Pilot calculators › Pressure altitude
Pressure altitude calculator
Pressure altitude is what your altimeter reads with 29.92 inHg (1013 hPa) set. You need it for performance charts and for density altitude.
Calculator
Training aid only. Not for flight planning or operational use. Use official weather, your aircraft's POH or AFM, and approved flight-planning tools for real flights.
Enter values to see the result.
How it's calculated
The quick classroom method is pressure altitude = field elevation + (29.92 − altimeter setting) × 1,000. With 29.62 set at a 2,000-foot field, that's 2,000 + 0.30 × 1,000 = 2,300 feet.
The calculator also gives the exact standard-atmosphere result, using the National Weather Service formulas for station pressure. For everyday settings the two differ by only a few tens of feet.
In the airplane you can read it directly: set 29.92 in the Kollsman window and read the altimeter, then set the local setting back.