Chinese passenger seat display showing knots and feet

[Cap'n Jack]

I was on a flight from Shenzhen to Shanghai a couple of weeks ago on a Chinese airline. I had a choice of some movies that had some kung-fu fighting, or a display that showed me location, views out the window and a heads-up display. It took me a while to notice the HUD was displaying airspeed in knots and altitude in feet. I think I was the only westerner on the flight- I doubt they would be so nice as to change the units for me! It was an Airbus.

JAK_6732 by Jack Silver, on Flickr


The bit of Chinese in the lower right tells me that I had 1 km/hr tailwind. The temperature readings are °C so the English units on the HUD are more odd.
JAK_6733 by Jack Silver, on Flickr

 

[Bob Noel]

somehow I expected a completely different direction...

 

[Pinecone]

When I have seen those displays on commercial aircraft, there is a setting to change the units.

But aviation around the world tends to use US measurements, so Knots and Feet. You can see this on the info screens as the altitude it a strange number of meters.

 

[Cap'n Jack]

When I have seen those displays on commercial aircraft, there is a setting to change the units.

But aviation around the world tends to use US measurements, so Knots and Feet. You can see this on the info screens as the altitude it a strange number of meters.

I expected that there is a setting to change the units. But I didn't know places outside of the USA tend to also use knots and feet. Thanks for the information!

 

[IK04]

If it was a Boeing product, they provide that display, so it is in English. It costs extra to add a customer's language.

Airbus is probably the same...

 

[Silvaire]

Nothing odd about Centigrade, that's the toehold they have on us but by God I'm drawing the line at Hector Pascals

 

[Doc Holliday]

I expected that there is a setting to change the units. But I didn't know places outside of the USA tend to also use knots and feet. Thanks for the information!

China and Russia use meters instead of feet for altitude.

 

[Cap'n Jack]

China and Russia use meters instead of feet for altitude.

My images suggest otherwise, at least for China. I doubt they changed the display for a single 外国人.

 

[Doc Holliday]

My images suggest otherwise, at least for China. I doubt they changed the display for a single 外国人.

Aviation's Crazy, Mixed Up Units of Measure - AeroSavvy

One of the challenges of international flying is handling different units of measure in different countries. In aviation, the battle between imperial and metric units continues. Feet, meters, statute miles, nautical miles, inches of mercury, [...]

aerosavvy.com

Measuring Altitude: Feet vs. Meters​

Here’s where things get tricky. Because of the proliferation of American and British aircraft during the early years of aviation, the imperial foot became standard for altitude measurement. China (PRC), North Korea, and Russia, however, use meters for altitude measurement.

Flight level - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Metric flight levels​

The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has recommended a transition to using the International System of Units since 1979[14][15] with a recommendation on using metres (m) for reporting flight levels.[16] China, Mongolia, Russia and many CIS countries have used flight levels specified in metres for years. Aircraft entering these areas normally make a slight climb or descent to adjust for this, although Russia and some CIS countries started using feet above transition altitude and introduced RVSM at the same time on 17 November 2011.