Metal Landing Calculator

What is a landing calculator?
 
I've seen crosswind component calculators (separate from an E6B) and a really silly one you set the runway heading and it tells you what the headings of the various pattern legs are, but neither would fit my definition of a "landing" calculator.
 
Can you show a picture of the present one.
 
Could it be something that takes performance data, weights, winds, etc, and determines landing distances?
 
Hmmm, learn something every day.

My landing calculator has a black knob on it.

I pull it to go down, push it to go up. It's pretty simple.
 
So it's just the front side of an E6 with the goofy heading calculator (for those who can't figure out how to line up things on the 90 degree points of their DG or look out the window to see if they are parallel or perpendicular to the runway.
 
The link above looks like a normal E6B, and on the back when set to the runway direction, it gives the corresponding headings for downwind and base for both left and right patterns. Huh.
 
So, do you use this thing in a flight simulator? That's the only time it might be handy, since orientation to the runway can be tricky in a Sim.

Otherwise, in a real plane, you just look out the window...
 
I think what the others are saying is you should try to just look at your DG (heading indicator) and picture the runway on it and maneuver according. Once you're visual with the runway you shouldn't need headings to fly the pattern, its all eyeballs at that point.



On a side note, aviation is filled with type A personalities, best work on building up a thick skin in this industry, give it back to em or let it roll off your back :wink2:
 
My questions were genuine. I've never heard of such a tool, or found need for one. I didn't even know it existed.

If that makes me a dick, well, sorry. :(
 
tlrussell said:
I forgot how many dicks there were here. Must be great to be perfect and not have tools to help with boredom 20 miles out. Forgive me for wanting to be efficient in my planning. I was raised to be positive and help or be quiet. Looks like you were raised different.
Click to expand...

Wow are we sensitive .
 
I'm not going to jump on the OP for finding it useful, but I am interested in WHY or HOW it's useful. So you set the runway to 36, and it tells you that for left traffic, downwind is 180, base is 090, final is 360, right?

Except, that's almost never the case.

Your ground track is what is supposed to be on 180/090/360, not your heading. Unless it's a perfectly calm day from the surface to pattern altitude, none of those headings are accurate. Heck, for that matter, even on a calm day they're probably not accurate if all you enter is "36" for the runway. What's the real runway heading - 355? 005? Even more off but they haven't changed it yet?

So, you have a tool that gives you headings, which are virtually never correct. You will have to then adjust those headings visually, which of course, you'd have to do anyway. It kind of renders the tool irrelevant, doesn't it?

Like I said, I might be missing something, but I can't see how this tool is useful when you have to look out the window anyway. I am, however, open to suggestions.
 
Whatever works. At unfamiliar airports, a lot of times I end up drawing a rwy layout on my kneeboard, and the direction I will be approaching, so I can get some extra situational awareness ahead of time.

And I didn't think my Sporty's suggestion was so bad.
 
PA32-300,

I think the point trying to be made is that it's completely unnecessary and superfluous. You already have a landing calculator right in front of you. Your DG.

That's why I said:

timwinters said:
There's another good $20 wasted.
Click to expand...

Let's say your planning to land on runway 23. Just dial your DG to 230:

C172_heading_indicator.jpg


Your left crosswind heading will be 140 (the tick 90 degrees to the left)
Downwind 050 (the tick at the bottom)
Left base is 320 (the tick 90 degrees to the right)

DON'T forget to dial it back to your present heading!!

What am I missing? Does it give you some other pertinent information that I'm not understanding?
 
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I have an HSI. I put the course arrow on the runway heading (it needs to be there if flying a localizer or other course aligned with the runway anyhow). Easy peasy.

Even without the HSI, envision the runway superimposed on the DG with the far end of the runway on the number on the DG that matches the runway.

The "landing direction" thingy is very old and dates form the pre-DG days.
 
Matthew said:
Whatever works. At unfamiliar airports, a lot of times I end up drawing a rwy layout on my kneeboard, and the direction I will be approaching, so I can get some extra situational awareness ahead of time.
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I've done that esp. for airports with crosswind runways that aren't quite perpendicular... of course many GPS's can give you extended runway tracks, which I use if I can't see the airport.
 
Matthew said:
My take is that he uses it 20 miles out for SA. Not necessarily in the pattern.
Click to expand...

