Posts about: "Altimeter (All)" [Posts: 73 Page: 3 of 4]ΒΆ

truckflyer
February 18, 2025, 08:00:00 GMT
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Post: 11830516
Originally Posted by Wide Mouth Frog
Playing Devil's Advocate for a moment, if the heliroutes are published for the common sense use of participants, not for the protection of air transport, and we further accept that it is not within the purview of ATC to question the discretion of willing users, I'm afraid we can only fall back on this accident being the sole responsibility of the helicopter. Which I guess is is another way of re-stating your last post.



I wouldn't put it past the FAA to pull a stunt like that, read Mary Schiavo's (ex IG of the Dept. of Transportation) book if you want to know how wily they can be. And Jennifer gave them the perfect lay up in the last briefing.
If you put bad data into the best computer in the world, you will get bad data coming out of it. I would rather set the blame to the procedure designers and those who approved these Heliroutes.
It's way to easy to blame the pilots, over the years there have been incidents due to incorrect QNH settings, were both pilots and ATC have failed to catch the error, in a busy airspace with overworked ATC, late change of runway for airlines, and military helicopters using Night Vision Goggles, altimeter equipment failure/error.

Even the Max 200 ft altitude under the approach to a major US airport is an accident waiting to happen, and whoever approved this to be used during normal operations should be investigated. The CRJ was at around 325 ft on a visual/circling approach when it crashed, does anyone really think it's great airmanship to have a Black Hawk helicopter at 200 ft passing under you?

That's what made the Swiss Cheese model line up perfectly, a planned approved separation of 125 ft was the "best case" scenario.

Subjects ATC  Accident Waiting to Happen  Altimeter (All)  Blackhawk (H-60)  CRJ  FAA  QNH  Separation (ALL)

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meleagertoo
February 20, 2025, 08:54:00 GMT
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Post: 11832026
For Heaven's sake! Altitude, altitude, altitude QNH QNH QNH!

A published glideslope (usually nowadays defined by ILS or GPS) is predicated on HEIGHT above the touchdown point , ie it is a physically fixed plane referenced to the ground. How the altimeter is set is completely irrelevant to an aircraft on the glideslope from that point of view. But this aeroplane was on a visual aproach so altimetry is also irrelevant as it is not constrained by a rigidly defined instrumented glideslope.
While the helilane limit is, technically, predicated on an altitude that's really just semantics in this case as it is over water that is at sea level and as any PPL should know that gives height above sea level with QNH set. Thus to all practical intents and purposes the heli routes are flown at heights, and as the rad alt is an order of magnitide more accutate than a bar-alt pilots will likely set its bug at 200ft and and such a low level as this where bar-alt inaccuracy is very significant will (or should) fly that, despite having set QNH because that's the requirement. That way both aircraft are on the same plane of reference, ie vs. the ground = height.

The graphic above is surprising illustration of how a lateral error of just 200m puts a helo firmly into the acceptable glideslope parameters and surely demonstrates more clearly than anything else we've seen the insanity, even irresponsibility of the design of this piece of airspace. Mind, get 200m off track in the vicinity of Heathrow, let alone crossing it and you'll be ordered out of the system the way you came in with a telephone number to call...

Still no word on why this route couldn't have been designed with a sensible vertical separation above the f/w flightpath, someone must know.

Subjects Altimeter (All)  QNH  Radio Altimeter  Separation (ALL)  Vertical Separation

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A0283
March 30, 2025, 21:14:00 GMT
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Post: 11857550
Originally Posted by layman54
The header to this forum says " Accidents and Close Calls \x85
According to post 1346 the accident helicopter was higher and to the west of the position of the typical helicopter flying that route. Was this a slight error that in this case was fatal?
NTSB chair pointing out the horizontal position of the helicopter during last weeks testimony.
The altitude is still uncertain because of difference between jet and heli values and destruction of the heli altimeter. So work on that is continuing with a focus on other sources.
But note the 75 ft separation is a maximum. So if the heli was at 200ft then it was on the glide slope.




