What a strange set of units...

3rd April 2007, 01:07 PM

Are used in US aviation.

Knots/Mach for horizontal speed
Feet per second for vertical speed except gliders
Inches of mercury for atmospheric pressure
Pounds for load
Gallons/pounds for fuel
Statute miles for visiblity
Nautical miles for navigation
Feet for altitude
Degrees C for temperature
Degrees/minutes for course and attitude angles
UTC for time zone

What a seemingly random collection of units,
and I'm probably missing a couple

3rd April 2007, 01:22 PM

"Jim Stewart" <jstewart@jkmicro.com> wrote in message
> Are used in US aviation.

> Feet per second for vertical speed except gliders

Mine is feet per minute

> Feet for altitude

Until you get to flight levels

> What a seemingly random collection of units,
> and I'm probably missing a couple

Of course, you forgot the monetary unit

3rd April 2007, 02:15 PM

"Jim Stewart" <jstewart@jkmicro.com> wrote in message
news:HNednckf071wFI_bnZ2dnUVZ_revnZ2d@omsoft.com.. .
>
> Are used in US aviation.
>
> Knots/Mach for horizontal speed
> Feet per second for vertical speed except gliders
>

I think feet per minute would be more common.

3rd April 2007, 03:00 PM

But they work perfectly for aviation.Very few if any incidents are
related to these strange combination of units. In fact, the only
accident I can recall is the Air Canada flight that ran out of fuel in
the early 80's due to the metric conversion.

On Apr 3, 1:07 pm, Jim Stewart <jstew...@jkmicro.com> wrote:
> Are used in US aviation.
>
> Knots/Mach for horizontal speed
> Feet per second for vertical speed except gliders
> Inches of mercury for atmospheric pressure
> Pounds for load
> Gallons/pounds for fuel
> Statute miles for visiblity
> Nautical miles for navigation
> Feet for altitude
> Degrees C for temperature
> Degrees/minutes for course and attitude angles
> UTC for time zone
>
> What a seemingly random collection of units,
> and I'm probably missing a couple

3rd April 2007, 03:08 PM

Steve Foley wrote:

> Of course, you forgot the monetary unit

I've been meaning to ask, what's an AMU?

3rd April 2007, 03:12 PM

"Jim Stewart" <jstewart@jkmicro.com> wrote in message
news:XqOdnWxV6-exO4_bnZ2dnUVZ_ufinZ2d@omsoft.com...
> Steve Foley wrote:
>
>> Of course, you forgot the monetary unit
>
> I've been meaning to ask, what's an AMU?
>

Aviation Monetary Unit.

Loosely translated, a thousand bucks. Never to be translated in the vicinity
of a non-flying spouse.

3rd April 2007, 03:55 PM

Steve Foley wrote:
> "Jim Stewart" <jstewart@jkmicro.com> wrote in message
> news:XqOdnWxV6-exO4_bnZ2dnUVZ_ufinZ2d@omsoft.com...
>
>>Steve Foley wrote:
>>
>>
>>>Of course, you forgot the monetary unit
>>
>>I've been meaning to ask, what's an AMU?
>>
>
>
> Aviation Monetary Unit.
>
> Loosely translated, a thousand bucks. Never to be translated in the vicinity
> of a non-flying spouse.

Sadly it all makes sense now.

Thanks, I think.

3rd April 2007, 04:22 PM

On Apr 3, 10:07 am, Jim Stewart <jstew...@jkmicro.com> wrote:

> What a seemingly random collection of units,
> and I'm probably missing a couple

Not quite as random as you would think. Knots translates easily into
nautical miles, which in turn make navigation much easier. Nautical
miles are based on the fact that the earth is round and divided into
degrees of latitude -- nautical miles make all the math come out even.

Degrees centigrade work well for estimating temperature change with
altitude.

3rd April 2007, 06:07 PM

On Apr 3, 4:22 pm, "cjcampbell" <christophercampb...@m>
wrote:
> Not quite as random as you would think. Knots translates easily into
> nautical miles, which in turn make navigation much easier. Nautical
> miles are based on the fact that the earth is round and divided into
> degrees of latitude -- nautical miles make all the math come out even.

Yes, it's strange that AOPA fought tooth and nail to prevent the
"forced" civilian switchover to knots back in the early 50's.

Kev

3rd April 2007, 08:09 PM

On Apr 3, 3:07 pm, kdarl...@basit.com wrote:
> On Apr 3, 4:22 pm, "cjcampbell" <christophercampb...@m>
> wrote:
>
> > Not quite as random as you would think. Knots translates easily into
> > nautical miles, which in turn make navigation much easier. Nautical
> > miles are based on the fact that the earth is round and divided into
> > degrees of latitude -- nautical miles make all the math come out even.
>
> Yes, it's strange that AOPA fought tooth and nail to prevent the
> "forced" civilian switchover to knots back in the early 50's.
>
> Kev

Well, AOPA figured that GA pilots don't make long cross countries. It
was shortsighted of them, completely ignoring the bizjet market that
was about to be born.