The FAA uses NM as the abbreviation. Visibility is in statute miles. Baron Carter (Part time flight instructor) -----Original Message----- From: Ma Be [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Thursday, 07 December, 2000 09:19 To: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:9590] Re: CIA World Fact Book On Wed, 6 Dec 2000 23:58:52 kilopascal wrote: >2000-12-06 > >Why don't they just drop the term "mile" and just call the unit >"nautical(s)". Nautical miles per hour will still be called knots, but it >will be newly defined as nauticals per hour. I'm sure someone can come up >with a proper symbol. > And I respectfully disagree with doing that, John. But I hope that you'll understand why I'm opposed to it (more below). >The reason I think this would be a good idea is for a couple of reasons: > >1.) It will dissolve the connection with statute miles. > And that is *precisely* one of the reasons why I oppose it! Let confusion reign on this. Confusion is our friend! ;-) We don't want to see ifpists having "easier" lives. Let them swallow their own (bitter) pill! Besides we're advocating for this... thing to be dropped out of existence altogether, therefore, why... "fix" it??? >2.) It will end the common practice of dropping the term "nautical" in >peoples minds when nautical mile is used, thus allowing people to assume a >nautical mile and statute mile are one and the same. > But let them assume they are the same, only to later find out how wrong they were! Hopefully this will make them think that perhaps it could be a good idea to see it changed (even though it would be obvious which choice they would make, but since there is not a shred of chance that metric countries would ever adopt the statute mile, what option would be left?... ;-) ). >Which reminds me; when an airline pilot is telling the passengers that he >has x miles visibility or x miles of something, is he converting nautical >miles to statute, or is he really telling us nautical miles and just >dropping the term nautical? Does anyone know? > This one I believe I can answer, as I'm also a pilot. No, they don't "translate" anything, they generally use whatever information they have in front of them. They just don't have the time to waste on making conversions from one into the other (but there are some exceptions though, as I've "heard" some of them would go "the extra distance", but it's actually rare). >I'm sure someone else can also come up with some good reasons to change the >nautical mile name to something else. > Probably, but as for me I just want to see it DEAD, *period*! :-) Marcus Angelfire for your free web-based e-mail. http://www.angelfire.com
