A question for the airline pilots

RyanB

RyanB

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@Greg Bockelman @jordane93
@kayoh190

When us poor folk are sitting in the back of the tube and one of the pilots comes over the P/A to give the welcome announcements and says ‘current weather in XYZ is.......blah blah’

Are you just reading off a METAR or do you read something else off the FMS? If it’s just a METAR, I’m impressed how well the crew can translate Celsius into Fahrenheit.
 
Pretty sure that with iPads that seem to be in many cockpits now, it's just a matter of pushing a button or two for the conversion.
 
My cockpit has an analog temp gauge marked in both C and F. Easy to convert. When I’ve heard those announcements they sound like ATIS / Metar Info to me, sometimes sharing things only a pilot could love like the dew point ....


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gsengle said:
When I’ve heard those announcements they sound like ATIS / Metar Info to me, sometimes sharing things only a pilot could love like the dew point ....
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Yeah it sounds like METAR info to me too. I’ll read a METAR and see 09/M04 and have to go about trying to convert C into F if I feel the need to know the temp. That’s one thing that I’ve never learned how to do by memory.
 
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Greg Bockelman said:
If you know a few benchmarks, it is pretty easy to extrapolate. When you do it several times a day it is second nature.
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That’s what I figured.

But to the question, what are you reading when you do those announcements? Is it just a METAR?
 
Ryanb said:
Yeah it sounds like METAR info to me too. I’ll read a METAR and see 09/M04 and have to go about trying to convert C into F if I feel the need to know the temp. That’s one thing that I’ve never learned how to do by memory.
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Double it, then subtract 10% of the result, then add 32.
e.g. 9°C
9 * 2 = 18
18 * 10% = 1.8
18 - 1.8 = 16.2
16.2 + 32 = 48.2°F

Same answer you'd get with a calculator.
 
dmspilot said:
Double it, then subtract 10% of the result, then add 32.
e.g. 9°C
9 * 2 = 18
18 * 10% = 1.8
18 - 1.8 = 16.2
16.2 + 32 = 48.2°F

Same answer you'd get with a calculator.
Click to expand...
Nifty. Thanks!
 
I would just like to add, off topic, that the sooner the world can settle on a unified measurement system the fewer planes will glide to earth and the fewer Mars missions will be lost and fewer Americans will be getting speeding tickets in Canada.

Personally I think temperatures should be in Kelvin.
 
I just wagged it, but usually... It was always partly cloudy and light winds. Every time. If I got any feedback I knew they were listening. Nothing more fun than February weather in EWR and saying that HNL metar from the acars.

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Real airline pilots' secret: It's not even the pilot talking. It's a recording he made before the flight (when he was sober)....
 
gsengle said:
When I’ve heard those announcements they sound like ATIS / Metar Info to me, sometimes sharing things only a pilot could love....
Click to expand...

I've only heard wind, temperature and clouds, never dewpoint, visibility or altimeter setting.

However, if I heard one quoting RVR, VV and ILS OTS I'd start to worry.
 
dmspilot said:
Double it, then subtract 10% of the result, then add 32.
e.g. 9°C
9 * 2 = 18
18 * 10% = 1.8
18 - 1.8 = 16.2
16.2 + 32 = 48.2°F

Same answer you'd get with a calculator.
Click to expand...
Unless of course the temp is negative, it which case you would add 10%.
 
Larry in TN said:
10% of -80 is -8, not 8.

-80 - -8 = -72

If you want to add, you'd need to say 'add the absolute value of 10% of...'
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Okay. I get your point. Still easier for me not to use the double negative thing, but point taken.
 
Kritchlow said:
Okay. I get your point. Still easier for me not to use the double negative thing, but point taken.
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Maybe it's just me but your method of doubling then adjust 10% and add/subtract 32 seems a lot more convoluted than multiply/divide by 5/9ths then shift 32 degrees.

15 degC * 9/5 = 27
27+32=59 degF
 
Some people read the ATIS verbatim. They say “broken” clouds. Like what the hell does broken clouds mean? I usually just give the temperature andnany significant weather like rain or snow. Passengers just want us to shut up for the most part.
 
Anymouse said:
Pretty sure that with iPads that seem to be in many cockpits now, it's just a matter of pushing a button or two for the conversion.
Click to expand...

Yep, only on iPads :)
 
ircphoenix said:
I can't 9/5ths in my head.

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Click to expand...
Would it be easier if you rounded to the nearest 5 before you 9/5ths?

23degC rounds to 25. 9/5ths becomes 45. Shift 32 to get roughly 77degF.

