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Flight Computers - which one?

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Last edited:
Funny guy :)

I use the Echo-Six-Bravo quite efficiently at the moment. :) But at the moment i also have to carry a calculator with me to do W/B and other stupid calculations that take up some time. An Electronic one makes it a lot easier and quicker .... :p



btw R-B-F - most flightcomputers can be used on knowledge tests ... its just a advertising gimmick they throw in there
 
E6b from sportys has lasted me for a while, most people i know are swiching from manual to electronic. Save yourself the hassle and jsut get the electronic one.
 
yes.. but the question is which one.

I don't mind paying a few more bucks if i get a lot more features. So which one's the most useful?
 
Have a sportys electronic one.........been stashed in an old flight bag in the closet for probably 8 years or so.

The electrinic ones are good for written tests, but in the end, your electronic one will probably end up where 99.9% of all pro pilots electronic ones end up.....stashed in a closet in a forgotten sportys or ASA flight bag. A good quality metal E6B is always there, can't be easily squashed by ops manuals, and never needs batteries.

However, of the electronic ones I have used, I like sportys the best. Of course since I haven't touched it in 8 years or so......my information is probably out of date. I have no idea what is on the market nowadays!:confused:
 
100LL... Again! said:
Whiz wheel.

Electronic calculators are waste of money.
Click to expand...
Gotta agree. I bought one when they first came out and used it on two knowledge tests (they hadn't been computerized yet). Other than that, they sat in my flight bag unused. Then I got a Palm Pilot and got some freeware that does all of the =real= calculations I'll ever need (even includes a full national database) and sold the E6B online.

Folks who say they can do an enroute calculation on the manual E6B faster than an electronic one aside (I'd like to see it except for time-speed-distance calcs), IMO, the wind side of the manual one provides a better learning experience.

And, for the knowledge test, the computerized ones =give= you an flight calculator.
 
I bought an electric flight computer when I was a student and thought it was easier than a wiz wheel, mostly because I was intimidated by the wheel. When I became an instructor and had to teach a student how to use the wheel I realized how much easier the wheel is. It's faster to compute and the batteries never die. Get a wiz wheel.
 
GUYS.... I GOT a wizwheel! I know how to use it and its quite easy!

I have no desire to use an electronic one on a knowledge test either. I'm looking for something practical that i can use in real world flying. Something to make W/B calcs faster.. (and does other neat stuff ;)).

I want something smaller than a manual E6B, and that replaces my calculator. No need to carry both.


The basic question is - which Electronic E6B is better and has more features applicable to real world flying?!

Forget knowledge tests and forget the manual E6B! So..... can anyone help with some useful input now?

Thank you ;)
 
mattpilot said:
GUYS.... I GOT a wizwheel! I know how to use it and its quite easy!

I have no desire to use an electronic one on a knowledge test either. I'm looking for something practical that i can use in real world flying. Something to make W/B calcs faster.. (and does other neat stuff ;)).

I want something smaller than a manual E6B, and that replaces my calculator. No need to carry both.


The basic question is - which Electronic E6B is better and has more features applicable to real world flying?!

Forget knowledge tests and forget the manual E6B! So..... can anyone help with some useful input now?

Thank you ;)
Click to expand...

I am unaware as to how an electronic E6B would be much help on a W/B. Can you program it to have your aircraft specific data in it like you can with a palm pilot?

Like many are saying, I do not see where an electronic e6b helps in real world flying. Just my opinion, but once I got out of the training and instructing enviroment and started doing real world flying, I have never had the need for an electronic E6B. Now a palm with all your airplanes W/B data in it makes things much faster than taking pen to paper. But unless you can print it out on the spot, it is not much good except for part 91 stuff anyhow, since 135 must have paper records normally, and 121 has the info on the release.
 
I am unaware as to how an electronic E6B would be much help on a W/B. Can you program it to have your aircraft specific data in it like you can with a palm pilot?
Click to expand...

Thats stuff i'm trying to find out.
 
mattpilot said:
I want something smaller than a manual E6B, and that replaces my calculator. No need to carry both.


The basic question is - which Electronic E6B is better and has more features applicable to real world flying?!
Click to expand...

How about a "real world flying example" of how you will use it. My answer will =still= be a PDA with E6B and/or flight planning software. Far more functionally and it will cost less if you stick to the basic PDA functionality.

If you really want to waste your money on a dedicated E-E6B, the only thing to really watch out for are the old Sporty models that used AA or AAA batteries instead of lithium ones. It had an timer that kept using battery power. When you pull it out every couple of months, you'll find that the batteries have gone dead.
 
