E-6B turns 80 years old in 2020

I still have one in the side pocket of my airplane. It's great for quick conversions of mph/kt or calculating TAS from IAS, or doing a quick fuel/ETA calculation. Of course, I'm old enough to know how to use a slide rule, which is what an E6B is, fundamentally.
 
Walboy said:
I still prefer a whiz wheel to elctronic calculators or apps

https://www.gleimaviation.com/2019/12/27/celebrating-the-e-6bs-80th-birthday/
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Me, too. I can use the whiz wheel in rough air with one hand. Can't do that with the electronic ones.

chemgeek said:
I still have one in the side pocket of my airplane. It's great for quick conversions of mph/kt or calculating TAS from IAS, or doing a quick fuel/ETA calculation. Of course, I'm old enough to know how to use a slide rule, which is what an E6B is, fundamentally.
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But do you know where your old slide rule is? I certainly know where my Pickett N4-ES is located, and I still know how to use it, too. You're right, an E6B is nothing more than a specialize circular slide rule.
 
Alas, all my slide rules are long gone. But when I showed one of my chem undergrads that you could multiply with two strips of log paper, he thought it was the cleverest idea...and thought someone should invent a device to take advantage of it. o_O
 
I tossed mine years ago.

With multiple computers in the plane (GPS/Nav/Comm, MFD, PFD, iPad and smartphone) I can get all that in multiple ways.

They were a great device decades ago, but now not so much. Oh sure, it's still useful, but the PFD shows me TAS, GS and where the wind is coming from and how fast.
 
Yes I’m old enough to have plenty of slide rule experience. I completed an electrical engineering curriculum with a slide rule and CRC tables. I’m quite comfortable with an E6B.

When my son was about fourteen, he will be forty this month, I was cleaning out a desk and found my slide rule. I showed to my son and he was amazed. I showed him a simple multiplication problem. He ran and got a calculator and plugged in the numbers. His eyes got big and he shouted “its right!”
 
A WW2 pilot gave me his E6B, and after 50 years of my use, I donated it to the College Park, MD aviation museum, in good working order. I still have a smaller, newer one which is adequate.

My slide rules started in College, and continued in power electrical work, with straight slide rules, I have worn out a generic cheap one, then a walnut Keuffel and Esser N4053-3 that is still usable in the horizontal position, but falls out when tilted. The aluminum Picket is the newest, and still has some adjustment, so just fine. It was saved by the advent of handheld digital calculators. They were easier to use with one hand, and handled numbers 6 digits long, to the last decimal place.

Recent years, flying, a smaller aviation circular that fits a shirt pocket, became my standard, with wind triangles solved in my head. Low precision trig is easy after 30 years of frequent use.

I wish my E6B had the name of the pilot who gave it to me, which would make it identifiably historic. He flew bombing raids over Germany, and survived. He was just a guy hanging around the airport when he gave it to me, as I as using the straight slide rule for my cross country flight plan. He said that I could not properly fly without the E6B. He was right. I carried it for more than 100,000 miles.

If he had scratched his name into it, I could have looked him up, and included mission information when I donated it.
 
Somewhere I have a whiz wheel flight computer for a B-17. I need to donate it to a aviation museum.
 
As I start my PIC time again...

I debated getting an ASA or Sporty's electronic unit... To replace my Jeppesen electronic unit with a failed display. I may try to repair it... The ribbon connection for the display is what needs attention.

I elected instead to purchase an ASA aluminum E6B.

I've had the one electronic unit fail... The E6B whiz wheel will do just fine, thanks.
 
Ghery said:
I certainly know where my Pickett N4-ES is located...
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A lifetime ago I had to show a student I.D. to get a student discount on Icelandic Airways.

So I made one!

16230675346_1ea8688aa9.jpg


Does that logo look familiar?

Hopefully the statute of limitations has run on that one!
 
My dad gave me a whiz wheel to calculate fuel burn when I started driving 25 years ago. “You’re going to need to know how to use this...” Truer words have not been spoken. I still have one in my flight bag, though all the modern conveniences make it all but a relic.

Zeldman said:
Somewhere I have a whiz wheel flight computer for a B-17. I need to donate it to a aviation museum.
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My grandfather flew B17s in WWII - if you’re looking for a home for that old E6B, PM me!
 
My mom found one at a church sale that's just the plain circle, without the rectangular metal plate attached. I like it a lot better -- simpler for one-handed operation. And it's certainly faster than tapping through menus on a tablet or panel-mounted GPS. I'm actually a bit obsessed with it these days, and just like to sit and play around with it sometimes. It's also way faster for converting between litres and gallons (something I have to do a lot) than opening up the calculator on my phone.

IMG_20200102_215851.jpg IMG_20200102_215906.jpg
 
Walboy said:
A former neighbor of mine gave me this E-6B his father used while serving with the 650th Bombardment Squadron of the 411th Bombardment Group during WWII. His father eventually rose to become a general in the Air Force. He had no idea what it was and brought it to me one day asking if I knew what it was. Since I knew all about it and how to use it, he wanted me to have it. I've held onto it for about 15 years wondering what I should do with it. It's probably not that rare and not likely to have seen combat given the 650th was a training squadron. I do feel honored that he asked me to have it. Looks like they were flying Douglas A-20G Havoc light bombers.

