4 hours ago, Chock said:

 ......in a matter of minutes at EGCC if you......

There is a strictly-enforced 20 mph speed limit on all the airfield, with that down to 10mph in some marked places and 5mph limit......

Shouldn't it be KMH over there 😁

Just like in the chidren's song ...

The wheels on the forklift turn the wrong way
Turn the wrong way
Turn the wrong way
The wheels on the forklift turn the wrong way
All 'round the terminal

2 hours ago, Phantoms said:

Shouldn't it be KMH over there 😁

In the UK? Nah, it's all MPH over here. Nobody uses KMH in the UK, if you told someone in the UK to drive at 20 KMH, I can guarantee you they'd ask you 'what is that in MPH?' Attempts at that sort of thing being forced on us is one of the reasons why loads of people voted to leave the EU. 🤣

Edited December 31, 20205 yr by Chock

32 minutes ago, Chock said:

In the UK? Nah, it's all MPH over here. Nobody uses KMH in the UK, if you told someone in the UK to drive at 20 KMH, I can guarantee you they'd ask you 'what is that in MPH?' Attempts at that sort of thing being forced on us is one of the reasons why loads of people voted to leave the EU. 🤣

On the other hand Australia switched over in the 60's so it is only the old guys like me that even remember imperial. We have a few luddites that still have fond memories of the old days but they are getting rarer and rarer as time goes on.

One interesting thing is it drove a much needed  movement away from UK and US imports towards Asia as buying things with imperial dimensions, nuts and bolts etc is a real PITA when the rest of your country is metric.  Though that said the UK was always insane with thread sizes ... British Standard Whitworth, British Association, British Standard Pipe, British Standard Fine, British Standard Cycle (this one has a unique 60 degree thread angle and TPI depended on Motorcycle brand) and that is just the common "standard" ones  😄 ... then the US has its own sizes and there are the unified imperial standards.

Metric on the other hand just comes in coarse and fine for most use cases.

Edited December 31, 20205 yr by Glenn Fitzpatrick

1 hour ago, Chock said:

In the UK? Nah, it's all MPH over here. Nobody uses KMH in the UK, if you told someone in the UK to drive at 20 KMH, I can guarantee you they'd ask you 'what is that in MPH?' Attempts at that sort of thing being forced on us is one of the reasons why loads of people voted to leave the EU. 🤣

That’s interesting, I didn’t know that. Are distances still referenced in meters/kilometers or in miles now? 

1 hour ago, cmpbellsjc said:

That’s interesting, I didn’t know that. Are distances still referenced in meters/kilometers or in miles now? 

You are from Tucson, so you don't have to drive very far to see those signs. I used to live in your area, and I remember how weird it was even 20? miles before you get to the border seeing signs in KMH.

https://usma.org/metric-signs

Next thing you know, we'll be seeing street signs in Knots...

 

10 minutes ago, Alpine Scenery said:

You are from Tucson, so you don't have to drive very far to see those signs. I used to live in your area, and I remember how weird it was even 20? miles before you get to the border seeing signs in KMH.

https://usma.org/metric-signs

Next thing you know, we'll be seeing street signs in Knots...

 

 

Knots for speed and furlongs for length and fathoms for height. Though measuring speed in furlongs per fortnight has its appeal.

5 hours ago, Phantoms said:

Shouldn't it be KMH over there 😁

Sorry? Is the UK a Canadian province these days? 

10 hours ago, Chock said:

Not where I worked it didn't (Manchester Airport UK). You'd have had your airside driving permit pulled in a matter of minutes at EGCC if you'd gone around overtly breaking any or the rules for vehicles. And given the amount of exams and tests you have to do to get one, that is probably why nobody screws around. Anyone who does not have an Airside Driving Permit (such as a construction vehicle temporarily working on the aerodrome maybe resurfacing a ramp or whatever, had to be escorted by a follow me vehicle when moving around the road system.

There is a strictly-enforced 20 mph speed limit on all the airfield, with that down to 10mph in some marked places and 5mph limit in one or two places as well as inside all enclosed structures. There are speed cameras all over the place too. The Air Ops police would pull you over and taken your permit off you on the spot, and then you'd be sent home if you infringed any of this. If it was a minor infringement, you might get your permit back after a day or two and some mandatory re-training and a bit of a dressing down, but if it was a serious infringement, that'd be you losing your job.