Another interesting point is that mixed heli and fixed wing is forbidden in the yellow zone (permanently), and ADSB mandatory in the red zone. With routes 4 and 6 cut.

See post below



Last edited by A0283; 30th March 2025 at 21:25 .

Subjects ADSB (All)  Altimeter (All)  Close Calls  NTSB  Separation (ALL)

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Lonewolf_50
July 31, 2025, 19:00:00 GMT
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Post: 11931499
Originally Posted by ATC Watcher
-flying at 300ft targeting 200ft is "acceptable" by the Army
-200ft restriction on the chart is a only a "recommended target" in VFR not a hard restriction i unless instructed by ATC ..
Something smells wrong about some of this.
(I need to see a bit more of the documentation on the difference between the hard altitude (200') that I was under the impression was on that route, as opposed to the "recommended altitude" statement made there...maybe it will make more sense to me then).
As to altimeter errors.
The UH-60L has a radalt.
Are you trying to tell me that the alleged acceptable error for a rad alt is 80'-130'?
I think not.
I doubt that the rules have changed that much since I was last flying a Blackhawk. (yes, it has been a while).
Will do a bit more reading, thanks.

Subjects ATC  Altimeter (All)  Blackhawk (H-60)  Radio Altimeter  VFR

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MechEngr
July 31, 2025, 19:18:00 GMT
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Post: 11931506
Depending on radalt for this flight mode is a problem when flying over buildings or terrain when one wants to maintain an absolute altitude relative to a common datum. If done perfectly radalt would be hammering back and forth with every chimney and tree and park and car. I'm sure they use smoothing to give something for the crew to read, but it doesn't tell how high the terrain is that the measurement is made from - it only reports clearance to the terrain when one wants clearance to other aircraft.

For TF/TA radalt is the go-to instrument, but for coordinating multiple aircraft to maintain vertical separation, barometric altitude is more suitable. The problem being that barometric altimeters are subject to a lot of measurement and reporting errors.

I am sure that GPS-RTK could be used to fix the absolute altitude with great precision, but I am also sure that depending on an easily denied measurement source on a military aircraft is not going happen.

The correct solution for operating in a civilian airspace is to use ADS-B In/Out for all manned aircraft to provide appropriate and timely situational awareness. While ADS-B is also subject to denial, it offers far greater benefit in civilian airspace over GPS-RTK in that it tells the pilots where all the other aircraft are rather than simply being more precise about where their own aircraft is.

It is clear that the helicopter crew not knowing where the passenger jet was was the primary cause of the collision.

Arguments about the error in the altimeter readings are suitable to emphasize that depending on them in a crowded airspace is a fool's choice and should have been spotted a long time ago as insufficient to provide clearance.

Subjects ADSB (All)  Altimeter (All)  Radio Altimeter  Separation (ALL)  Situational Awareness  Vertical Separation

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MechEngr
July 31, 2025, 23:36:00 GMT
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Post: 11931584
No matter, radalt only gives the altitude above some actual thing, not a shared pressure altitude that all air vehicles can agree on. AA5342 was not on a radalt path. AA5342 was flying over buildings.

EDIT: I also appreciate the arriving jet was on a geometric glide slope and that radalt under the glideslope could have been sufficient, but if one is expecting that vertical separation is sufficient then there needs to be certainty to that altitude and clearly that isn't possible on barometric altimeter and should never have been accepted by anyone.

Last edited by MechEngr; 1st August 2025 at 05:39 .

Subjects AA5342  Altimeter (All)  Barometric Altimeter  Radio Altimeter  Separation (ALL)  Vertical Separation

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YRP
August 01, 2025, 15:56:00 GMT
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Post: 11931914
Originally Posted by ATC Watcher
For me the key point of this accident is the 100 ft procedural separation planned between a Heli route and a non precision ( e.g visual) approach path . The rest are just more holes in the cheese.
Yes, that does seem nuts. It is as if they decided to ignore all the tolerances (altimeter accuracy, pilot accuracy, etc) and pretend everything is spot on.

