On Thu, 26 Feb 2004 09:28:30 -0700, "Bill Daniels"
wrote:

I've flown airplanes with metric instruments (And Russian placards too).
The airspeed, rate-of-climb, RPM, manifold pressure were no problem.
Numbers is numbers I guess - fly with the needles in the green arc and
everything works. But that damn metric altimeter was impossible - no way to
read trends on an instrument that insensitive. With an altimeter that reads
1000 feet (304.8 meters) per rev of the big hand, you can thermal by
watching the trend of the needle.

You've just solved a mystery for me: thanks.

The most confusing altimeter I've flown with was a two pointer job but
with 3000 ft per rev of the big hand. I found it difficult to read
rather than insensitive.

I always wondered why anybody would build such a confusing instrument
but now I understand. Looks like they retained the gear train from a
metric instrument while changing the bellows and scale to make it read
in feet, 3000 ft per rev.

--
martin@ : Martin Gregorie
gregorie : Harlow, UK
demon :
co : Zappa fan & glider pilot
uk :