UK Pilots - what unit do you use?

[Smithers-1968]

Not a technical question, just wondering.

Here in the UK we like to be not quite European. We fill ours cars with Litres of petrol but drive them miles. That sort of thing.

Naturally we extend that to Gliding where we like Knots and feet on instruments but travel Kilometres.

Condor doesn't quite support our weird mix but Australian units come close enough.

But when flying multiplayer tasks are usually set in metric for max start height, min finish height, weather conditions etc. which is something else to think about. Also, when chatting in teamspeak we have to convert.

So, just curious, what does everyone use? Also, do you change it to the host country as if you were flying a borrowed glider from their club?

[MrHerisson]

...
We fill ours cars with Litres of petrol but drive them miles.
...

Really? and how do talk about your mileage?? over here we say how many litres we'd use to drive 100Km, when I was in the USA, they would say how many miles they could run with a gallon....do you also use a mix of those

Anyways, I am used to the metric system and I must say that everthing being a multiple of 10 sure makes calculations a lot easier

So that is what I use....except for that one time where I messed up with a altimetre goodie and got stuck with an altimetre with numbers in feet but needles showing alt in meters....quite easy to read i would say ..

[Smithers-1968]

Miles per Gallon of course!

Metric must be catching on because a Litre now costs about the same as a Gallon did when I passed my test.

I think Metric makes sense within Condor but wonder if it gets confusing with real life, switching between the two.

[janjansen]

If it makes you feel any better; in mainland europe gliders use metric, but general aviation does not. So metars and notams are imperial for speeds and altitudes, but IIRC, distances may be metric. Instruments in cessna's are imperial. Im not even sure what they use in motorgliders, Im guessing imperial. When they refuel, the pump uses liters. Wouldnt be surprised if the onboard instruments showed fuel flow as gallons per hour.

[wickid]

German, Polish and South African made (motor)gliders, and most Russian and former Soviet Union built planes usually use:

ASI: Km/h
Alt: Meters
VSI: m/s

Newer GA planes and Commercial aircraft use:

ASI: Knots
Alt: Feet
VSI: Feet/min

Older, mainly American build GA planes (older pipers and cessna's). In this category are the Cessna 152, Piper Pawnee and (Super)Cub:

ASI: MPH
Alt: Feet
VSI: Feet/min

UK built gliders I've flown (mainly Slingsby like the T21 and the Prefect):

ASI: Knots
Alt: feet
VSI: Knots

In the end it doesn't really matter what units there are on the gauge, as long as the needle is pointing in the green range you are safe. The ASI could be in Bullshouts (Yes an actual unit of distance) per microsecond for all I care as long as you have the appropriate scale on the ASI.

[KipperUK]

I presume it's an age thing; my parents were taught imperial, and obviously spoke to me in that language - and I learned metric at school.

I measure my height in feet, and my weight in kilograms. I drive 40 miles to the gliding club in a 3 litre engine car (that does about 45 miles to the gallon) to attempt a 300km task, and if I land out, I buy my retrieve crew a pint.

My cockpit has an ASI that reads in knots, an altimeter that measures in feet, an electric vario that measures in knots, tells me how many feet I need to get to the next turnpoint, and how many kilometers away it is... the weight limits for the glider are in kilograms

Given that even new junior glider pilots are most likely taught by people my parents age, they will probably end up doing similar, even if just for gliding!

[Smithers-1968]

In our old office we gave the contractor specifications for the computer room (remember those?).

Room dimensions in feet, racks spaced in metres. Power cabling in feet, data cabling in metres. Air con to cover square metres, providing cooling in BTUs

Contractor didn't even blink - just got on with it in a way NASA wouldn't