I understand that. What I'm saying is that he can do the same thing using his DG when he's 20 minutes out. It too is a "landing calculator" and it's right there in front of you, all the time, no need to dig it out of a flight bag.
 
paflyer said:
I've done that esp. for airports with crosswind runways that aren't quite perpendicular... of course many GPS's can give you extended runway tracks, which I use if I can't see the airport.
Click to expand...

I tend to do that more with the same type of non-perpendicular rwys you mentioned. It helps me when the wind isn't down any of the rwys. It's not unheard of to have 6 rwy options and a x-wind on all of them.

I also really like the extended rwys that show on GPS. That's a big help, but also just drawing a wind arrow on a penciled airport diagram can do the job.
 
tlrussell said:
I forgot how many dicks there were here. Must be great to be perfect and not have tools to help with boredom 20 miles out. Forgive me for wanting to be efficient in my planning. I was raised to be positive and help or be quiet. Looks like you were raised different.
Click to expand...

I kind of thought the same thing.

People visualize in different ways, and anything that aids a pilot is a good thing in my book.
 
flyingron said:
I have an HSI. I put the course arrow on the runway heading (it needs to be there if flying a localizer or other course aligned with the runway anyhow). Easy peasy.

Even without the HSI, envision the runway superimposed on the DG with the far end of the runway on the number on the DG that matches the runway.

The "landing direction" thingy is very old and dates form the pre-DG days.
Click to expand...
Of the five aircraft I fly regularly, none have an HSI, and only the Citabria has a DG. But even in the Citabria, I couldn't see the DG from the back seat to save my life. Why are posters here so eager to make assumptions about other pilots and their planes? There is tremendous diversity of flying styles and steeds.
 
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Lindberg said:
Of the five aircraft I fly regularly, none have an HSI, and only the Citabria has a DG. But even in the Citabria, I couldn't see the DG from the back seat to save my life. Why are posters here so eager to make assumptions about other pilots and their planes? There is tremendous diversity of flying styles and steeds.
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I made no assumptions. I stated that the calculator most likely stemmed from the pre-DG days (for which some hasn't passed).

Still it's of dubious use for the other reasons stated. First if you don't have a heading indicator, what good is knowing what the reciprocal course is. Second, a heading isn't all that useful in practice, this is why we practice rectangular patterns in our primary training.
 
I was drinking a few beers inside a buddy's hangar and we were watching the planes come and go in the pattern. Leaves were wafting in the breeze. The smell of cactus was thick in the air. Coyotes could be heard calling in the distance. An ancient looking man wearing a Hopi dress practiced Tai Chi on the tarmac.

Most of the planes kind of showed up, sloppily entered some sort of downwind, turned base at various points in the pattern, and sort of fudged final. And there were the occasional yayhoos that would do power off 180's. I mean, give them some credit, they made it to the ground. Almost all of them. Well actually all of them, come to think of it.

But there was this one guy - this one guy, flying a Cherokee. I want to say it might have been a Cherokee Six, but I'm not sure. Anyway, my god, he just entered a PERFECT 45, and made a exact half trapezoid in to final. I mean you couldn't even tell he was turning. He was pointing one direction, and just rotated to the next. If he had smoke his pattern would have looked like a CAD drawing. I turned to my buddy and ask "How can somebody be THAT PRECISE?"

He just kind of laughed, reached in to his flight bag, and pulled out a metal object. "One of these, son, one of these."

"What's that? I never seen one before?"

"It's a landing calculator. Learn to use it, and you'll be a real pilot too."

"But, but, but.... I have a DG...."

"DG's are mechanical son, they can fail. What if you had a complete electrical failure? What if your AHRS went out? What if you lost your EFIS? What would you do if you had to land without an ILS?"

"You mean, like... Asiana Flight 214?"

"Yeah. Like Asiana Flight 214."

"But, but they didn't have a landing calculator. At least not one like yours."

"Exactly my point. Entirely avoidable at the tune of a single twenty buck cockpit accessory. Reach in the ice box and grab me another King Cobra, will you."
 
@Sac Arrow, that was just hilarious. :rofl:

Oh, and as for this dohickey being good for situational awareness, I find that eyes looking outside the windows instead of down in my lap at something are much more helpful...
 
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Sac Arrow said:
I was drinking a few beers inside a buddy's hangar and we were watching the planes come and go in the pattern. Leaves were wafting in the breeze. The smell of cactus was thick in the air. Coyotes could be heard calling in the distance. An ancient looking man wearing a Hopi dress practiced Tai Chi on the tarmac.



