I don't know. The pilot retired in 1993. Assuming mandatory retirement age, he is probably old enough to have been educated in Imperial. Unless he took a science track in high school/college, he may not have had much exposure to metric.
This source may be a better account: http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19830723-0 It makes clearer that the 767 was the only plane type in Air Canada's fleet using metric fuel indication (and presumably weight calculations). On all other planes, cross-conversion using 1.77 lb/L would be correct (as horrifying as that is to us). Pilots in smaller, less automated planes make weight calculations of fuel all the time, and normally density of the specific fuel lot is used. However, I would expect the operating manual to give ranges that correspond to API (or other) categories for jet fuel, to avoid use of wrong or out-of-range factors. The pilot was either poorly trained for the aircraft type or forgot his training under the pressure of inop fuel gauges (which should have grounded the plane), and the manual failed to correctly advise him. Being normally over-dependent on flight computers vs making this calculation on every flight may have been a factor too. ________________________________ From: Pierre Abbat <[email protected]> To: U.S. Metric Association <[email protected]> Sent: Sat, February 27, 2010 8:44:29 PM Subject: [USMA:46796] Gimli glider was Re: babies produced, UK On Saturday 27 February 2010 12:00:28 John M. Steele wrote: > *"Naked number" conversion: The pilot used the number 1.77 to convert > between liters and kilograms. The correct density is 0.803 kg/L. The > "naked figure" 1.77 is correctly the conversion between liters and pounds, > 1.77 lb/L. Did the pilot ever learn the approximate densities, in metric, of common substances? Most oils have a density between 0.8 and 1.0 kg/L, so if he read 1.77 from the table, he should have known immediately that that is not kilograms per liter. Btw, was there ever a Glóin glider? Pierre -- .i toljundi do .ibabo mi'afra tu'a do .ibabo damba do .ibabo do jinga .icu'u la ma'atman.