There's a reason for the normal 500' or 1000' separation between traffic, eg enroute cruising altitudes. Someone once worked out the tolerances and margins.

Subjects ATC  Altimeter (All)  Separation (ALL)

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ST Dog
August 01, 2025, 20:09:00 GMT
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Post: 11932030
Originally Posted by BFSGrad
Don\x92t recall hearing that. Roth referred to the river clutter causing the radalt to bounce around.

To complicate further, the Army Day 1 witness, CW4 Lewis, indicated she would have flown route 1/4 using radalt as her altitude reference. She also offered that she had zero DC route experience.
I had time to look through the live transcript I still have open.

It was her.

Lewis: In my experience, when flying at low altitude, I would be referencing the radar altimeter.

Mueller: And when would you transition roughly between the two?

Lewis: In my experience, certainly 200 feet and below, I would be referencing the radar altimeter. However, if I was flying on a published MSL route, I would be referencing barometric altitude.

and later

(unsure): This is a scenario based, one based on what the chairman asked about flying over the Potomac River route. If you had a route ceiling of about 200 feet and you were to look at your barometric altimeter and see about 160 feet, but then it's all on your radar altimeter, about 280 feet. How would you triage that situation in your experience?

Lewis: So if the barometric altimeter is reading 160 feet, you're saying and the radar altimeter is reading significantly higher than that, I would still my primary concern on the MSL route would be staying below the 200 feet. And I would definitely, you know, take note of that and and maybe write the aircraft up for some, you know, maintenance action. But at that particular time I would as long as there was nothing wrong with the aircraft before we took off. As far as the field elevation and barometric altimeter, I would, you know, continue to assume that I was below that 200 foot MSL.


Subjects Altimeter (All)  Barometric Altimeter  Radar  Radio Altimeter

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Sailvi767
August 03, 2025, 16:13:00 GMT
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Post: 11932824
Originally Posted by Lonewolf_50
Something smells wrong about some of this.
(I need to see a bit more of the documentation on the difference between the hard altitude (200') that I was under the impression was on that route, as opposed to the "recommended altitude" statement made there...maybe it will make more sense to me then).
As to altimeter errors.
The UH-60L has a radalt.
Are you trying to tell me that the alleged acceptable error for a rad alt is 80'-130'?
I think not.
I doubt that the rules have changed that much since I was last flying a Blackhawk. (yes, it has been a while).
Will do a bit more reading, thanks.
My question exactly. Where is the radar altimeter in this discussion. I also can\x92t believe that when flying a helo at night over water cross checking the radar altimeter with the baro altimeter is not just good practice but required!

Subjects Altimeter (All)  Blackhawk (H-60)  Radar  Radio Altimeter

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RatherBeFlying
August 09, 2025, 14:57:00 GMT
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Post: 11935746
Military Helicopter vs Civil Altimeter Requirements

Most of us are thoroughly familiar with the civil requirements for altimeter and transponder calibration, including allowable error.

But it seems military helicopters are not subject to the civil requirements - which is acceptable until these helicopters enter civil regulated airspace where heretofore unexamined databases show a litany of CAs that were neglected.

Static port issues in rotor downwash seem to produce significant altimeter errors.

Subjects Altimeter (All)

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galaxy flyer
August 09, 2025, 16:03:00 GMT
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Post: 11935775
Originally Posted by RatherBeFlying
Most of us are thoroughly familiar with the civil requirements for altimeter and transponder calibration, including allowable error.

But it seems military helicopters are not subject to the civil requirements - which is acceptable until these helicopters enter civil regulated airspace where heretofore unexamined databases show a litany of CAs that were neglected.

Static port issues in rotor downwash seem to produce significant altimeter errors.
Can\x92t say about the Army, but the USAF standard for altimeters is exactly the same as the FAA. Additionally, the USAF is very specific that in civil airspace we will comply with ICAO SARPs, FAA regulations or any bilatera agreements in place.

