How important are watches when flying?

[squale]

At my last PPL lesson, my instructor was telling me that he thought there were 3 things that every pilot should really get..

1.) good sunglasses to protect your eyes
2.) a good headset to protect your hearing
3.) a watch with certain functions on it (I don't remember what functions he said)

So that brings me to the question of, what kind of watch is needed (or useful) while flying? What certain functions do you need, etc? I just have a regular watch with and hour and minute hand and that's it.

I am not sure what a specific aviation watch does for you..

thanks

 

[FN FAL]

If there is going to be any welding on your aircraft while you are flying it, you may want to ensure that the fire watch has been set.

 

[dogman]

Tell your instructor that when you take all the bull@hit out of a pilot, all you have left is a ten pound watch and a pair of sunglasses!

 

[guitarflyer]

I like a watch with analog (hour & minute hands) and a digital section for a separate time. I set the digital to zulu time. This is useful because all aviation times (metars, TAFs, PIREPS, NOTAMS, etc.) are given in zulu. I can't be bothered with doing the conversion everytime I check the weather, especially for a forecast at an ETA, and you're flying across a time zone or two.

I guess if you live in Greenwich England it's not an issue.

 

[ScudB]

G-Shock

Squale,
I've been flying for 21 years and I found that you need a watch that will take a licking and keep on ticking (and it's not a Timex). Seriously, you can bang around the cockpit quite a bit. Also, look for one that has at least dual time zones for keeping local and zulu (GMT) time. Stopwatch is nice for holding patterns, NP approaches. I've flown with Casio G Shocks for the last 10 years and found them to be quite good. Their latest watch is definitely their best. It's solar powered, has 26 time zones, atomic hack (never need to set it), automatic light (it lights up when you tilt it towards your head) and is quite sturdy. It's model # is MTG-900DA-8V. BTW, a good internet site for buying watches is www.princetonwatches.com. They're far cheaper than retailers and delivery is very prompt.
Hope this helps.
Cheers
Scud

 

[vclean]

A simple watch is all you need so you're not late to the aircraft and to know when to stop drinking. Most modern aircraft have serveral clocks on board (capt & fo clock, ACARS etc).

 

[sf3boy]

Half the trips I fly I don't even bring a watch, the plane has two clocks/timers in it. When I do wear a watch, it is a Walmart brand because I am always hitting it on stuff and scratching it up.

 

[starchkr]

Your instructor is full of crap!!! You don't need a fancy watch with all kinds of features. As said already, aircraft already have timers/clocks in them, and if you just do what sf3boy said and go to Wal-mart to get a cheap one you will be just fine. All of the clocks in our a/c (at least the lears) are set to zulu time which is what we use for paperwork, and then my wrist watch is set to local time. You do not need any other "features" besides the time displays, digital is easier to read You will find that the big expensive aviation watches you buy to make yourself feel better while flying around as a PPL-comm training will only go to waste. I bought two of them while doing my training because i thought they would help, and of course they looked cool. Now, they sit collecting dust while i wear my cheapo in the cockpit because i realised i wasted my money on the other two...I kinda wish i never would have bought them now...that could have gone to 20 hours of flying time at the rates back then.

Make up your own mind, maybe go buy a really fancy one...all of us have in the past, and now we all see that we really didn't need it, but hey, it was cool at the time

 

[squale]

yeah I definately don't want to spend much, but was jsut wondering what are the features that are GOOD to get in a watch for flying?

So far I see dual time zones as being good... a stopwatch...

anything else?

 

[flyifrvfr]

The only watch I'm concerned with while flying is the Hobbs meter. Now if I can only find a way to make that stop in flight I'll be happy.