For example, I was once doing the road marshalling wands when pushing out an Aer Lingus A320 off stand 8 at EGCC, so I went into the road to stop traffic and a vehicle (transit van) didn't stop until it was behind the aeroplane's port engine - which was running as it had done a busted APU start up. I signalled the tug and headset guys to emergency stop the push, which they did. Then the Air Ops police came over. The guy in the van tried to claim I was not in the road and had not signalled traffic to stop, claiming he had taken a picture of this (which would have been a miracle if he had a phone camera ready on the off-chance that he knew he was going to drive behind and aeroplane with its ant--collision beacons on, so it was clearly bull****, what he had done is taken a picture of the road after I'd walked back onto the ramp, and I straight up said this to him and that he was lying when the Air Ops people showed up.

Air Ops pulled the CCTV footage from the cameras on the adjacent stands, which proved I genuinely was in the road marshalling amnd signalling traffic to stop when the guy did not stop, and so the guy had his licence pulled on the spot and I subsequently learned that he had been sacked for trying to bull**** the Air Ops guys as well as for having driven dangerously and ignored a marshaler (me) and ignored an aeroplane's anti-coillision beacons. If he'd have held his hand up and said 'oops, sorry about that', he'd have probably just got a dressing down and kept his licence and his job as well, because anyone can make a mistake and honesty is the best policy in these matters, but that guy was also speeding when he came around the corned (I noticed that at the time as well), so that was part of the reason why he could not stop in time, thus it served him right to lose his job for being a pillock and endangering other people and I'm glad he got sacked.

Yep. As a ramp worker and driver at EFHK, I have many times been amused about the sim ground handling. Many would have lost, if not their lives, at least their driving permits. 

8 hours ago, cmpbellsjc said:

That’s interesting, I didn’t know that. Are distances still referenced in meters/kilometers or in miles now? 

If you asked someone in the street where something was, the chances are they'd say it's a mile or so up the road rather than give you a distance in kilometres, and if you asked someone how tall a building was, they'd probably say a number in feet.

It might change in time, but I can't see it being for a long while, for example, all the road speed limit signs are in mph and the motorway signs are all in miles. Things such as the eye test for driving or questions on braking distances  for the driving test are usually in feet although sometimes you will see a second reference mon measurements, such as 100ft/30.5 metres. Theoretically we went over to metric measurements for food and that is a legal requirement for packaging, but I suspect most people would still say 'get me a pound of sugar, and five pound of spuds' if they asked you to go shopping. One place aspect where you do notice metric being widespread, is that even though if you go into a pub and still ask for 'a pint', most drinks sold in shops are sold in litres and everyone seems okay with that.

The truth is, the metric system is a lot more sensible and easier to calculate stuff, since it is pretty much all multiples of ten, and it's also a lot easier to understand what an 8mm spanner it (wrench in the US) instead of asking for a 3/8ths spanner or some such, and as Glen mentioned on this thread, old British nut and bolt sizes were in a variety of formats which is a bit of a nightmare in comparison to, for example new cars, where you can be pretty sure that a metric spanner set will undo everything.

But visually, I know what 1,000 foot of altitude looks like and I know what quarter of a mile looks like, whereas if you asked me what for example 1,700 meters looked like, I'd be pretty clueless, so some metric stuff is of no use to me personally, and especially altimeters and speedos.

 

9 hours ago, Glenn Fitzpatrick said:

then the US has its own sizes and there are the unified imperial standards.

When I was in 6th grade, I’m nearly 50 now - so mid 1980s, we were taught the metric system. It was a big push to have the US convert. We were told as children we had to learn it because as adults it would be all we would be using!

Of course, in the US Military you get used to it as it’s standard to play nice with our allies. (Ever hear, “about three clicks that way” in a war movie? Clicks equal kilometers and are named after adjustments to artillery sights which click and equal more or less a kilometer).

I grew up on the border with Mexico and used both, although in Mexico it’s not all metric or Imperial, it’s a mix depending on the measurement.

You can buy food stuff in bulk by the pound (libra in Spanish), but speed limits are in kmh.

We drove at 55 in the US then and 90 in Mexico... as a kid the kmh speed limits were impressive...

Edited December 31, 20205 yr by Cmcollazo71

12 hours ago, Chock said:

In the UK? Nah, it's all MPH over here. Nobody uses KMH in the UK, if you told someone in the UK to drive at 20 KMH, I can guarantee you they'd ask you 'what is that in MPH?' Attempts at that sort of thing being forced on us is one of the reasons why loads of people voted to leave the EU. 🤣

Learn something new every day. Thanks for bringing it out into the open for us Americans that didn't know.