Metric vs Imperial
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Metric vs Imperial
Just listening to the Radio 2 debate on whether it is a good thing that the EU is allowing us to keep imperial measurements running alongside metric.
For myself, I prefer to order a pint of beer or a pound of apples and to know how many miles to the gallon the old jalopy is doing.
From an aviation point of view, though, is it not a bit stupid to be operating some aircraft with kilograms and others with pounds? I remember an accident in the States a few years ago where a Boeing something or other, with a dicky fuel gauge, was deadsticked into a disused airfield after running out of fuel. This was because the captain had asked for x kgs of fuel to be loaded for the flight but the re-fuellers had loaded x pounds instead.
Should we not bite the bullet and go for a single system?
My feeling is yes.
The rest of Europe should be made to adopt our sensible imperial system and ditch their illogical kilothingies. While they're at it, they should stop driving on the wrong side of the road too!
For myself, I prefer to order a pint of beer or a pound of apples and to know how many miles to the gallon the old jalopy is doing.
From an aviation point of view, though, is it not a bit stupid to be operating some aircraft with kilograms and others with pounds? I remember an accident in the States a few years ago where a Boeing something or other, with a dicky fuel gauge, was deadsticked into a disused airfield after running out of fuel. This was because the captain had asked for x kgs of fuel to be loaded for the flight but the re-fuellers had loaded x pounds instead.
Should we not bite the bullet and go for a single system?
My feeling is yes.
The rest of Europe should be made to adopt our sensible imperial system and ditch their illogical kilothingies. While they're at it, they should stop driving on the wrong side of the road too!
While you're at it you might want to try to get the Russians and the Chinese to stop using metric Flight Levels - and everyone in the world to use QNH instead of QFE - Good Luck
dak - your friends the French had a tres bonne idea - their alouette 3 helis had IAS in km/hr, height in meters and a max pitch calculator which required height to be input in feet. Oh, and the VSI was in ft/min. Alouetted 2 had IAS in kts and height in meters! And their aircrew were not allowed to drink alcohol before flying, but they did not consider wine to be alcohol! Hey Ho.
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and when we asked the Aussie in-flight caterers for drinks to go with the packed lunch they went all quiet.
Seems the only thing Aussie's drink is in tinnies and they would not let us have any tinnies for in-flight.
I think if they had we might have kept them for post-flight or simply gone u/s.
And Le Frogs? At a French radar station all the lunch tables had flasks of wine. The building next to the dining room also had a large hole in the wall from an over enthusiastic Mirage pilot who had bombed them; presumably after lunch.
Seems the only thing Aussie's drink is in tinnies and they would not let us have any tinnies for in-flight.
I think if they had we might have kept them for post-flight or simply gone u/s.
And Le Frogs? At a French radar station all the lunch tables had flasks of wine. The building next to the dining room also had a large hole in the wall from an over enthusiastic Mirage pilot who had bombed them; presumably after lunch.
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So what's wrong with having an aircraft that is weighed in kilograms, refuelled in pounds but has a fuel gauge marked in percent? All you need to remeber is that five seconds refuelling off the pump = 1%.
I do have a nav ruler with nautical miles marked on it but have crossed these out and re-marked it with my own scale. As I fly a metric aircraft I think it's safer to measure my charts in kms. I convert these to rods, chains and perches and thus know exactly what fuel % per air nautical furlong I'm getting.
Heights I convert to fathoms. I learned this trick to avoid being caught out by the British Army's 1980s proposal for the new joint services aviation charts of West Germany. They marked contours in feet but put all spot heights in metres; all hills appeared to have craters as the top of the hill was the lowest point. I thought depth measurement seemed more appropriate back then and I never shook the habit. It sounds tricky but for safety I divide by six and add one for the pot, two at night. The built in deliberate error margin ensures that I never meet another aircraft at the same flight level as me.
It's easy when you know how.
Oh well, I'm just off now for a couple of jugs and a firkin.
I do have a nav ruler with nautical miles marked on it but have crossed these out and re-marked it with my own scale. As I fly a metric aircraft I think it's safer to measure my charts in kms. I convert these to rods, chains and perches and thus know exactly what fuel % per air nautical furlong I'm getting.
