Mid-air on final to same runway kills 3

[cooperplace]

to drive on the LHS makes complete sense. The English did it with horses because a man riding a house along a road would stick to the left to give him best opportunity to defend himself with his sword hand, and most people are right handed. This is why we drive on the LHS and historically it makes complete sense. The reason other nations drive on the RHS (eg the French and all they influenced) was because they hated the English way of doing things.

 

My 2c worth.

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

If Britain eventually standardises on the same side as Europe (like Sweden did in the 70's) the colonies will be left as a small market. We're lucky that Japan drives on the left and can supply all the RHD cars we want.

 

 

[onetrack]

Western Samoa went against the LHD trend in 2009, swapping over to RHD - because the Prez reckoned it was easier and cheaper for Western Samoa to source RHD vehicles from Japan, Australia and EnZed, than to try and procure the more expensive LHD vehicles from the U.S. It must make the American Samoans thoroughly confused, and cause a few local traveller problems!

 

I can't ever see Britain going LHD - even more so, now it has voted itself out of the EU.

 

 

[facthunter]

Not standardising is DUMB. Nev

 

 

[DWF]

Not standardising is DUMB. Nev

They are standardised.

 

It is just that there are 2 different standards.

 

Which do you chose and why?

 

 

[facthunter]

Go with the majority and save money. Nev

 

 

[DWF]

Do you think any (larger) country is going to change over now?

 

For a start, I don't think it would save any money - the cost of the chaos alone would be enormous.

 

I think it would be a tricky thing to phase in so it would have to be an overnight change.

 

You could possibly make a small fortune as a sign writer changing all the signs!

 

The mind boggles......

 

 

[onetrack]

Sweden was the last country to change from LHS of the road driving, to RHS, in 1967. It cost them £40M or roughly USD$53M or AUD$70M.

 

That was a staggering sum in that era, for a country that is roughly the same population as Australia, but only one-seventeenth of the land mass.

 

The job of changing all the road signage and markings was so huge, the Swedish Army was impressed into helping.

 

Road markings were changed many days ahead of the changeover, so Swedes were driving against RH road markings for several days before the changeover.

 

All headlight globes and sealed beams had to be changed over for RHS driving, as LHS headlights dip left, and RHS headlights dip right.

 

It made economic sense for Sweden to change over in the long run, as Sweden was the last country in Europe to drive on the left.

 

However, 83% of Swedes voted against the changeover - but the Govt went ahead with it, anyway! So much for Western democracy!

 

The greatest problem after the changeover was that the huge majority of vehicles were still RHD, but driving on the right. This caused an increase in accidents.

 

You can't see ahead properly for overtaking if you're driving a RHD vehicle on the right, or a LHD car on the left. The accident rate came down as more LHD vehicles were purchased.

 

Here in Australia, the Govt banned the registration of LHD vehicles from about 1947 to about the early 1970's, as I recall.

 

This was due to the upsurge in accidents involving American military vehicles that were sold at the Disposals Commission Sales from 1945 to 1949 - mostly Jeeps and trucks.

 

For a long time, you could only use LHD in Australia on a farm, minesite, or other off-road use. Today we're seeing an upsurge again in a lot LHD stuff, mostly classic American car imports, and things such as Gators and other UTV's/MTV's.

 

This Day in History: Swedish Traffic Switches Sides – September 3, 1967

 

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

Not standardising is DUMB. Nev

Tell that to the Americans who refuse to use the global measuring standard, well over a century after Congress decided to metricate the USA. Because of their backwardness (and the global influence of their domestic market) Australia is sliding backwards into using medieval measures.

 

 

[turboplanner]

Tell that to the Americans who refuse to use the global measuring standard, well over a century after Congress decided to metricate the USA. Because of their backwardness (and the global influence of their domestic market) Australia is sliding backwards into using medieval measures.

Where? Metrication came to Australia in 1972.

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

Where? Metrication came to Australia in 1972.

Have you not noticed the increasing use of imperial measurements, particularly by Australian businesses? Remember when it was a crime punishable by large fines? Was that statute/regulation ever removed?

 

 

[JG3]

Sweden was the last country to change from LHS of the road driving, to RHS, in 1967.

I was touring Sweden on a motorbike just before the changeover. They enjoyed telling me that, "Too make the changeover easier, first the trucks and buses would change sides then next week the cars would also changeover..." Typical low key Swedish humour.....

 

 

[Jabiru Phil]

Reminds me of the Ozzie change over story of a farmer trying to sell his property.

 

First they changed to the dollar, now twice as dear.

 

Then changed to kilograms, half the production.

 

Then changed to hectares, halved my area.

 

Now they change to kilometres, I am too far out of town.

 

PHIL.

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

Reminds me of the Ozzie change over story of a farmer trying to sell his property.First they changed to the dollar, now twice as dear.

Then changed to kilograms, half the production.

 

Then changed to hectares, halved my area.

 

Now they change to kilometres, I am too far out of town.

 

PHIL.

Amusing to us, but probably treated as real by some Trump voters.

