Thanks, Pat. I've read several accounts of this event in the past, but as you said, this one is truly the best. Hairraising, in fact. And this one does a far better job of expalining what went wrong with the calculations. The real problem lay with the fuel density calculations, not with the calibration of the dripsticks, as the Avweb story reported. Still, it was the confusion caused by the simultaneous use of two systems of measurement that nearly led to disaster, and I'm sad to see that little has changed in the 25 years since.
Cheers, Walter On Jan 31, 2008 3:21 PM, Pat Naughtin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Dear Walter, > The best story that I have read on the Gimli Glider is that by Wade H. > Nelson at: > > http://www.wadenelson.com/gimli.html > > It is very well written. > > Cheers, > > Pat Naughtin > > PO Box 305 Belmont 3216, > Geelong, Australia > Phone: 61 3 5241 2008 > > Metric system consultant, writer, and speaker, Pat Naughtin, has helped > thousands of people and hundreds of companies upgrade to the modern metric > system smoothly, quickly, and so economically that they now save thousands > each year when buying, processing, or selling for their businesses. Pat > provides services and resources for many different trades, crafts, and > professions for commercial, industrial and government metrication leaders in > Asia, Europe, and in the USA. Pat's clients include the Australian > Government, Google, NASA, NIST, and the metric associations of Canada, the > UK, and the USA. See http://www.metricationmatters.com/ > <http://www.metricationmatters.com/>for > more metrication information, contact Pat at > [EMAIL PROTECTED] or subscribe to the free '*Metrication > matters*' newsletter at http://www.metricationmatters.com/newsletter/ > > On 2008/02/01, at 3:25 AM, Walter Meier wrote: > > Greetings all: > > The NASA incident on Mars is the one most often remembered for the danger > of using multiple systems of measurement, but this one is also truly > remarkable. Today they're retiring an airplane that under most circumstances > would have been written off many years ago, so I thought it would be a good > occasion to remember the feat. > > http://www.avweb.com/eletter/archives/avflash/1043-full.html#197052 > > Cheers, > > Walter > > >
