You will use it maybe once or twice after you get your licence, then it will get put away and never seen again until it appears on ebay
. Whilst it is important to be able to understand the principles of VFR nav (which is what the whizzwheel does) it is simply not a sensible or practical piece of everyday equipment. You will do all your nav using VORs or GPS, and/or you will just use the clock code + max drift (do a search) for everyday use. And you can forget all the TAS/IAS calcs and all that stuff unless you are flying a Blackbird and then someone else will do it for you anyway.
That said don't ignore it just yet, you have a test to pass. And if you want to go commercial you'll have to do it all again on the CRP-5 which is even more expensive
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