Subjects Altimeter (All)  FAA  ICAO

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BFSGrad
August 09, 2025, 17:05:00 GMT
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Post: 11935810
Originally Posted by RatherBeFlying
But it seems military helicopters are not subject to the civil requirements - which is acceptable until these helicopters enter civil regulated airspace where heretofore unexamined databases show a litany of CAs that were neglected..
Docket info cites MilSpecs controlling altimeter accuracy for PAT25 aircraft; e.g., \xb130 ft at sea level. Part 43 lists altimeter accuracy of \xb120 ft at sea level. I don’t think these differences are going to adversely impact the safety of military aircraft operating in civilian airspace. The cause of CAs/RAs lies elsewhere.

Subjects Altimeter (All)  NTSB Docket  PAT25

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ignorantAndroid
August 09, 2025, 23:12:00 GMT
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Post: 11935939
Standards for altimeter accuracy apply only to the altimeter itself, i.e. the part that's installed in the instrument panel. They don't include source error, such as the error introduced by airflow over the static ports.

Subjects Altimeter (All)

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andihce
August 10, 2025, 05:00:00 GMT
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Post: 11936009
There have been a number of references above to the woefully inadequate vertical separation provided between helicopter Route 4 and the approach to Runway 33. Given altimeter errors (expected and maybe not so expected) in the helicopter, a helicopter flying high (and possibly offset sideways towards the end of Runway 33) and an aircraft maybe low on approach, there really wasn’t any guaranteed separation.

I strikes me that, from my layman’s point of view, that this is the primary and gaping hole (among numerous others) in the Swiss cheese here.

At the same time, I get the sense that no controller was ever going to intentionally permit a helicopter to pass directly under an approaching aircraft and challenge that limited clearance.

My question is, should this have been (or was it?) formalized as an ATC procedure? Because if this had been proceduralized, I find it hard to believe that just nighttime VFR separation would have been found acceptable in that environment. Rather I would think that lateral separation should have been actively managed by ATC.

For one thing, with the CRJ (or whatever aircraft) pilots making a late switch to 33, turning to line up with the runway, etc., they may not have had the bandwidth to scan for a possibly conflicting helicopter, if they could even have seen it from their cockpit. (IIRC from the inquiry, the NTSB will be investigating that last point.)

I don’t know how difficult it may have been for the helicopter to see the CRJ, but the simple fact is that they did not.



On another subject, one thing that struck me from the inquiry was that the helicopter pilot apparently had very limited recent flight time, yet was assigned a challenging check ride.

This contrasted with the testimony of the leader (?) of one of the local Medivac groups, who discussed how much more experience he and his pilots had flying in that challenging environment (and often single-pilot ops at that).

Is the Army not providing adequate training and flight time to ensure their pilots can operate safely in those conditions?

Last edited by andihce; 10th August 2025 at 06:44 . Reason: clarification

Subjects ATC  Altimeter (All)  CRJ  NTSB  Route 4  Separation (ALL)  VFR  Vertical Separation

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aox
August 10, 2025, 06:10:00 GMT
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Post: 11936017
Originally Posted by andihce
There have been a number of references above to the woefully inadequate vertical separation provided between helicopter Route 4 and the approach to Runway 33. Given altimeter errors (expected and maybe not so expected) in the helicopter, a helicopter flying high (and possibly offset sideways towards the end of Runway 33) and an aircraft maybe low on approach, there really wasn\x92t any guaranteed separation.

I strikes me that, from my layman\x92s point of view, that this is the primary and gaping hole (among numerous others) in the Swiss cheese here.

At the same time, I get the sense that no controller was ever going to allow a helicopter to pass directly under an approaching aircraft and challenge that limited clearance.

My question is, should this have been (or was it?) formalized as an ATC procedure? Because if this had been proceduralized, I find it hard to believe that just nighttime VFR separation would have been found acceptable in that environment. Rather I would think that lateral separation should have been actively managed by ATC.