Heights I convert to fathoms. I learned this trick to avoid being caught out by the British Army's 1980s proposal for the new joint services aviation charts of West Germany. They marked contours in feet but put all spot heights in metres; all hills appeared to have craters as the top of the hill was the lowest point. I thought depth measurement seemed more appropriate back then and I never shook the habit. It sounds tricky but for safety I divide by six and add one for the pot, two at night. The built in deliberate error margin ensures that I never meet another aircraft at the same flight level as me.
It's easy when you know how.
Oh well, I'm just off now for a couple of jugs and a firkin.
Shy
I'd have expected 'leagues' to be there somewhere, since flying with you always seemed to feature a 'valley of death'!
CG
PS
Mike Wright used to use tads and smidges but I don't recall the conversion factor. Where is he these days?
I'd have expected 'leagues' to be there somewhere, since flying with you always seemed to feature a 'valley of death'!
CG
PS
Mike Wright used to use tads and smidges but I don't recall the conversion factor. Where is he these days?
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Oops some people have had problems in the past confusing the two systems ...
http://www.cnn.com/TECH/space/9909/30/mars.metric.02/
TC.
http://www.cnn.com/TECH/space/9909/30/mars.metric.02/
TC.
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As a result of the new EU legislation Imperial and metric units will continue to operate alongside each other.
Consequently it will be mandatory to calibrate all accelerometers in 'Dynes per Slug' from 31 Jul 07. The use of 'G' units on accelerometers will be illegal and be rigorously enforced by inspectors with severe penalties for offenders.
Consequently it will be mandatory to calibrate all accelerometers in 'Dynes per Slug' from 31 Jul 07. The use of 'G' units on accelerometers will be illegal and be rigorously enforced by inspectors with severe penalties for offenders.
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Mike Wright used to use tads and smidges but I don't recall the conversion factor. Where is he these days?
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Imperial Airways?
CG, Valleys of death? But at least you didn't suffer the under wires at 140 kts (did the SOP slow recce bit on the way down, so quite naturally thought it was OK to go a bit faster on the way home. Scared Doris half to death though - he threatened to batter me to death if I ever did that to him again, oops. Mind you, I still smile at the thought of him holding the door handle, waiting for "clear for doors" when the big pylon went past the window at 140 kts ). The things young men do when the military system fires you up to fight the advancing hordes, "any day now". I have grown up a bit... 
MW went plank wings, I think - he did a B737 conversion in the 1990s.
CG, Valleys of death? But at least you didn't suffer the under wires at 140 kts (did the SOP slow recce bit on the way down, so quite naturally thought it was OK to go a bit faster on the way home. Scared Doris half to death though - he threatened to batter me to death if I ever did that to him again, oops. Mind you, I still smile at the thought of him holding the door handle, waiting for "clear for doors" when the big pylon went past the window at 140 kts
). The things young men do when the military system fires you up to fight the advancing hordes, "any day now". I have grown up a bit... MW went plank wings, I think - he did a B737 conversion in the 1990s.
I've always been taken by the FFF system in which the base units for mass, distance and time are firkin, furlong and fortnight. One furlong per fortnight is, more or less 1 cm per minute which makes it relatively easy to convert for people using more prosaic base units.
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It may please you to know that the A380 is Imperial....
Napoleon on the Metre.
“Nothing is more contrary to the organisation of the mind, of the memory, and of the imagination. The new system of weights and measures will be a stumbling block and the source of difficulties for several generations. It's just tormenting the people with trivia”.
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It may please you to know that the A380 is Imperial....
Maybe that's because half the engineers working on it are Brits, the other half are still arguing on what language the tech manuals should be written in! or are "out to lunch"
.... From a reliable source in Bremen
aaahem.
Maybe that's because half the engineers working on it are Brits, the other half are still arguing on what language the tech manuals should be written in! or are "out to lunch"
.... From a reliable source in Bremen
aaahem.
Metric/Imperial Measurments
Gentlemen may I refer you to the missing fiddle factor in all this. It is of course a gnats, and no I'm not talking about a Valley based scooter of old.
