Aviation uses the most godawful mix of units I’ve ever come across. It makes my head hurt. Despite what most British people would like you to believe, I’m basically European. That means we’ve been using the metric system since the 70s. I’ve never ever had to work in feet, inches, pounds etc.
Throw in the Canadian contingent and that means I’m having to get my head round distance in feet, miles (both statute and nautical), weights in pounds, volumes in gallons (US not UK) or quarts and just for fun we’ll do temperature in proper units (Celsius).
Throw in the Canadian contingent and that means I’m having to get my head round distance in feet, miles (both statute and nautical), weights in pounds, volumes in gallons (US not UK) or quarts and just for fun we’ll do temperature in proper units (Celsius).
I’ve also come across mm Hg, hectoPascals (I think they used to be millibars), force measured in pounds, horsepower and dynes. I’m dealing with speed in knots and so on and so forth.
And so what? I hear you ask. They are all just numbers right? Well yes except that I have no internal frame of reference for these numbers. I have no idea how many feet in a mile, tell me a runway is 3000ft long and I have no idea if I could land a Cessna or a Space Shuttle there.
It all conspires, yet again, to make me feel stupid. It’s a whole new sub-language I need to assimilate and learn. My only other option is to keep doing the conversation math in my head. That’s probably not the best plan long term. Canadian Aviation and converting between metric and imperial don’t have the best history…. Gimli Glider anyone?
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