Student Pilot Bought An Electronic Flight Computer For $80

Is the electronic one better than the E6B manual flight computer. When
is one better than the other. I now have both. Do you have any
recommendations on using them.

Chris Lusardi

On 2008-01-03, Chris L wrote:
Is the electronic one better than the E6B manual flight computer. When
is one better than the other. I now have both. Do you have any
recommendations on using them.

These are just a few thoughts from teaching and use in the air over the
years and may be of some value.

For precision, the electronic is, of course, better. But then, how much
precision do you need in the current task? That, perhaps, may determine when
to use each. The electronic version includes a calculator which may come in
handy for uses other than normal flying calculations. And it may also
contain other functions which you may find useful.

Wind correction problems for cross country, for example, would be a toss,
other than increased precision in headings, etc. It may be easier to spot
errors in entry in the E6B since once you push a wrong button on the
elctronic, that error disappears and you must back track, if you even
detected the error.

Practically speaking, for calculations while flying, such as time/distance,
fuel usage, ETA, etc., the E6B is easier and faster to use in the cockpit
and can be done with actually one hand. (You can spin the inner dial while
holding with the same hand.) It actually requires less attention and could
even be held up near eye level so you could alternate attention between
outside (for traffic) and E6B once you become proficient in using it.

Another point is that in rough air, punching buttons becomes increasingly
difficult and can be prone to errors with the electronic version and
requires an increased amount of attention while using.

Planning time before the trip seems the ideal time to use the electronic.

Oh, and don't forget that you _never_ have battery problems with the E6B.

....Edwin
--
__________________________________________________ __________
"Once you have flown, you will walk the earth with your eyes
turned skyward, for there you have been, there you long to
return."-da Vinci http://bellsouthpwp2.net/e/d/edwinljohnson

On Jan 3, 5:06*am, Chris L wrote:
Is the electronic one better than the E6B manual flight computer. When
is one better than the other. I now have both. Do you have any
recommendations on using them.

Chris Lusardi

As a CFI my only concern is that if you buy an electronic E6B you need
to learn how to use it. Most of the time we toss it aside and grab the
paper one when students need to work on their in-flight computations
because they get lost in the electronic E6B.
So when we go on a cross country expect that I'm going to ask you to
divert and will ask you.
1) What heading will we fly
2) What time will we arrive (not how long will it take)
3) How many gallons of fuel will we burn going there.

You need to be able to answer these questions in a reasonable amount
of time. Too often I see students pull out some new E6B and get
totally lost in it. With the paper wheel we can figure it out very
quickly. I still carry my student paper E6B in my knee board and still
use it sometimes.

-Robert, CFII

Edwin Johnson wrote:

Wind correction problems for cross country, for example, would be a toss,
other than increased precision in headings, etc. It may be easier to spot
errors in entry in the E6B since once you push a wrong button on the
elctronic, that error disappears and you must back track, if you even
detected the error.

That's not true in many cases. Lots of (maybe all?) electronic E6B's
have 5-6 lines of display, showing all of the input criteria
simultaneously. Hitting the enter key toggles from field to field.
There is no reason to start over.

I have E6B's with and without batteries, and the circular version is
just fine for PP training. Both versions require some initial
familiarity to use.

However, the electronic version can be far faster for the more advanced
written tests, such as the flight planning portions preparing for the
IR. Some versions retain all the inputs and allow one change at a time
for repetitive calculations.

My advice is if the OP really wants an electronic version, try to find a
1/2 price example on eBay. Chances are, it'll have less than one set of
batteries through it.

Outside of "required" E6B use, I've usually found the flight planning
features on DUATS to be plenty usable, and FREE! During my instrument
training, the same DUATS printouts I use for every flight were perfectly
acceptable to my instructors and the DE. I only used an E6B, of any
kind, while studying for and taking tests.

Electronic flight computers offer functions such as weight-and-balance
calculations that are not available with an E6B, so for those functions the
electronic version is best...but those are pre-flight calculations. In
flight, the most common use of a flight computer is doing
time-speed-distance between checkpoints, and I have no preference in that
situation. The "dead battery" argument is specious for anyone smart enough
to carry spares.

You seldom have enough information to calculate wind speed and direction in
flight with any degree of accuracy, and figuring out fuel burn is best done
after the tanks have been topped off on the ground.

Bob Gardner

"Chris L" wrote in message
...
Is the electronic one better than the E6B manual flight computer. When
is one better than the other. I now have both. Do you have any
recommendations on using them.

Chris Lusardi

On Thu, 3 Jan 2008 05:06:08 -0800 (PST), Chris L wrote:

Is the electronic one better than the E6B manual flight computer. When
is one better than the other. I now have both. Do you have any
recommendations on using them.

I didn't want to mess with the manual ones so I just learned on the
electronic. On the ground they are very fast for flight planning. I
remember during flight planning exercises in ground school I was finished
and waited around for 15 minutes while the rest of the class fiddled with
their manual ones.

In the air I had to learn to run it with one hand using my thumb, but it
wasn't really a problem.


--
Dallas

Chris L wrote:
Is the electronic one better than the E6B manual flight computer. When
is one better than the other. I now have both. Do you have any
recommendations on using them.

Chris Lusardi

Do what you gotta do.

I have the ASA CX2, I've looked at the Sporties electronic E6B

Both are, in my opinion, pieces of junk. Way overpriced and
ancient techlogies. The user interface sucks and they are slower
than blazes (no doubt programmed in basic bhy some guy with just
a small clue about what calculations a pilot would need).

I bought mine purely for the taking the Instrument written.
I've got little use for it otherwise.

I only used the electronic one from Sporty's. I found it very easy to
use once I learned it's functions. I will say that the first or top
line readout is very hard to see, and you have to hold it in a certain
way to see that line easily. If they could "redo" the screen to make
it more readable, it would be great. My middle aged eyes could use
the help.

I agree that it is mainly used for training. I haven't taken it out
of my bag yet since I've gotten my ticket.

Doug

On Fri, 4 Jan 2008 15:25:01 -0800 (PST), gliderguynj wrote:

I only used the electronic one from Sporty's.

That's the one I used too... for the most part it was fine... *but* the
algorithm mine uses for calculating DA is totally screwed up.

It's not enough to kill you, but it was off enough to give answers that
were in-between the selections offered on the written test. I wouldn't
recommend it for that reason.

In fact I here's a photo of mine and someone else's with same values
punched in yielding two different answers for PA and DA.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...SportysE6B.jpg

I emailed Sporty's about this and they blew me off.

--
Dallas