In article , Roy Smith wrote:
"Trent Moorehead" wrote:
Here's the important step: I checked over the Navigation log to make sure
that it somewhat matched my crude manual numbers.

Excellent idea. The problem with computers is not that they make
errors, but that they don't notice or care if you feed them bad data.
Garbage in, garbage out. Type in the name of a GPS waypoint wrong and
the computer is perfectly happy to send you to Nebraska instead of New
Jersey.

That's what I like about the mechanical E6B (and I suspect why they are
still popular, when slide rules have disappeared from everwhere else) is
that they make you think about the orders of magnitudes in your
calculations, and "hrm, that's not right" seems to scream louded on a
mechanical E6B. Add to that, also for time and distance calculations,
the mechanical one is unquestionably faster.

--
Dylan Smith, Castletown, Isle of Man
Flying: http://www.dylansmith.net
Frontier Elite Universe: http://www.alioth.net
"Maintain thine airspeed, lest the ground come up and smite thee"