FED, you make a fair point about digital technology. No doubt the same can be said of clocks and watches as of compasses, that it is the readout rather than the inner workings that remain in the traditional units. Perhaps that Stanag will happen for real one day!
Certainly one that did happen turned my own world briefly upside down. Wef some date in the 60s all NATO boost gauges were to be calibrated in "Hg instead of lbs of boost. Not really much of a problem if setting your own power of course, the needle went to the same position o'clock for the same power.
On the Hastings though you didn't set your own power, you needed both hands to drive the beast. Instead the pilot called the power and the engineer set it, repeating the instructions as confirmation. On the approach this could be a constant exchange in gusty conditions; "minus six, minus four, minus two, zero, minus two, etc". Suddenly all that changed, zero became 32", and for all other settings you applied double the original difference. Hence minus two became 28" (32+(2*-2)), minus four became 24", etc. Similarly for the positive boost settings.
Some took to it like ducks to water, others such as I had our mental arithmetic capabilities severely tested, and nice stable approaches became instead ever increasing sinusoidal divergences as the lag between the desired power and that achieved became greater. Of course we all got the hang of it in the end, we had to, but I've often wondered if that was not some sort of joke dreamed up by Higher Command. Oh how we laughed!
Last edited by Chugalug2; 26th May 2014 at 09:09.