I've always noticed that my recorded barometric altitudes were different that what I remember seeing displayed on my Flytec 5030 or 6030. I just wondered if somehow my memory was to blame. Well it turns out it wasn't my memory. Joerg Ewald <<email>> writes:

Found out when talking to the Flytec developers last week that you see is not what you get! Regardless of what pressure adjustment you put in before launch, the recorded barometric altitude is always relative to standard atmosphere (1013.5 hPa).

There continue to be severe problems with using height limitations in hang gliding and paragliding competitions because we are not yet clear on what is displayed to the pilots, how accurate it is, and what is recorded, even when we are talking GPS altitude. Joerg is working on it for the PWC. As I indicated (in an aside) in an article last week about flying with Gerolf, too different instruments can  give wildly different values for "GPS" altitude.