How Temperature Effects Altimeter Readings & Different Altitudes - For Student Pilots

In this video, I talk about the different altitudes and what they are and are used for including Pressure altitude, Indicated altitude, Density altitude, Absolute altitude, and True altitude. Then, we talk about how temperature effects altitude readings from the altimeter. Ever heard of High to Low, Look Out Below? We discuss and explain where that comes from.

◽️◽️◽️◽️◽️◽️

🛩️ To get ALL our Video Lessons plus Written Lessons, Quizzes, Audio Lessons, eBooks, Test Prep books, Flash Cards, Practice Tests & Live Lessons with myself you can join our

🚀 FREE COURSE & Facebook Group:
We are trying to tackle the problem of flight training expenses head on. We do this by educating students on how to save money, how to plan financially, where to get the best training, scholarships, and more to come.

You can join our Facebook group "𝐅𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐖𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐏𝐚𝐲 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐅𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠" here:

🎁 And you can enroll in our free course "𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐨 𝐁𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐚 𝐏𝐢𝐥𝐨𝐭 & 𝐒𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐲" here:

🔥Already a Student Pilot? Get our 200+ page 𝐅𝐑𝐄𝐄 𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐝𝐲 𝐠𝐮𝐢𝐝𝐞 to study for the FAA Written on any device, wherever you go here... completely FREE:

◽️◽️◽️◽️◽️◽️

🛫 Timestamps
00:00 Intro
00:50 Absolute Altitude / Above Ground / AGL
01:31 True Altitude
02:52 Indicated Altitude
04:10 Pressure Altitude
05:06 Density Altitude
08:24 How Temperature can affect the Reading on our Altimeters

◽️◽️◽️◽️◽️◽️

🛫 WHERE TO FIND US:

[PartTimePilot]

"FREE Private Pilot study guide pdf!

Want all the Private Pilot concepts broken down with visual aids a few concise bullet points? This is what we have in our 100% FREE study guide pdf.

[DMRCNPYR]

you say that if the temprature goes up, the pressure gets high. to understand clearly let us follow this scenerio. When we enter a hot weather area the air density will be reducing, thus the distance between ISOBARS will be greater. It means that the ISOBAR at your current altitude will be higher value. Thus the aircraft will escend to hold altiude which is assigned. Then the acyual altitude will be higher than the altimeter reads. It means that the altimeter underreads when the OAT is higher. (All secenerio assume that the pilot do not upfate the QNH)

[tanytansters]

Why at 6:50, do you say, "The hotter you get, the less dense the air". But then at 9:56 you say, " So the temperature went up, so, pressure goes with temperature. So that means the pressure went up.

In each instance, are you not saying completely opposite things? I assume I'm just not understanding clearly, but this is very confusing. I have read through some of the comments where you're trying to explain this, but why in the video do you make (seemingly) opposing statements?

[StoneStraiff]

This is by far the best explanation I've found on youtube.

[seattleraf]

Okay I was having a real hard time understanding why/how indicated altitude increases with lower temp since I thought about it as lower temp = denser air which I thought would make altimeter decrease since air density decreases with increased altitude.

But your explanation made sense.

Now what I’m a bit confused about is that if pressure and temperature always go up and down together how it’s possible to have a day with standard temperature but non-standard pressure or vice versa

[jeremiahsokaim]

Thank you so much Nick. You’ve just answered all the question I had about Altimeter

[lindat]

Thank you so much! Your explanation helps me a lot !

[GreedoTheDog]

Best damn explanation so far. Loved this. You really helped clear up my frustrations with understanding Pressure/Density altitude and what happens with the temperature changes. Thank you for posting this

[dmacnet]

At 4:16 you say "Pressure altitude is not used while you're in the aircraft, " but that's what's used in flight levels (above the transition level, 18, 000 feet MSL in the USA). So you must just be referring to VFR pilots.

[nonDescriptAviation]

@5:12 - "Back to the Future" reference or just happenstance?

[macemanVII]

This helped out a ton especially towards the end when you spoke about the air molecules contracting according to temperature.

[darielgarcia]

Video released on my birthday and it helped me a ton, thanks man lol

[natalieea]

for AN HOUR ive been trying to figure out how i keep getting these questions wrong in my head... this whole time ive been thinking that density=pressure. I have a lot of unlearning to do...

[mxrriderr]

This still confuses me since high pressure areas, on a surface analyses chart for example, are associated with cooler air, and low pressure areas are associated with warmer air.

If we take a compressed air tank with a fixed volume for example, the concepts in this video make sense to me. As air pressure increases, so would the temperature.

But is the atmosphere not different since the volume is not fixed? As the air cools, more molecules are able to fit in the vertical column of air between the surface and the edge of the atmosphere, increasing the pressure.

[y.h]

your video should have much more likes. and thanks for responding to questions in comments. very useful info

[aarthikrishnan]

I have to present about these front for this weekend class . I don't know about it priorly .. it will help my presentation as well. Thank you!

[JadePope-zzho]

This is, in general a reasonably good explanation, however there are some errors in the details, the biggest one being this:
WE DO USE PRESSURE ALTITUDE WHEN IN THE AIRCRAFT. All higher altitude flights rely on setting the barometric pressure at 29.92" of mercury (1013.2 mb) in the Kollsman window, to give a Pressure Altitude reading, this is what Flight Levels (FL) are based on. I'm using the U.S. as an example. Flight safety in Class A airspace (i.e. >18000' MSL < FL600) relies on the fact that when at altitudes of 18000' and above all aircraft reset their altimeters to a sea level barometric pressure setting of 29.92" rather than the sea level barometric pressure setting obtained at their departure airport. Doing this allows vertical separation to be maintained over long distances with varied actual barometric pressure.
For example, if two aircraft were flying the exact same ground track in opposite directions at the same time between New York (NY barometer setting 28.86) and Seattle (Seattle barometer setting 29.92) with the west bound flight supposed to be at 26000' and the east bound flight supposed to be at 27000', due to the different barometer settings they would both be at the same true altitude (i.e. height above mean sea level) when they meet in the middle even though the altimeters in the aircraft show 1000' difference. NOT GOOD! But when they both use the standard pressure setting of 29.92 their true altitude may vary with variations in local barometric pressure but as long as each aircraft maintains their correct indicated altitude their vertical separation relative to each other will be maintained.
As such when the diagram indicates 20500' MSL and a barometer setting of 30.00 that is WRONG. When in the FL at 18000' MSL and above the barometric pressure setting in the Kollsman window of the altimeter should be reset to 29.92

[rgfuller]

This doesn't make any sense. Increased temperature means less pressure because warmer air is less dense.

[y.h]

excellent explanation. had to watch twice and it made sense

[SorenHume]

small note, but above 18K ft, everyone is flying Flight Levels and not Pressure Levels- so not a good to use 20, 500ft as a kollsman window setting scenerio