3 ms·
With Altitude meaning feet above sea level, this could have been pretty close to the ground. (Arizona is largely around 4000' elevation it seems.)
by randerson 6y ago
With Altitude meaning feet above sea level, this could have been pretty close to the ground. (Arizona is largely around 4000' elevation it seems.)
- throwanem 6y agoI'd need to look it up to be sure, but I would assume by default that this is a radar, not a barometric, altimeter. (To expand on that: A barometric altimeter works via air pressure, and thus shows height above sea level; a radar altimeter measures the time taken for microwaves to go from it to the ground and back, and thus shows height above ground. I wouldn't be surprised to find both types in a fighter, but I would be very surprised to find that a radar altimeter wasn't the default, because it's going to be the one that provides the most accurate information and thus the most useful to a pilot who needs to worry about avoiding CFIT during complex maneuvers.)
- jki275 6y agoNo. The radar altitude is shown further down the right side (the box with the "R" next to it). It bottoms at 2970 as I saw it at with the tape showing 4370MSL. The right side of the tape is MSL. If you watch that box through the video, you can see why you don't use the radar altimeter for everything. Any time you don't have clear line of sight to the ground with the belly of the aircraft, the radar altimeter blanks out completely. If you're in a roll, it will give incorrect information as it's not pointed directly at the ground.
- throwanem 6y agoAh, good to know. Thanks!