Runway Lengths

I find it odd that runway lengths are now being given in metres when with the exception of Russia and China nautical miles are used for distance.

canberra wrote:

I find it odd that runway lengths are now being given in metres when with the exception of Russia and China nautical miles are used for distance.

Not sure about China but Russia quotes heights/altitudes in metres instead of feet as used in most other countries!
In the UK, distances measured on the surface of an airfield are in metres/km as are visibility reports in met observations, but everything else is in nautical miles.
Another anomoly is measurements of liquid; a military aircraft re-fuelling at a civil airfield will quote the quantity required in lb or kg, but civil airfields only sell fuel in litres nowadays. Pilots of civil light aircraft get round this by asking for (as an example) 'an inch below the top'.

I know they only sell in litres at civil airfields (the RAF sell in litres as well) but IIRC the bowsers are in kilos and pilots know how to convert. And as far as I know all military aircraft use kilos for fuel weights, the Harrier was the last one in Imperial.

But when it comes to metric and imperial in aviation remember the Giml glider!!!

canberra wrote:

... remember the Giml glider!!!

I was unaware of this. Fascinating (wrong word, but it'll have to do).
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gimli_Glider

Reminded me of the Galunggung Gliding Club membership.
www.reuters.com/article/us-europe-air-ju...dUSTRE63E4TF20100415

There was a docudrama on TV a while ago and the bit that sticks in my mind was:

canberra wrote:

I know they only sell in litres at civil airfields (the RAF sell in litres as well) but IIRC the bowsers are in kilos and pilots know how to convert. And as far as I know all military aircraft use kilos for fuel weights, the Harrier was the last one in Imperial.

But when it comes to metric and imperial in aviation remember the Giml glider!!!

Bowsers at Blackbushe, Farnborough and Fairoaks are all calibrated in litres only.
Before the Gimli, wasn't there a Viscount which ran out of fuel inbound to Exeter late '70s for the same reason?

I remember the Viscount at Exeter, I think it may have been early eighties, it was one of Alidairs. Someone will no why it ran out, but I dont think it was down to underfuelling.

Continuing slightly off topic. In Russia wind speed was given in metres per second so you had to keep your wits about you when flight planning Moscow to Tokyo.

Then there was the Qantas B707 load sheets in the early 1970's, which had weights in pounds and kilos! Thank goodness they eventually went with kilos when B747 came along.

Mixed units is a continuing problem. The army use mils (and I forget how many of them there are in a degree), thats because at one kilometre a mil is a metre. And when the artillery are firing to adjust they say things like up 100, so they adjust their fire by 100 mils or 100 metres.

But dont forget the joint NASA and European Space Agency mission to Mars. NASA did all their dimensions of the bits they built in Imperial and of course ESA did theirs in metric. And it all went wrong!

According to Wiki the Viscount was from Alidair and it happened on 17th July 1980 and it crashed at Ottery St Mary.