Most of the planes kind of showed up, sloppily entered some sort of downwind, turned base at various points in the pattern, and sort of fudged final. And there were the occasional yayhoos that would do power off 180's. I mean, give them some credit, they made it to the ground. Almost all of them. Well actually all of them, come to think of it.



But there was this one guy - this one guy, flying a Cherokee. I want to say it might have been a Cherokee Six, but I'm not sure. Anyway, my god, he just entered a PERFECT 45, and made a exact half trapezoid in to final. I mean you couldn't even tell he was turning. He was pointing one direction, and just rotated to the next. If he had smoke his pattern would have looked like a CAD drawing. I turned to my buddy and ask "How can somebody be THAT PRECISE?"



He just kind of laughed, reached in to his flight bag, and pulled out a metal object. "One of these, son, one of these."



"What's that? I never seen one before?"



"It's a landing calculator. Learn to use it, and you'll be a real pilot too."



"But, but, but.... I have a DG...."



"DG's are mechanical son, they can fail. What if you had a complete electrical failure? What if your AHRS went out? What if you lost your EFIS? What would you do if you had to land without an ILS?"



"You mean, like... Asiana Flight 214?"



"Yeah. Like Asiana Flight 214."



"But, but they didn't have a landing calculator. At least not one like yours."



"Exactly my point. Entirely avoidable at the tune of a single twenty buck cockpit accessory. Reach in the ice box and grab me another King Cobra, will you."
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Damnit man.....I want to be a real pilot too! Where can I get me one of these landing calculators???
 
timwinters said:
PA32-300,

I think the point trying to be made is that it's completely unnecessary and superfluous. You already have a landing calculator right in front of you. Your DG.

That's why I said:



Let's say your planning to land on runway 23. Just dial your DG to 230:

C172_heading_indicator.jpg


Your left crosswind heading will be 160 (the tick 90 degrees to the left)
Downwind 050 (the tick at the bottom)
Left base is 320 (the tick 90 degrees to the right)

DON'T forget to dial it back to your present heading!!

What am I missing?
Click to expand...

You missed the first step - "Before you depart, stop at an avionics shop and ask if you can look at one of the DGs they have on the shelf." Because if you miss that step, then you are SOL unless you happen to have one installed in the airplane too. :D
 
timwinters said:
PA32-300,

I think the point trying to be made is that it's completely unnecessary and superfluous. You already have a landing calculator right in front of you. Your DG.
Click to expand...

You still don't get. The guy started a thread looking for help locating a replacement for a gadget he really likes. He didn't ask for a critique of the gadget itself. Nowhere does he say, "What do you guys think about this thing?" he just asks, "Anybody know where to get another?" Clearly he already uses it, likes it and wants another.

Apparently nobody actually knew the answer to his question, but many felt compelled to respond in a way that basically said "Look out the window." "Fiddle around with your DG.", "Draw on some paper." Don't be a moron and waste your $20, duh! That's the dick part. I'm glad Google could help him because POA really couldn't.
 
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Dav8or said:
You still don't get. The guy started a thread looking for help locating a replacement for a gadget he really likes. He didn't ask for a critique of the gadget itself. Nowhere does he say, "What do you guys think about this thing?" he just asks, "Anybody know where to get another?" Clearly he already uses it, likes it and wants another.

Apparently nobody actually knew the answer to his question, but many felt compelled to respond in a way that basically said "Look out the window." "Fiddle around with your DG.", "Draw on some paper." Don't be a moron and waste your $20, duh! That's the dick part. I'm glad Google could help him because POA really couldn't.
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Yeah, but the question had been answered by post #7 (granted, he answered it himself.) What else are people to talk about for the next few pages?

The truth of the matter is it really doesn't matter what position you take on any given topic in the POA, there will always be someone to call you out, rightly or wrongly. This applies to everyone from ground zero noobs to the most regarded, credentialed and esteemed experts.
 
tmyers said:
If that device is an Orientator, does that make you a dictator?

Inquiring minds want to know.

I didn't think orientator was a word. Learn something new every day.
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I think it is another word for oriental dictator.
 
Little Johnny's teacher asked him the following question in class.

"Can you give me a sentence that includes the word 'dictate'?"

He points at Eddie. "Yeah teach, I'll bet you my dictate better than his!"
 
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