View attachment 81571
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That's in great shape! I wonder if Udvar-Hazy or one of the other aviation museums would be interested. They could take proper care to preserve it for another 75+ years in that condition.
 
A66FA4FA-19B5-487B-8A65-ED3B2A83E4E0.jpeg This is something I got when my father-in-law passed away. I’m not sure what it is. The only clues I have are I know he was a sonar operator in the Navy. First in blimps, then in helicopters. I know after his service, he also sold onboard radar systems for RCA. Anyone have any ideas?
 
FastEddieB said:
A lifetime ago I had to show a student I.D. to get a student discount on Icelandic Airways.

So I made one!

16230675346_1ea8688aa9.jpg


Does that logo look familiar?

Hopefully the statute of limitations has run on that one!
Click to expand...

A number of years ago my wife and I were going to a basketball game at Washington State University. We stopped at a window where you had to give your student ID number to get a shirt. The person at the window was just going to give us our shirts because we likely didn't have our student ID cards with us. We both gave a very surprised student our student ID numbers. We graduated in 1975. Back then you needed that number for everything. We'll never forget ours.

Nice forgery! :)
 
David Megginson said:
My mom found one at a church sale that's just the plain circle, without the rectangular metal plate attached. I like it a lot better -- simpler for one-handed operation. And it's certainly faster than tapping through menus on a tablet or panel-mounted GPS. I'm actually a bit obsessed with it these days, and just like to sit and play around with it sometimes. It's also way faster for converting between litres and gallons (something I have to do a lot) than opening up the calculator on my phone.

View attachment 81581 View attachment 81582
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Isn’t that a CR-3?
 
Yes, electronic devices are steadily taking over the functions of the whiz wheel. But if you’re fluent with an E6B, the calculations are just so easy and quick. There might be something wrong with me, but I even look forward to running calcs on the wheel.

But the looks you get at a $100 hamburger place, when you whip out an E6B and do some flight planning - priceless.
 
Dave Theisen said:
View attachment 81587 This is something I got when my father-in-law passed away. I’m not sure what it is. The only clues I have are I know he was a sonar operator in the Navy. First in blimps, then in helicopters. I know after his service, he also sold onboard radar systems for RCA. Anyone have any ideas?
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Looks like part of Spock's three-dimensional chessboard!

StarTrekChess.jpg
 
wayne said:
I tossed mine years ago.

With multiple computers in the plane (GPS/Nav/Comm, MFD, PFD, iPad and smartphone) I can get all that in multiple ways.

They were a great device decades ago, but now not so much. Oh sure, it's still useful, but the PFD shows me TAS, GS and where the wind is coming from and how fast.
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Agreed. I still have two of them, but honestly, I've only used them during ground school classes, twenty years ago. Was fun to learn, but I immediately purchased a Sporty's electronic E6B. Funny how I never got rid of them, but I no longer own a rotary phone, typewriter, cassette player or reel-to-reel tape recorder :D
 
WillFly4Food said:
Yes, electronic devices are steadily taking over the functions of the whiz wheel. But if you’re fluent with an E6B, the calculations are just so easy and quick. There might be something wrong with me, but I even look forward to running calcs on the wheel.

But the looks you get at a $100 hamburger place, when you whip out an E6B and do some flight planning - priceless.
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No, there’s nothing wrong with us. We are simply from a different era with a different skill set. Sometimes I wonder though, would people who never had to use an E6B, charts and a plotter, really understand those calculations that are being made.
 
MBDiagMan said:
No, there’s nothing wrong with us. We are simply from a different era with a different skill set. Sometimes I wonder though, would people who never had to use an E6B, charts and a plotter, really understand those calculations that are being made.
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It's also a trade-off. An E6-B has a steep learning curve (up-front investment), but is faster than opening an app or GPS page and typing in numbers--assuming I don't just do it in my head, I can convert litres to gallons, or solve speed/time/distance problems far faster with an E6-B.

But that up-front investment isn't really worth it for pilots any more, because most of the calculations are automatic inside flight-planning software after entering your route/date/altitude/TAS, so the rare times they do need to convert litres to gallons (for example), the extra time to pull out their phones and navigate to an app doesn't really matter.
 
Well explained except I just absolutely can’t buy the steep learning curve. How can anything be more simple to learn than to slide one number under a marker, find another number of interest and read the adjacent number?
 
MBDiagMan said:
Well explained except I just absolutely can’t buy the steep learning curve. How can anything be more simple to learn than to slide one number under a marker, find another number of interest and read the adjacent number?
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The learning curve is steep (compared to a calculator or app), because you have to master a lot of conventions that aren't clearly labeled, and also learn to use the right orders of magnitude. Use, however, is very simple, as you describe.
 
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