Demise of the Millibar.
I don't own this space under my name. I should have leased it while I still could
A needless change of terminology. The system aint broke, no need to fix it. Just one heck of a lot of documentation changes!
At the moment if a pressure is below 1000 MB we have to say MB after the figures in case any colonials are on freq and think its 29X91 instead of 991 MB !
(If you are reading this after the change over please insert hPa instead of MB !)
(If you are reading this after the change over please insert hPa instead of MB !)
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Amazingly enough,
the Pascal is the SI unit of pressure, and school kids (in Scotland at least) are taught to use SI units - this provides a standardisation that I would argue is essential in high risk businesses (such as the RAF - Violence by Appointment to the Queen, est 1918) to ensure that people don't mess up needlessly (people should be allowed to make their own mistakes without help).
Given the relative ease of converting between the Pascal and the old currency of the millibar, I'd call this one a no brainer. Being part of Europe, and being (now, thanks Cameron) totally dependent on European forces for such essentials as MPA, carriers, errm ships, errrum soldiers, wolf cubs...it's not a bad idea to get used to the SI units that have, after all, supposedly ruled the rest of Europe since I was a wee kiddie.
Anyway, that's my 2d worth!
the Pascal is the SI unit of pressure, and school kids (in Scotland at least) are taught to use SI units - this provides a standardisation that I would argue is essential in high risk businesses (such as the RAF - Violence by Appointment to the Queen, est 1918) to ensure that people don't mess up needlessly (people should be allowed to make their own mistakes without help).
Given the relative ease of converting between the Pascal and the old currency of the millibar, I'd call this one a no brainer. Being part of Europe, and being (now, thanks Cameron) totally dependent on European forces for such essentials as MPA, carriers, errm ships, errrum soldiers, wolf cubs...it's not a bad idea to get used to the SI units that have, after all, supposedly ruled the rest of Europe since I was a wee kiddie.
Anyway, that's my 2d worth!
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If I remember correctly, the SI discourages the use of hecto, centi, deci etc. It advocates that only prefixes separated by 10^3 be used.
After an excellent landing you can use the airplane again!
After an excellent landing you can use the airplane again!
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Good job E-3Ds still use a real measurement - inches - to set their altimeters. Shame the table in the FRCs has inaccuracies in the conversion to metric though.
I would guess our RJs* will use the same, anyone recently back from Nebraska care to confirm? Has the flight deck spec been finalized though?
* mark my words, they will always be known as RJ, no matter how many sodding people whine about it being an arsesniffer, I mean airseeker.
I would guess our RJs* will use the same, anyone recently back from Nebraska care to confirm? Has the flight deck spec been finalized though?
* mark my words, they will always be known as RJ, no matter how many sodding people whine about it being an arsesniffer, I mean airseeker.
Last edited by Willard Whyte; 2nd Jun 2011 at 22:38.
I don't own this space under my name. I should have leased it while I still could
and before we know it, some fool will suggest we go from fuel in gallons to some other funny measurements.
Below the Glidepath - not correcting
Well that's another idiosyncrasy here of course - the use of a temperature scale where water freezes at 32 units, boils at 212 units and beer can only be served at 40 units.
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Two's in
Amazingly a mile is still 5,280 feet, but for some reason yards seem to have fallen into disrepute as unit of measure - and nobody has a clue what a meter(re) is, other than something for measuring electricity consumption.
Personally, I am a chain, hundredweight, fortnight man myself and simply cannot visualise SI Units. 
Pressure is only ever 'sq/in'. In one of his many fascinating programmes, 'Our Fred' (Dibnah) referred to the pressure in a locomotive boiler as; "Twoo 'undred and fifty pownd upon the skwere inch." 
Roger.
And don't forget....
.....cubits. All these old measures were based on the human body which most folk can relate to almost instinctively. Who can honestly say they can "feel" a metre? A foot - easy. Stand beside a horse - hands tell you how tall it is. Inch?- a thumb will give it to you near enough. Even old French carpenters used the "pouce" (thumb).
When things are referenced to the wavelength of some gas in a vacuum there is no real connection to the way we experience the world around us at all.
The Ancient Mariner
When things are referenced to the wavelength of some gas in a vacuum there is no real connection to the way we experience the world around us at all.
The Ancient Mariner
I don't own this space under my name. I should have leased it while I still could