Ecce Homo! Loquitur...
Hmmm,
I remember, at LU, we had fuel delivered by BR in gallons; supply stored in the BFIs in cubic metres; we loaded the tankers in Lbs or tons; and the receivers took it in Lbs, Kgs or Ltrs.
The F3,of course, having internal fuel in Kgs with external tanks in Ltrs....
Someone asked us to standardise the tankers to use tons - the question went back was that the Metric tonne, the Imperial ton, or the US ton.....
Not to mention distances in Statute miles, Nautical miles and Data miles. And, of course Kilometres.
The most dangerous one is the differences in passing Lat&Long - older aircraft use Degrees/Minutes/Seconds. Most modern ones use Degrees/decimal Minutes (e.g. 54D30M30S North = 54.5050N) But some systems use Degrees/Minutes/decimal Seconds.....
Which sounds dangerous for plotting a target - till you add UTM and MGRS and differing Geodetic datums.
Not to mention the mixing of bearings/alignment in True, Magnetic and Grid north; Degrees and Mils.
I won't even start on the mix speeds when when working in a mixed surface/land/air environment.....
I remember, at LU, we had fuel delivered by BR in gallons; supply stored in the BFIs in cubic metres; we loaded the tankers in Lbs or tons; and the receivers took it in Lbs, Kgs or Ltrs.
The F3,of course, having internal fuel in Kgs with external tanks in Ltrs....
Someone asked us to standardise the tankers to use tons - the question went back was that the Metric tonne, the Imperial ton, or the US ton.....
Not to mention distances in Statute miles, Nautical miles and Data miles. And, of course Kilometres.
The most dangerous one is the differences in passing Lat&Long - older aircraft use Degrees/Minutes/Seconds. Most modern ones use Degrees/decimal Minutes (e.g. 54D30M30S North = 54.5050N) But some systems use Degrees/Minutes/decimal Seconds.....
Which sounds dangerous for plotting a target - till you add UTM and MGRS and differing Geodetic datums.
Not to mention the mixing of bearings/alignment in True, Magnetic and Grid north; Degrees and Mils.
I won't even start on the mix speeds when when working in a mixed surface/land/air environment.....
The perils of standardisation
In the 1960's a NATO STANAG was published obliging all parties to calibrate piston engine boost gauges in inches of mercury (i.e. per US practise). Unfortunately RAF aircraft were calibrated in lbs of boost. Even more unfortunately large multi crew aircraft such as the Hastings were flown on approach with both hands on the wheel and power settings called to the Flt. Eng. What had been hitherto impeccable 3 degree glide slopes achieved by a few power changes such as "minus 2", "minus 4", etc, now became violently divergent excursions inversely proportional to P1's ability to do mental arithmetic. For 0 boost was now 32"Hg, -2 became 32+(2x-2), -4 was 32+(2x-4) etc. Eventually learned of course, but all rather unnecessary along with all the other tidy minded nonsense of simplifying weights and measures.
Oh for those very useful tables that were printed on the back covers of school exercise books: Rods, Poles, Perches, Hundredweights, Gills, Pecks, Bushels, Chauldrons, Firkins, Hogsheads, Fagots (you there boy, stop sniggering!). Let us emulate our nautical brethren and their safeguarding of Cables and Fathoms. This new ruling allows us surely to define future equipment in the units mentioned above. Never mind Imperial, bring back Anglo-Saxon measure and resist thereafter all pressure to "standardise"!
Oh for those very useful tables that were printed on the back covers of school exercise books: Rods, Poles, Perches, Hundredweights, Gills, Pecks, Bushels, Chauldrons, Firkins, Hogsheads, Fagots (you there boy, stop sniggering!). Let us emulate our nautical brethren and their safeguarding of Cables and Fathoms. This new ruling allows us surely to define future equipment in the units mentioned above. Never mind Imperial, bring back Anglo-Saxon measure and resist thereafter all pressure to "standardise"!
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I remember the outrage when pounds shillings and pence were to become decimal ...... 
There are still some who think we should have stuck with the old lsd ...........
There are still some who think we should have stuck with the old lsd ...........