X-Mozilla-Keys:                                                                                 
Dale Smith wrote:

Very funny (and informative) guys.  But on a slightly more serious note
(not much) ... can we start (by convention) talking about airspeeds in
knots?

Not sure if this is English, metric, or whatever, but it sure makes a lot
of sense in aeronautics. I firmly believe all pilots should adopt this
"benchmark" in  their thinking!  It's especially useful to think this way
when you're working with GPS, Latitude, Longitude, and the like.

Sure, I can make the mental conversion, just like everyone else, but after
over 30 years of flying, I'm convinced it's the only way to go!  (Took me
10 years to start thinking that way!)  Am convinced that we are doing new
pilots a disservice by not starting them out "thinking knots" from the
beginning.

Only reason manufacturers ever used MPH anyway was to slightly inflate
their performance figures, which were always pretty optimistic anyway!

Knots to you!

There are two schools of thought on this. If you look at your
airplane as a way to get somewhere and you know from your road
map it is x number of miles away it is better to think in MPH
for your airplane. It is just a reflection of how we think
about distances. Yes of course we can refer to our sectional
and yes we are taught to flight plan. After you have flown
to the same destination a couple of times who takes the
time to flight plan? I also think a lot of old air speed 
indicators are still marked in MPH.

BTW I think NOAA did away with World's and not many of us have
one of those huge planning maps on our walls. Mine rotted out
years ago and fell off the hangar wall.  I have to fall back
on road maps :-)
 
The metric system is nice but it has a problem or two.
When gas is sold in liters a fraction of a penny can
make a noticeable difference. When C is used instead
of F, tenths of a degree C are necessary as we are 
sensitive to as little as one or two degrees F.

I can drink a pint but a liter is a bit much :-)

I can also eat a pound of steak but a KG would be
out of the question :-)

Paul Lamar
 
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