Sporty's electronic E6B

This tread is now moot. I have both answered Brooks question, and solved her
delma. I have loaned her my "Sporty's" electronic E6b. Met her at JNX yesterday after her flight w/ instructor.

Enjoyed the visit with you Brook!!!!!
 
tonycondon said:
sounds about right to me!
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hahaha :D


I really don't understand why we can't have an aviation discussion where we all say our opinions without someone making it personal or feeling offended. I don't get offended about someone saying they think I'm wrong. I like the thought process of thinking the situation through. It's kind ofa good idea to run as many scenarios through your head while you have time on the ground. You'll be a hell of a lot better off when it happens in the air.

Our discussion was on topic with the thread since the thread was about E6bs. The nature of conversation is for it to drift. If we are talking in real life the subject changes a lot. I don't see anyone getting upset when their subject gets changed at any of the fly ins.
 
Skipp...I had a blast yesterday. What a day. I WAS EXHAUSTED YESTERDAY WHEN I GOT HOME!!!!! Fell asleep watching TV and ended up going to bed about 9. We should do it again sometime soon. :)
 
jangell said:
I really don't understand why we can't have an aviation discussion where we all say our opinions without someone making it personal or feeling offended. I don't get offended about someone saying they think I'm wrong. I like the thought process of thinking the situation through. It's kind ofa good idea to run as many scenarios through your head while you have time on the ground. You'll be a hell of a lot better off when it happens in the air.
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I feel exactly the same way. Unfortunately, I've found a lot of people who get really offended when I say I think something they're saying might be wrong. They take it really personally. I appreciate it when people point out errors I'm making in the way I think about something. I guess it's possible it's my delivery.

(btw, I don't think you're wrong in this one, I just think that you're only right for the type of flying you (and most of the rest of us) do.)

Chris
 
jangell said:
You didn't give me any information about how far either airport was for you to tell me which one I would chose. Quite frankly if I *really* thought that I wouldn't make one of the airports I would be looking for a makeshift airport to use instead. Land in a nice field sounds a hell of a lot better than crashing into a forest or city. I can operate a 172 in less than five hundred feet for takeoff or landing. Would I put my life on that? No. But I'd put my life on landing on a nice looking 1,200 foot or so hay field vs. putting myself into a situation that I could no longer control and was guesstimating.
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I fully agree that a precautionary landing with fuel is better than running out of fuel in the air. My point is that you can get a more accurate calculation of your expected ground speed in any given direction if you use the back of your E6B. This will mean that you will know much more accurately whether you will have sufficient fuel to get to your alternates. You can then choose to put down in the field if need be.

I agree that you don't want to make an important decision based on a "guesstimate" and that you need to be more conservative if you're guesstimating. That's my point. An E6B calculation based on your actual observed winds aloft will give you a pretty good estimate. You'll know if you'll be eating into your reserves when you divert and therefore if you should consider finding a field. You'll also know if you should divert into the wind for the closer field or downwind for the further field because you'll be able to easily calculate your current winds aloft and resulting groundspeed in any direction.

I'd hate to risk bending an airplane in a forced landing when more accurate calculations with an E6B would have told me that I had plenty of fuel. Not everywhere has nice big fields to land in.

jangell said:
Once again. No information.

If there was any question and I couldn't tell myself based on what I knew in my head I would divert long before I started guesstimating my life with some crude numbers and the spin of the E6b. Or I'd just cut across the lake. Most engine failures are from a lack of fuel not a magical engine failure that only happens over lakes.
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Why is the E6B crude? Your current groundspeed and crab angle should be known fairly precisely. Once you have actual winds aloft information instead of the forcast, the E6B's pretty good. You use a reserve to make up for the fact that it's not exact. My mental trig skills are far less accurate than the answers I'd get from the E6B.


jangell said:
I fly a cross country at least once per week. I have never been in either of those situations because that just cannot happen in this area. I'm not a bush pilot in middle of nowhere Alaska. Cross country is more about making good decesions before you ever get into the airplane.
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I guess that's why I'm belaboring the point. This is a training forum, and you're making it sound a bit like nobody needs to use an E6B ever or that only those who can't do a bit of mental math need them. I think it's a very important tool at times, though I agree that for the way many of us fly, it doesn't need to be used very often.

Chris
 
All good points.

Like anything. There are situations to where it would be nice to have this or nice to have that with you. At some point you need to make your own calculated risk analysis to decide what's right for you.

I have a feeling that many of the pilots on this forum do not fly with an E6B ready to roll. If it's somewhere in your flightbag which is somewhere in the airplane that doesn't count. Unless you can get to it with little effort you don't have it.

In the area that I am flying in the airplanes that I am flying with the trips that I am flying I feel an E6B is not worth the added effort. I'm flying rental planes and the more stuff I carry the more I am likely to lose. I prefer to keep a clean clutter free cockpit. Considering the likelyhood of me needing the E6B being very small I don't bother. I'd lose it in a couple of flights anyway. Most of the time I have a GPS that can do all of the functions anyways. Of course they break sometimes (mine is STILL being fixed). But a E6B can be broke or lost too.

To each their own.
 
jangell said:
I can operate a 172 in less than five hundred feet for takeoff or landing.
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Not at some fields around here, you won't. Density altitude. Can you do that in your head? I'll keep my E6B in the bag and take it with me.

But I understand your basic point. I do most of my in-flight math in my head, too. With a C-172 with 6 hours worth of fuel aboard, fuel exhaustion is the least of my worries. My body will require being on the ground long before I've replaced all the fuel in the tanks with air.
 
Ghery said:
Not at some fields around here, you won't. Density altitude. Can you do that in your head? I'll keep my E6B in the bag and take it with me.
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Obviously there are times where I cannot. But I can do it in a 172 with 75 degree temperatures at about 1,200 feet MSL without a problem. I weigh 150 pounds.

As far as *EVER* trusting my life to an E6b calculation based on a perfectly new airplane and good enigne and perfect pilot. I think not. It's a decent starting point to getting an idea of how the conditions will effect your takeoff roll but that's about it IMO.
 
I say, it's all about Jesse, and he *is* a drama queen... err, king.

Or a drama duke, maybe a prince?
 
SCCutler said:
I say, it's all about Jesse, and he *is* a drama queen... err, king.

Or a drama duke, maybe a prince?
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I think we should honor the queen title. Jesse, after all, did lable himself with that moniker ;)
 
smigaldi said:
I think we should honor the queen title. Jesse, after all, did lable himself with that moniker ;)
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I think I'd make a pretty good queen. Isn't my flower in my hair pretty?
 
"Boy, you are not a queen. What you are is a little latin boy in a dress".

Name the movie this (paraphrased) quote comes from.
 
While some have turned this thread into deviant behavior such as calculating math problems by hand or worse, in your head, I'll stick with the simple methods.

I have four different E6Bs from over the years starting with aluminum and headed downhill to paper. But, I also have the Sporty's electronic calculator. Both are easy to use and although the electronic calculator is in my flight bag, a plastic E6B is tucked in the back of my kneeboard. I used both during my instrument, commercial and CFI writtens as the FAA's answers are never quite right on what either calculator would come up with.

And, although it's important to know and understand the concept of weight and balance as well as weight shift on paper, the Sporty's electronic version will speed up answering those problems something awful. My suggestion, have both. Know both. But, use what's most effective at the time of need.
 
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