 

 

[onetrack]

I work with a lot of American equipment, and my shop is full of A/F spanners, dual-measurement tapes, and UNF and UNC fasteners!

 

I was told way back in the early 1970's that all the major American manufacturers were set up, to go metric overnight - but the U.S. Govt refused point-blank to go metric, because they reckoned the cost to the nation, and particularly small businesses, was too high a burden on them.

 

Funnily enough, these are the people who reckoned the British were backwards, using fractions in their imperial measurements, when the plans for the Packard-Merlin arrived!

 

So the Americans converted all the Merlin plans to the "superior" decimal inch measurements!

 

Fractions/Decimals/Millimeters in length. - Art Tech - Grand Valley State University

 

 

[facthunter]

Ford went metric with the Falcon here in 1989.. Metric is a good system, but what I play with I still use BSF BA Whitworth. Gauge threads, Buttress BSP BSPT UNC UNF UNFF UNP UNPT etc. as well as metric when I need to There's something about ISO there somewhere too.That's just what I can think of on the spur of the moment. IF I restore stuff I try to stick to the original threads. Nev

 

 

[Guernsey]

What about propellers rotating the opposite way on different aircraft?

 

Now I've started something. .

 

Alan.

 

 

[facthunter]

Unless you are talking contra props, left and right rotation is not as common as one might imagine. It requires a lot of extra engine and propeller components to be carried in stock for only a small advantage in efficiency. Nev

 

 

[cooperplace]

Ford went metric with the Falcon here in 1989.. Metric is a good system, but what I play with I still use BSF BA Whitworth. Gauge threads, Buttress BSP BSPT UNC UNF UNFF UNP UNPT etc. as well as metric when I need to There's something about ISO there somewhere too.That's just what I can think of on the spur of the moment. IF I restore stuff I try to stick to the original threads. Nev

there's also Italian metric. My 450 Ducati used it; my later 900 duke had gone over to ISO

 

 

[Guernsey]

Unless you are talking contra props, left and right rotation is not as common as one might imagine. It requires a lot of extra engine and propeller components to be carried in stock for only a small advantage in efficiency. Nev

British and French built engines turned opposite to their American counterparts, even continental engines were opposite depending on where they were built.

 

Alan.

 

 

[facthunter]

That's true but I took your reference another way. The Griffon engine prop turned the other way to a Merlin . Caught a few people.. Where you preset a lot of rudder trim..Nev

 

 

[turboplanner]

Have you not noticed the increasing use of imperial measurements, particularly by Australian businesses? Remember when it was a crime punishable by large fines? Was that statute/regulation ever removed?

No, I haven't noticed any deterioration, and one of my qualifications is as a draftsman, so any trend would stand out.

There were pockets on Industry that satyed on imperial until tooling was amortised, and for a while shome sheet products had an imperial dimension in one direction and metric the other.

 

In aviation we were one of the exceptions, but after experiencing the rapid adaption of industry, I sometimes think we should have bitten the bullet and gone metric too; it would mainly have been a matter of getting the visualisations in our head.

 

Certainly there are pockets of individual people who haven't been able to cope with the change, but spend some time on this forumk and you'll see them making complaints when other chage subjects come up.

 

The Australian Metric Conversion Board, and currency change around the same time helped Australians get their heads around it; that's probably where the US went wrong.

 

The car manufacturers/aftermarket here made metris stickers you could past on your speedo; in the US they built cars with dual speedo calibrations.

 

When I first started doing truck design calculations, I was putting metric and imperial measurements on my drawings, but noticed that the drawings I received from the US manufacturer were all in metric, and then one day one fo the guys said "What the hell'r you doin; THAT for, we've been on the metric system for years!"

 

 

[onetrack]

What about Japanese Metric threads? Initially, the European metric thread system worked on 0.5mm increments. 1.00mm pitch, 1.5mm pitch, 2.00mm pitch, 2.5mm pitch - it was easy.

 

Then the Japs just had to introduce 0.25mm variations in thread pitch - so we now have 0.5mm, 0.75mm, 1.00mm, 1.25mm, 1.5mm, 1.75mm pitch, etc, etc. What a shambles that becomes with re-assembly.

 

 

[onetrack]

Have you not noticed the increasing use of imperial measurements, particularly by Australian businesses? Remember when it was a crime punishable by large fines? Was that statute/regulation ever removed?

Masters Hardware have been typical of the problem there. They've been doing joint purchasing with Lowes, the big American outfit, so everything from Masters comes in imperial measurements, as Lowes do the ordering for the American market.

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

No, I haven't noticed any deterioration...

Turbs perhaps you and I don't use the same sort of shops. I have noticed all sorts of items, from box trailers to sewing fabric being sold in ancient measurements. Why are screens for phones, computers and TVs still sold in damned inches? Have a look at product labels- and that includes Australian-made items!

If American firms want to sell me their products they had better speak my language.

 

Over the decades since we metricated I've often phoned around for prices and used mm measurements, it's only recently that I've been met with confusion.