For one thing, with the CRJ (or whatever aircraft) pilots making a late switch to 33, turning to line up with the runway, etc., they may not have had the bandwidth to scan for a possibly conflicting helicopter, if they could even have seen it from their cockpit. (IIRC from the inquiry, the NTSB will be investigating that last point.)

I don\x92t know how difficult it may have been for the helicopter to see the CRJ, but the simple fact is that they did not.
I wouldn't bother explaining it to laymen as a hole in cheese. In layman's terms it's the same as having two busy roads cross, and no traffic lights.

And to stick with motoring analogies, some of us are used to considering that at a junction another vehicle can be partly obscured by a pillar for one eye, and in the blind spot of our other eye, so we might move our head sideways to help check better. Some aircraft have more windscreen pillars (this helicopter has four) so the aircraft in a constant relative position - which is the one that is the collision risk - may stay behind a pillar unless we move our head.

Subjects ATC  Altimeter (All)  CRJ  NTSB  Route 4  Separation (ALL)  VFR  Vertical Separation

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ignorantAndroid
August 10, 2025, 06:48:00 GMT
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Post: 11936029
Originally Posted by andihce
There have been a number of references above to the woefully inadequate vertical separation provided between helicopter Route 4 and the approach to Runway 33. Given altimeter errors (expected and maybe not so expected) in the helicopter, a helicopter flying high (and possibly offset sideways towards the end of Runway 33) and an aircraft maybe low on approach, there really wasn\x92t any guaranteed separation.

I strikes me that, from my layman\x92s point of view, that this is the primary and gaping hole (among numerous others) in the Swiss cheese here.

At the same time, I get the sense that no controller was ever going to allow a helicopter to pass directly under an approaching aircraft and challenge that limited clearance.

My question is, should this have been (or was it?) formalized as an ATC procedure? Because if this had been proceduralized, I find it hard to believe that just nighttime VFR separation would have been found acceptable in that environment. Rather I would think that lateral separation should have been actively managed by ATC.
It's simple; the altitude restriction was never intended to be the sole method of separation. At most, it was an additional layer of protection. The controller wouldn't have cleared the Blackhawk to continue if they hadn't said they had the traffic in sight. But they did say that, whether it was true or not. ATC is a service provided to pilots, not an authority. Pilot-applied visual separation essentially overrides any procedure used by ATC. When you say "Traffic in sight," you are saying "I don't need your help maintaining separation, I have it under control and I take full responsibility."

Originally Posted by andihce
For one thing, with the CRJ (or whatever aircraft) pilots making a late switch to 33, turning to line up with the runway, etc., they may not have had the bandwidth to scan for a possibly conflicting helicopter, if they could even have seen it from their cockpit. (IIRC from the inquiry, the NTSB will be investigating that last point.)
The IFR aircraft wouldn't be required to have the traffic in sight.

Subjects ATC  Altimeter (All)  Blackhawk (H-60)  CRJ  IFR  NTSB  Route 4  Separation (ALL)  Traffic in Sight  VFR  Vertical Separation  Visual Separation

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Easy Street
October 21, 2025, 18:22:00 GMT
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Post: 11973780
Originally Posted by WillowRun 6-3
(I'm imagining that military aviators may disagree insofar as it may be an article of faith as well as military regulation that the FAA is absolutely the one responsible party for civil controlled airspace, but as a legal point I think plaintiffs will attack it.)
Route 4 wasn't restricted to use by military helicopters, so it should be possible to argue the unsafe design point based purely on the FAA's own specification. As to expectations that the Army pilots should have flown the route to tighter tolerances, even a tolerance of plus zero would have been grossly unsafe on a procedural basis: altimeter errors alone would take up most of the 50-odd foot "separation", and variances in airliner approach slope angle the rest. Besides, "plus zero" is an impossible tolerance to achieve when maintaining an altitude or height. The only way of flying that route not above 200 feet on a "IFR-esque" procedural basis with an achievable tolerance would be to fly 150 feet plus or minus 50 feet, which would demand total focus on height keeping via radalt (it would be hopelessly unsafe to attempt to fly that low on barometric instruments).

