Using A Manual E6B

Do you fly with a manual E6B?

  • Total voters
    54
Mason said:
Is it metal or plastic?
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The one seen here is metal. I'm not sure I've seen plastic ones, but believe it or not there is a paper one on the market.
 
I still use it once and awhile for preflight planning, but I cant tell you the last time I used it in flight.
 
I kept losing mine:

E6Bclass.jpg
 
The one in my Gleim "Be a Pilot" kit was thin plastic with a rivet in the middle. Rarely used it in training except when practicing for the checkride. Did use the back side to figure groundspeed and wind correction angles for a other year or so; now it lives in my flightbag in the plane. No,wait, the wind correction thing was cardboard (the white kind like cake boxes) with a on erase able clear piece of plastic for plotting winds and spinning for ground track.

Sorry, I can't help you much here. I keep a plotter in the plane "just in case." Comes in handy spinning VOR #2 and finding myself on the sectional; even better for letting my wife find us in the sectional, it helps keep her awake (a lost cause in IMC . . . ;) ).
 
I appreciate what you are doing for students.
I had to learn one when I was a student.

My personal opinion is they are as obsolete as a slide-rule.
No disrespect intended AT ALL. I haven't used one since I got my cert.
 
None of the above, I just do the math or off the cuff numbers.
 
Don't use it often. But, every once in awhile, I haul it out and plan a flight, with a nav log and everything. Then, I go fly it with just a VOR and a paper sectional, no GPS, no foreflight. Great fun.
 
Fltplan.com

I have my students demonstrate proficiency on the whiz wheel then I let them use an electronic one or how ever else they want to plan with.
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
I appreciate what you are doing for students.
I had to learn one when I was a student.

My personal opinion is they are as obsolete as a slide-rule.
No disrespect intended AT ALL. I haven't used one since I got my cert.
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Technically they are a circular slide rule. ;)
 
I don't remember the last time I pulled out an E6B inflight.
I have used the electronic TAS computation functions, but that's about it.

TLAR and my AF issue Speed Dividers were all I needed.
 
I keep one in the map pocket and use it regularly so as not to distract the iPad from its magenta-line-following chores. It tells me what I need to know with one little little thumb motion, instead of punching a bunch of electronic keys.

And you look so cool using it ...

Devine-E6Be.jpg
 
None of the above, I simply wing it. I don't do dead reckoning, so the heading down to the degree isn't that important and my fuel tanks hold way more time and distance than my bladder does, so ground speed doesn't need to be figured out to the nearest knot either. I know what my heading is going to be within 5 degrees and my ground speed within 5 knots just my doing quick and dirty in my head. So, the biggest usage of an E6-B is pretty much not needed in my case. If I'm going sans GPS - VFR it's going to be pilotage and IFR it's follow the needle. With GPS, I have all the info the E6B would give me right in my panel.
 
Pilawt said:
I keep one in the map pocket and use it regularly so as not to distract the iPad from its magenta-line-following chores. It tells me what I need to know with one little little thumb motion, instead of punching a bunch of electronic keys.

And you look so cool using it ...

Devine-E6Be.jpg
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Pretty much the same here. It's an easy way to double check a few things. And if it's good enough for Spock, it's good enough for me.

udhG3TJ.jpg
 
You need to add another choice.

'none of the above, I wing it'

winging it.png
 
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Great feedback, everyone! I've added the "I just wing it" option to the poll if anyone cares to vote or change your vote. For a while, I had a Citizen Skyhawk watch - the one with the E6B around the outside. I got a ton of use out of that in my car. "My exit is 115 miles away. I'm doing 70. (Spin) I'll be there in 98 minutes. How much time would I save if I did 75?" Etc.
 
Clayviation said:
Great feedback, everyone! I've added the "I just wing it" option to the poll if anyone cares to vote or change your vote. For a while, I had a Citizen Skyhawk watch - the one with the E6B around the outside. I got a ton of use out of that in my car. "My exit is 115 miles away. I'm doing 70. (Spin) I'll be there in 98 minutes. How much time would I save if I did 75?" Etc.
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I use occasions like that to try and keep my brain working by doing the math in my head. 115/7 is just under 16.5. That times six is just under 99. For 75 I'll use an easier number like 15 and multiply back by 12. Whaaaaat? Why 15? It's 7.5 doubled.
 
I have not used mine in probably a decade or so.

I see it something like long division - I would not spend a lot of time on it, but would briefly cover it...

1) For the historical aspect, and,

2) To help the student visualize how his GPS or electronic computer is coming up with ETE's, ETA's, GS, WCA's etc.