KeroseneSnorter said:
I am unaware as to how an electronic E6B would be much help on a W/B. Can you program it to have your aircraft specific data in it like you can with a palm pilot?
Click to expand...
That's part of the problem. The E-E6Bs (I'm familiar with the Sporty but they are pretty much alike) can do weight and balance calculations. But remember that they are primarily designed to be legal for the knowledge test. That means that there are serious limits on the information you can store in it. In your W&B example, no, you can't program it to keep your airplane's numbers. On the other hand, my PDA can keep them for all of the airplanes I fly.
 
I have the ASA one and you CAN store (i think up to 5) aircraft specific numbers in the W&B part, you can input any two of the three of Weight, Arm and Moment, and then also set how many different stations you want (even negative ones for fuel burn and moment shift due to gear retraction)
 
For those that use the PDA E6B programs, what is the program called and how did you get it?
 
For what it's worth, I'm of the opinion that you'd be better off with the cheapest one you can find - once you're finished taking the various writtens it will most likely be put in your flight bag and forgotten. I guess that's not entirely true - I actually have a whiz wheel that I keep in my "oceanic bag" along with various and sundry navigational tools that I'm obliged to carry during oceanic crossings. (You never know when you're going to have both a triple simultaneous nav failure along with a failure of the backup handheld GPS.)

Seriously though, if you go with a battery powered unit, try and find one that uses alkaline batteries and carry some spare batteries. Alkalines have a shelf life measured in years; nicads start losing their charge the moment you remove them from the charger. This advise is especially important if you're shopping for a handheld com or nav/com radio.

'Sled
 
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Some of you new guys make this all sound so complicated.

My Skyhawk carries me, the wife, and all the bags that fit,

Or three normal adults,

Or four adults and half fuel.

Unless I have a fuel leak, it runs for 4+30 hours on full tanks, which I never test because I have a 3 hr bladder, max.

It flies 100 kts mas o menos

Anybody who got thru 9th grade can figure those numbers in their head.

(JAFI, you didn't see this.... :D )
 
Vector4fun said:
Some of you new guys make this all sound so complicated.

My Skyhawk carries me, the wife, and all the bags that fit,

Or three normal adults,

Or four adults and half fuel.

Unless I have a fuel leak, it runs for 4+30 hours on full tanks, which I never test because I have a 3 hr bladder, max.

It flies 100 kts mas o menos

Anybody who got thru 9th grade can figure those numbers in their head.

(JAFI, you didn't see this.... :D )
Click to expand...
That's precisely why there are so many unused electronic flight computers stashed away in dresser drawers.
 
I use my graphing calculator (TI-83). You can likely find programs off the internet to enter into your calculator that do aviation related calculations. I programmed mine to do temperature conversions and density altitude. I could put more in but probably wouldn't use them. So, anyway for the same price you can have a device that is actually useful.
 
I have the Sporty's E6B. It is easy to use.

I don't like the ASA, version. With only two nav arrows, it can be quite inconvienent...........
 
mattpilot said:
hm.. i got a Ti-83+ ...

what cable would i need to get stuff from my 'puta to the calculator?
Click to expand...

Usually the store that sells TI calculators will also sell the cable that goes with it (it should say on the box what models it is for.)

However, you could just enter the programs yourself without the cable--that's what I did. The manual for the calculator will tell you how to do that. It's a little awkward at first but then you get used to it. I wrote the programs myself but I did get the formulas online.

I will post the code for the temperature converter below, if you want I'll also post density altitude and wind correction angle/groundspeed. The words that are not in all caps come from various menus, most of them PRGM except for "Fix 2" and "Float" which come from MODE. The -> is the STO key.

Code: 
:ClrHome
:Fix 2
:Disp "1 = *C TO *F"
:Disp "2 = *F TO *C"
:Disp ""
:0->W
:While W < 1 or W > 2
:Input "ENTER 1 OR 2: ", W
:End
:ClrHome
:If W=1
:Then
:Disp "ENTER TEMP"
:Input "DEGREES C:", T
:T*1.8+32->N
:Disp ""
:Disp "FARENHEIT:"
:Output(4,11,N)
:Else
:Disp "ENTER TEMP"
:Input "DEGREES F:", T
:(T-32)/1.8->C
:Disp ""
:Disp "CELCIUS: "
:Output(4,11,C)
:End
:Float

When executed the program would look like this:

1 = *C TO *F
2 = *F TO *C

ENTER 1 OR 2: 1

ENTER TEMP
DEGREES C: 15

FARENHEIT: 59.00
 

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