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HomeHomeDiscussionsDiscussionsiFly General Di...iFly General Di...Altimeter instrument (aka "Ind.Alt") -- is showing what exactly?Altimeter instrument (aka "Ind.Alt") -- is showing what exactly?
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6/19/2020 4:54 PM
 

Why not call 214-585-0444 or email Support@adventure pilot .com and get the answer from the people who made the device?

This is what I learned:

Ind. Alt is what your airplane's transponder's altitude encoder is telling ATC your altitude is. Right or wrong, that's what they're seeing. 

Alt.(GPS) is your altitude derived from the GPS signals you're receiving. Great  to avoid "controlled flight into terrain".

Alt (agl) may be coming from data used in producing charts? Don't know that answer but I still use it. 

The fact that the three readings do not agree with one another is immaterial; it's just the way it is.  When informing ATC of my altitude I say Ind. Alt to eliminate any discussion, but I also keep an eye out for the other two display readings just for safety's sake. 

 

 
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6/19/2020 7:13 PM
 

It is not immaterial at all.  I fly by my plane's altimeter, not by the Indicated Altitude instrument that iFly is showing on my tablet.  If they differ by 250' then that is more than is allowed even for VFR flight.  (E.g. If ATC asks me to hold an altitude of 5500' and they're actually seeing 5750' then that's a problem as far as they're concerned.  That being said, I've never had them come back to me -- so, I'm inclined to think that the iFly Indicated Altitude is not what ATC is seeing.)  Also, as Cobra pointed out, the correction factor that iFly is applying to the pressure altitude is their choice and it's unlikely to be the same as the one that ATC is using.  But next time I'm up I'll talk to a couple of airports and ATC and ask what they see.  If what they're seeing is that far off my plane's altimeter (which generally agrees with GPS altitude), then I need to get my altitude encoder adjusted or replaced.

Also, part of the reason I posted here is to see if other people are seeing a similar difference.  If they are, then this might be a bug in how iFly calculates Indicated Altitude.


Powrachute PC 2000; Aventura II; Cherokee 180
 
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6/19/2020 7:58 PM
 

If this is true: "Ind. Alt is what your airplane's transponder's altitude encoder is telling ATC your altitude is. Right or wrong, that's what they're seeing."  Then it should not be the same as what your aneroid altimeter in your instrument panel shows.  What your altitude encoder sends (as was pointed out earlier) is what your altimeter would show if the barometric pressure was 29.92.  The ATC computer adjusts it to display what your indicated altitude should show.  So it's not really "what they're seeing" unless the local barometric pressure happens to be 29.92.   

 
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6/19/2020 8:54 PM
 
Arthur wrote:

Ind. Alt is what your airplane's transponder's altitude encoder is telling ATC your altitude is. Right or wrong, that's what they're seeing.     

Sorry, this cannot always be true, even if it's what someone at AP told you.  My iFly reports an Indicated Altitude number, but it has no possible method of obtaining that data from my transponder.  I am 100% certain it gets this data from the barometric pressure sensor built into the AHRS board on my Stratux.

I do think that iFly can sometimes get the transponder altitude from ADSB devices that are designed to "sniff" Mode C transponder broadcasts and incorporate the encoded altitude data into their own datastream feeding iFly, but that is not the case in my aircraft.

 
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6/19/2020 8:59 PM
 
Arthur wrote:

When informing ATC of my altitude I say Ind. Alt to eliminate any discussion, but I also keep an eye out for the other two display readings just for safety's sake. 

 

Please do not give ATC the Ind. Alt as reported by iFly.  Instead, give them the Indicated Altitude as read from your properly-calibrated altimeter with the appropriate local barometer reading set in its Kollsman window.

 
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HomeHomeDiscussionsDiscussionsiFly General Di...iFly General Di...Altimeter instrument (aka "Ind.Alt") -- is showing what exactly?Altimeter instrument (aka "Ind.Alt") -- is showing what exactly?