Right on Stan!
In addition--one other, not so obvious point.
Our club imported to the USA, a K21 from Germany. Alt in feet, and ASI in
kt was part of the deal. When it arrived, we found that the ALT was a
metric, with a "feet" face on it. That is, one revolution of the long
pointer was 1000 meters, rounded off to 3000 ft. In Georgia USA, getting
above 6000 msl is a unusual feat, so we decided to live with it. Many club
members had problems relating to interpreting the pointer position instead
of reading the numbers. It happens a lot, and has been proven that pilots
tend to interpret the position, rather than the indication. (switch to a
digital numeric display and see what happens)..
So -- under stress---avoid the possibility of a misread---get a "real" feet
ALT. We replaced them and sold the converted metrics to be converted back
to metric!

--
Hartley Falbaum
"Stanford Korwin" wrote in
message ...
At 14:30 23 August 2005, Stefan wrote:
Stanford Korwin wrote:

Except, perhaps, the ASI - so as not to confuse 50
kph with 50 knots in the heat of the moment !

This has, I am told, happened - with unfortunate consequences.

I have imported a glider from Germany (to the UK)
-

If the glider was certificated in Germany, then I suspect
it has a green
arc, a yellow arc, a red line and, most helpful, a
yellow triangle.

Stefan


It may well have done Stefan - we never saw the original
instruments because the importing agent replaced them
with ones calibrated in feet & knots - at very reasonable
cost.
Both my, then, partner and I did not feel that any
risks were worth taking for such a small outlay.

The glider was, in fact, an Open Cirrus - which someone
in this thread has commented on.

This is a very lightly loaded sailplane - and a pussy-cat
on take-off, approach and landing.
It is, simply, not fair to compare its flying characteristics
to an average, 15 m, machine - especially a lead-sled
like my (current) Std. Jantar-3 - or something like
a Cirrus 75.
Completely different animals.

Confusion between kph and knots has arisen - with a
resulting crash.

In aviation, if it can possibly happen, it will - and,
usually, more than once !

Why take risks - for the price of a relatively cheap
and easy-to-install instrument.

Thanks for your valuable input.

Stan,
UK.