Subjects Altimeter (All)  FAA  Radio Altimeter  Route 4  Separation (ALL)

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DaveReidUK
January 27, 2026, 23:09:00 GMT
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Post: 12028272
Probable Cause Statement:

The NTSB determines that the probable cause of this accident was the FAA's placement of a helicopter route in close proximity to a runway approach path.

Their failure to regularly review and evaluate helicopter routes and available data, and their failure to act on recommendations to mitigate the risk of a mid-air collision near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, as well as the air traffic system's overreliance on visual separation.

In order to promote efficient traffic flow without consideration for the limitations of the see and avoid concept.

Also causal was the lack of effective pilot applied visual separation by the helicopter crew, which resulted in a mid-air collision.

Additional causal factors were were the tower team's loss of situational awareness and degraded performance due to a high workload of the combined helicopter and local control positions, and the absence of a risk assessment process to identify and mitigate real time operational risk factors, which resulted in miss prioritization of duties, inadequate traffic advisory advisories, and the lack of safety alerts to both flight crews.

Also causal was the Army's failure to ensure pilots were aware of the effects of air tolerances on barometric altimeter in their helicopters, which resulted in the crew flying above the maximum published helicopter route altitude.

Contributing factors include the limitations of the traffic awareness and collision alerting systems on both aircraft, which precluded effective alerting of the impending collision to the flight crew's.

An unsustainable airport arrival rate, increasing traffic volume with a changing fleet mix and airline scheduling practices at DCA, which regularly strain the DCA Atct workforce and degraded safety over time.

The Army's lack of a fully implemented safety management system, which should have identified and addressed hazards associated with altitude exceedances on the Washington, D.C. Helicopter routes.

The FAA's failure across multiple organizations to implement previous NTSB recommendations, including Ads-b in and to follow and fully integrate its established safety management system, which should have led to several organizational and operational changes based on previously identified risk that were known to management and the absence of effective data sharing and analysis among the FAA aircraft operators and other relevant organizations.

Subjects Altimeter (All)  Barometric Altimeter  DCA  FAA  NTSB  Probable Cause  Route Altitude  See and Avoid  Separation (ALL)  Situational Awareness  Visual Separation

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Undertow
January 27, 2026, 23:41:00 GMT
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Post: 12028291
Originally Posted by Ver5pen
weird that they don\x92t even mention the Blackhawk PF\x92s straying from altitude constraints
They did say this
Also causal was the Army's failure to ensure pilots were aware of the effects of air tolerances on barometric altimeter in their helicopters, which resulted in the crew flying above the maximum published helicopter route altitude.


Subjects Altimeter (All)  Barometric Altimeter  Blackhawk (H-60)  Route Altitude

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paulross
January 29, 2026, 12:41:00 GMT
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Post: 12029104
This Thread Re-Mixed

As new information has emerged I have just rebuilt the website that re-organises this long thread by subject.
You can find it here: https://paulross.github.io/pprune-th...DCA/index.html

All 1,829 posts are organised into 68 subjects.

Changes:
  • Added link to NTSB findings, probable cause and final recommendations.
  • Added subjects: 'Accountability/Liability', 'Findings', 'NTSB Docket', 'Barometric Altimeter', 'Route Altitude', 'Hot Spots', 'Final Report', 'Probable Cause', 'Safety Recommendations', 'Helicopter Working Group'.
Around 20% of the posts on the thread are excluded because I can't pick up a subject from that post so please contact me if you feel that you contribution has been excluded.

The project is here: https://github.com/paulross/pprune-threads .
Issues can be raised here: https://github.com/paulross/pprune-threads/issues or PM me with ideas.

Subjects Altimeter (All)  Barometric Altimeter  Final Report  Findings  Helicopter Working Group  Hot Spots  NTSB  NTSB Docket  Probable Cause  Route Altitude  Safety Recommendations

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