But if rounding is too inaccurate for you then adjust by 2 for every degC you rounded. In the above example you rounded up 2 from 23 to 25 so shift down 2x2=4 to get 73.
 
asicer said:
Maybe it's just me but your method of doubling then adjust 10% and add 32 seems a lot more convoluted than multiply/divide by 5/9ths then shift 32 degrees.
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It is a method that both gives you an exact answer and you can do in your head (with a little practice).

If I'm using a calculator I use " * 1.8 + 32" with is also exact but easier to do than 9/5 on a calculator.
 
SkyDog58 said:
Math is hard.
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But covering up your mistakes is easy. Just whip out one of the following:
  • "That's there, we're here"
  • "That's then, this is now"
  • "Thermometer must need calibrating"
 
asicer said:
Maybe it's just me but your method of doubling then adjust 10% and add/subtract 32 seems a lot more convoluted than multiply/divide by 5/9ths then shift 32 degrees.

15 degC * 9/5 = 27
27+32=59 degF
Click to expand...
The double, subtract 10% and add 32 is the exact same thing as your formula, just easier because...
ircphoenix said:
I can't 9/5ths in my head.
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9/5 = 18/10 (still tough to multiply by 18 in your head)
18/10 = 180/100 ...or... 180%

180% is easy. Double your number, and subtract 10% of the result, or you can take 90% of your number and double that. Most people can do 90% or 80% easily in their head.

asicer said:
Would it be easier if you rounded to the nearest 5 before you 9/5ths?

23degC rounds to 25. 9/5ths becomes 45. Shift 32 to get roughly 77degF.
Click to expand...
Instead of this, of you just want approximate numbers, doubling and adding 30 is great. Gets you within a couple of degrees in the middle ranges.
23 * 2 = 46
46 + 30 = 76

asicer said:
But if rounding is too inaccurate for you then adjust by 2 for every degC you rounded. In the above example you rounded up 2 from 23 to 25 so shift down 2x2=4 to get 73.
Click to expand...
That honestly sounds more complicated than the 20% off method.
 
Sluggo63 said:
That honestly sounds more complicated than the 20% off method.
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Yeah, I usually just round to the nearest 5 and refer to post #31.

When rounding, you're always going to be off by either 2 degF or 4 degF (1.8 or 3.6 to be precise). Close enough for most uses.
 
If it was a short leg I'd use the current weather, changing the cloud cover to partly cloudy, variable cloudiness or overcast and use either C of F depending on the destination, and sometimes both. If the weather was similar to the departure area something like the destination "is similar to it is here" vs. a detailed description would be the announcement. For longer legs the forecast would be the basis for the "weather report". For a long leg across the pond I'd usually include something like "the current Los Angeles weather is dark but it should be light for our arrival" or to a destination like Las Vegas in the summertime include "a chance of snow flurries" in the forecast arrival weather. Occasional there would be someone that actually listened and would comment.
 
Partly to mostly cloudy, good visibility, temp (F and C in my world) and winds.
 
Ryanb said:
@Greg Bockelman @jordane93
@kayoh190

When us poor folk are sitting in the back of the tube and one of the pilots comes over the P/A to give the welcome announcements and says ‘current weather in XYZ is.......blah blah’

Are you just reading off a METAR or do you read something else off the FMS? If it’s just a METAR, I’m impressed how well the crew can translate Celsius into Fahrenheit.
Click to expand...
The conversion table is on the back of our checklist.
 
Ryanb said:
I’ll read a METAR and see 09/M04 and have to go about trying to convert C into F if I feel the need to know the temp. That’s one thing that I’ve never learned how to do by memory.
Click to expand...
I kind of an old school method to learn to do it without bothering with math. I changed all the digital thermometers in my life to show C and started living my life by Celsius. Took some time to get used to but after a while I could look at the outside temp in the morning and know what that meant in terms of what I should wear to be comfort that day. At that point it became pretty easy to convert one to the other within a degree or two without any math and without having to think about it too hard.

I found living by Celsius to be easier so I've done it ever since. I'm sure it annoys my wife that I keep the thermometer set to Celsius in my vehicles but she lets me do it anyway.
 
Juliet Hotel said:
I kind of an old school method to learn to do it without bothering with math. I changed all the digital thermometers in my life to show C and started living my life by Celsius. Took some time to get used to but after a while I could look at the outside temp in the morning and know what that meant in terms of what I should wear to be comfort that day. At that point it became pretty easy to convert one to the other within a degree or two without any math and without having to think about it too hard.

I found living by Celsius to be easier so I've done it ever since. I'm sure it annoys my wife that I keep the thermometer set to Celsius in my vehicles but she lets me do it anyway.
Click to expand...

I just did it like the multiplication tables. I just rote memorized the temps in C* in 5 degree increments from 0 to 40. No conversion needed.
 
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