Sat Oct 26, 2019 10:32 am
#1726598
GTE , lovely rant .... but I'm opposed .
1 NM ..... 1 minute of arc at the equator , [ Gt circle ] therefore angular measurement ; and on this oblate spheroid of ours brill for navigation ... nautical , aeronautical , desert , and I suspect space . Not so good on the meandering , rolling English road .
Metres vis has been in since 1971 to my knowledge , that was decimalisation time , Old D to New p . Not sure 'wot it was B4 then , maybe yards ; which is nearly a metre ................
Calculator time ... 550m x 39 = '' ins devide [ no symbol ] by 12 = 'ft devide by 3 =yards ...... = nearly 600 yds .
600 m. was the old Cat 1 hand flown minma . That got changed to 550 m.
Maybe it was originally in yds , changed to m. Then realised they'd Not converted , and could gain an extra 50 yds/ms in landing limits .
I suggest that there are not so many pilots flying from pre 71' , thus everyone from that time on has M.s in their brain and muscle memory and a change could be V.V. difficult .
I'm with SS [ and he's a baby... Deffo not Babe ! ] on this . Briefing to the US , groping around looking at the forecast , time limited , Ops waiting on a fuel figure , trying to get head around Statute miles , not easy .
[ A least US changed temps to C from F , some while ago . Free'd up many brain cells ; not least 'wot to pack ] .
On tower freq , vis 1/4 sm , ...1/8 sm etc . '' WT+ '' does that mean ? Soon learned to have a small conversion chart on clipboard .
Yes we can learn new numbers , but it's easier on the brain to learn decent round numbers 1500 , 800 , 600 , 550 , 400 , 75 etc . they can be pulled from memory to go to work in brain , to compare with limit of the day ; more easily than 1/8 , 1/4 , 3/8 , etc .
No work today , as it's 9999 , gone to 7K , down to 5000 , tempo 1400 , prob30 tempo 0300 , sky obscured , RADZ ........... Hence time to type !
rgds condor .