3 hours ago, Luis Hernandez said:

Or a Gimli Glider...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gimli_Glider

In gliders and in Europe we use mostly the metric system.

Most gliders have their altimeters in meter, variometers in meter per second and airspeed indicators in kilometer per hour :-)

We also use mostly QFE for our altimeter :-)

It's from the early 30s of the 20th Century ....

9 minutes ago, jcomm said:

In gliders and in Europe we use mostly the metric system.

Most gliders have their altimeters in meter, variometers in meter per second and airspeed indicators in kilometer per hour 🙂

We also use mostly QFE for our altimeter 🙂

It's from the early 30s of the 20th Century ....

Actually that "glider" mentioned above was a 767 which run out of fuel due to wrong calculation (metric vs imperial) and some other reasons. Luckily no casualities.

11 hours ago, ShawnG said:

Metric is more abstract and useful for science, and easy to get to grips with conversions and such, but the imperial system has an advantage of being more “organic” a foot is more or less the length of a man’s foot,  a yard roughly the length of an arm, while a meter is a derivative of the circumference of the earth, which is less relatable (other than it’s pretty close to a yard). The Celsius temperature scale scales 0-100 as between the freezing and boiling states of water, but Fahrenheit, probably accidentally, scales really well to human weather tolerance (I.e. 0 is horribly cold and 100 is horribly hot to be out in). 

sure, we tend to like what we grew up with and understand well,  but there’s nothing horrible about imperial measurements for daily general use, unless of course, it’s something you aren’t used to.

but aviation uses one standard for distances and speeds for worldwide common use, as well as uses English as the official language.  Weights are not directly relevant to Atc or cooperation, so tend to follow the standards of where the airline operator is based.  

There is nothing "organic" about the imperial system for Europeans! IMO it is hopelessly unconvenient when converting units or doing calculations and there is nothing logical about it. Off course, any system one grew up with feels more "organic", it is like ones own first language: it's just feels natural because one grew up with it

It is strange that aviation has not matured the same way science has, but since the USA plays such a large role in world wide aviation any changes might be difficult to implement.

1 hour ago, Nemo said:

Actually that "glider" mentioned above was a 767 which run out of fuel due to wrong calculation (metric vs imperial) and some other reasons. Luckily no casualities.

Indeed and also the captain flying it was an active glider pilot, just like Captain Sully ....

I still remember that Lufthansa in the 70s of last Century recruted only glider pilots for their "ATPL" courses 🙂

Glider pilots are BETTER pilots !

Edited May 23, 20224 yr by jcomm

1 hour ago, jcomm said:

Glider pilots are BETTER pilots

Some are.
Some aren't. 

1 death in 64k hours (GA) vs 1 death in 50k hours (gliding), and accidents in gliding are roughly 90% pure pilot errors.

let me guess, you fly gliders? 😉 

 

6 minutes ago, SAS443 said:

Some are.
Some aren't. 

1 death in 64k hours (GA) vs 1 death in 50k hours (gliding), and accidents in gliding are roughly 90% pure pilot errors.

let me guess, you fly gliders? 😉 

 

Hmmmm, yep !  Only thing I ever flew for real...

You're 100% right about pilot error, but that pretty much applies to the all other aircraft classes as well, from flying to ( not ) planning a flight through areas that certain aircraft and pilot certification should not be allowed into...

Edited May 23, 20224 yr by jcomm

2 hours ago, jcomm said:

In gliders and in Europe we use mostly the metric system.

Most gliders have their altimeters in meter, variometers in meter per second and airspeed indicators in kilometer per hour 🙂

Not in the UK, I fly in Knots and feet and navigate in NM ... but tasks we plan in KM 🙂

I think there is less to go wrong mechanically in a glider and we usually stay in the clubhouse when the weather is poot so more accidents will be a consequence of pilot misjudgement or 'error'.

Edited May 23, 20224 yr by keithb77

20 hours ago, Fielder said:

I hate metric measurements. They aren't fine enough. A meter is too long, a foot is just right. A decimeter is too short. When someone tells me how tall or long something is in feet, then I can picture it. If they tell me in yards, I can't picture it. A yard is too long to be a handy reference. Same thing for a meter.

I understand a foot long hot dog at a sandwich shop. On the other hand a .3 meter long hot dog leaves me clueless as to what I would get for the money.

Wait until you hear about centimetres and millimetres. 😛

As others have said, it's all about what you're used to.

Proof: I can't even make my mind up about what I prefer personally. I'm a glider pilot and got used to metres for altitude and kph for airspeed in that context, so that's what feels "organic" to me... but only for gliders! When I'm flying airliners in the sim, I'd be hopeless if I had to plan my descent in metre altitudes and kilometre distances. Give me feet and nautical miles or I can't function.

21 hours ago, Fielder said:

I hate metric measurements. They aren't fine enough.

😁😁😁

I guess you never heard of decimals

 

17 minutes ago, martinboehme said:

it's all about what you're used to.

You may use it to your advantage; you European guys will readily reckognize that for instance, when in shop and shopping for cheese and salami, you'll ALWAYS order in dekagrams! Only occasionaly people order in grams or kilograms. However, I have NEVER heard someone ordering in hectograms!!! Which is unfair and needs to change!

So, whenever a shop employee is unfair to me (for it takes her too long to cut the cheese), I place my next order not like ' 30 dekagrams of mortadella, but 3 hectograms of mortadella. If I manage to keep the straight face, the poor creature is tempted to call for the supervisor! 😉

Why can the world decide to scrap that weird measurement system, 5/16? what the heck is that nonsense 😄

I want to add that we sometimes also use km/h for airspeed, m/s for vertical speed, BUT feet for altitude. That's how it was in the C42 ultralight I flew a while ago in Germany.

1 hour ago, Ixoye said:

Why can the world decide to scrap that weird measurement system, 5/16? what the heck is that nonsense 😄

7.94mm  if you mean inch

Edited May 23, 20224 yr by westman