assistance you can offer me

[@theorichard2205]

@Charles Salvador instablaster :)

[@Nipajewski]

What if airpotort elev is 180ft and it goes on minus what i do

[@56hueycobra]

Kenny: Thank You 🙏 Sir For This Good Helicopter 🚁 Information On Pressure Altitude 🚁😎🚁

[@HelicopterGround]

Thanks for commenting!

[@seankitchens1045]

I see how you did it, and it does make sense. However, wouldn’t it be a little bit easier to just always but the 29.92” first in the equation? That way if that day’s PA is lower than standard, it would be positive (which makes sense cause you would at it to airport elevation), and if that day’s PA was higher than standard, it would be negative (which makes sense cause you would subtract it from airport elevation). That way you don’t have to look at it as two different categories of “is it higher than standard or lower than standard” and change your math accordingly. If you just always put the 29.92” first in the equation, the result being negative or positive will tell you whether you add or subtract. Hope this makes sense! Just my thoughts.

[@HelicopterGround]

Sean, you could do it that way as well. Thanks for commenting.

[@zzodr]

I always try and remember - winding altimeter subscale up to standard = add height to elev. winding down - elev down.

[@HelicopterGround]

Thanks for the input!

[@nathanlathouse8779]

Nice tutorial. One little possible mistake I noticed. Shouldn't it be 29.92 - 29.55?

[@fernandolam6209]

Houzen Houzen I think it is

[@HelicopterGround]

Thank You Very Much @dustinrox6

[@HelicopterGround]

Your Very Welcome @Frogman172

[@grzegorzbalcer5219]

Hi, thanks for the explanation, very clear. However I still dont' get one simple thing here: why do we need to calculate that? is it to get the exact airport elevation? So, let's say I am approaching an airport from FL180 (18,000ft) can anyone explain how to calculate airport elevation. So other words what is the procedure of going from QNE to QNH?

[@HelicopterGround]

Allen, airport elevation is constant. That is found on the VFR chart or Chart supplement. Figuring pressure altitude is simply figuring helicopter performance limitations. There is a ceiling for operating the helicopter. There is also a ceiling for hovering in and out of ground effect. We have an excellent lesson on this inside Helicopter Online Ground School Private Pilot Course. www.helicopterground.com Grab a free copy of Kenny's book today, just for commenting here: "Top Ten Check Ride Tips" hit Amazon #1 best seller withing 4hrs! Here is the free link www.helicopterground.com/pl/38587

[@grzegorzbalcer5219]

Helicopter Online Ground School thanks, but your recommended PDF doesn’t answer my question.

[@HelicopterGround]

We did answer the question, I will put it in here without the free PDF link. ANSWER TO QUESTION: Airport elevation is constant. That is found on the VFR chart or Chart supplement. Figuring pressure altitude is simply figuring helicopter performance limitations. There is a ceiling for operating the helicopter. There is also a ceiling for hovering in and out of ground effect.

[@Spetsnaz--21]

Just a curious question wouldn't it be easier to just set your altimeter to 29.92 and that would automatically reveal your pressure altitude?

[@HelicopterGround]

Yes you can do it that way. Normally though during a oral check ride the examiner will expect you to figure it out on paper!

[@crankychicks]

Obliterateification exactly.

[@crankychicks]

Don't understand why he should do it on paper and not use the E6b. If they expect you to fool around with paper and pen, might as well save time and concentration using electronics.

[@HelicopterGround]

Electronics can fail!

[@erictaylor5462]

He gave the reason. It is a required part of the exam.