Units conversion.

If you come from the UK or the USA, you may be surprised to discover that in mainland Europe, we don't use the same units as you do.

(Our units are closer to the international system used world wide in physics! Russians are even better, since they mesure ACFT altitudes and heights using meters instead of feet. Why the hell should we use so exotic units as feet, gallons, inches, statute miles, pounds... just because we fly? Just ask a physician what he thinks about them ;o) )

• For gas, we use liters instead of gallons. 4.54 liters = 1 UK gallon. 3.78 liters = 1 US gallon
• For ground elevations, we use meters instead of feet. 1 meter = 3.33 ft. (3m=10ft)
• For weights, kilograms instead of pounds : 1 lb = 0,453 kg
• For atmospheric pressure, millibars instead of mmHg. Standard atmosphere has a pressure of 1013 mbars. (You may sometimes see hecto Pascals, or hPa. It is the same thing as a millibar)
• For distances, we usually use kilometers, but in aviation, we use miles instead. These are nautical miles. There is no statute mile in mainland Europe. That's why noone will ever precise this.
• In France magnetic declination is between 0 (in the South East) and 5 (in Brittany) degrees West.
• Hour, in France, is UTC+1 in winter, and UTC+2 when daylight saving time is used. (From the last sunday of march to the last sunday of october).

You can use euroVFR in order to compute aeronautical units conversions.

For other units, you may have a look on this page, from a English aviation magazine's web site. (Pilot)