I'll be honest - I can fly entire legs in my Sky Arrow and never even look at the vertical card compass, which in the absence of a heading indicator is the only heading reference I have. I basically fly "headings" based on the "faux HSI" representation on my 496, which is my preferred default:

29035395685_a8ecb5fd88_c.jpg


Of course, if given a heading to fly I do so with the compass.
 
I can't say that I've used mine in many years. I stopped carrying it in my flight bag. I still have my grandfather's from WWII. It sits on the bookcase next to his logbook.

I do have an E6B function on my Torgoen watch and I will occasionally use it in flight mostly for descent planning, but that's about it.
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
I appreciate what you are doing for students.
I had to learn one when I was a student.

My personal opinion is they are as obsolete as a slide-rule.
No disrespect intended AT ALL. I haven't used one since I got my cert.
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Well they are a slide rule, after all. Front (wind side) and back (circular slide rule). Naviguessers will know what I'm talking about.

I use 'em all the time. I've worn out two in the last 40+ years.
 
I'm electronic (how I voted) these days, but always check the math (at least to the "Does the answer make sense?" level) in my head. I can still use a manual one and do periodically because I like to know I can. And I do carry one in my bag just in case the electrons crap out.

John
 
I'll use it every once in a while.

The occasional DR flight is a nice exercise in precision, and it is VASTLY underrated by those who haven't tried it.
 
Being able to use a manual E6B is good practice for WHEN the battery dies on your EFB
 
MAKG1 said:
I'll use it every once in a while.

The occasional DR flight is a nice exercise in precision, and it is VASTLY underrated by those who haven't tried it.
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And only usable by those who live in a place with steady winds that are EXACTLY the same as forecasted and whose plane runs at the exact same TAS regardless of conditions - at least if you want to wind up where you're going.

Not to mention your heading changes on any E-W flight of any significant distance.
 
Mostly I use it to compute TAS from the IAD/Temp/P.Alt. Then I use my heading/course/groundspeed/TAS to tell me what the winds are. Just for curiosity's sake.
 
EdFred said:
And only usable by those who live in a place with steady winds that are EXACTLY the same as forecasted and whose plane runs at the exact same TAS regardless of conditions - at least if you want to wind up where you're going.

Not to mention your heading changes on any E-W flight of any significant distance.
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That's just silly.
 
EdFred said:
And only usable by those who live in a place with steady winds that are EXACTLY the same as forecasted and whose plane runs at the exact same TAS regardless of conditions - at least if you want to wind up where you're going.

Not to mention your heading changes on any E-W flight of any significant distance.
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Maybe you should try it.

Steady winds in the presence of terrain and a coastline are quite far from a given. I still manage to make it.

You plan segments of constant magnetic heading for DR, not great circles. Don't be silly.
 
To expand...

...on a trip ferrying a cropduster from S FL to Curaçao my last leg was 5 or 6 hours utilizing nothing but pilotage and dead reckoning. Got lucky and landed within 1 minute of my expected ETA. Bear in mind, this was before GPS. Long, overwater stretches relied solely upon dead reckoning to find the next island.

As an aside, anything dropped in that cropduster stayed dropped and out of reach in the belly of the plane. It was then that I got in the habit of using stainless fishing leaders to cable essentials - including my E6B - to my kneeboard so they could be reeled back in if dropped.
 
MAKG1 said:
Maybe you should try it.

Steady winds in the presence of terrain and a coastline are quite far from a given. I still manage to make it.

You plan segments of constant magnetic heading for DR, not great circles. Don't be silly.
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Done it many times. Winds are never what they are forecast, so unless you are doing 2 minutes at a time, and then checking to make sure where you are, you're always a few miles off - at which point you may as well go with pilotage. Which is what you're doing at that point anyway.

So you only fly isogons and maintain a N or S magnetic heading, got it. Sorry, out here I go east west with legs of 300+nm, Last one was two 500nm legs almost exactly east west. I could fly your DR for 500nm and not even be close. great tool. :rolleyes:
 
EdFred said:
Done it many times. Winds are never what they are forecast, so unless you are doing 2 minutes at a time, and then checking to make sure where you are, you're always a few miles off - at which point you may as well go with pilotage. Which is what you're doing at that point anyway.
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Try 20-40 minutes or more.

I had to demonstrate it for CAP to get my mission pilot qualification. Trust me, it's not impossible, even with the summer thermals blowing us all over the place, and to a randomly chosen spot in nearly featureless flat farmland 30 miles from anywhere. Basically, I had to find a dirt road intersecting with another amidst a grid of roads from 50 miles away. And I did. With all the variability, I was a whopping 1/2 mile off, easily close enough to detect the target.

You do have to hold your headings precisely, and fly the correct true airspeed that you planned for.

That's right. Winds are never what were forecast, and the predictions are very widely spaced. But it doesn't make nearly as much difference as you're presuming.
 
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