who continues to use their whizz wheel?
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Still using a slide rule?
I still keep mine in my flight bag but use it a great deal less than the 1 in 60 rule but at least I know how to use it though I never did use it in the air even when GPS was a glint in DARPA's eyes.
I actually find something very satisfying about doing the navigation calculations and then finding the waypoints coming up bang on schedule and I've had more bad experiences in the air- one of them very bad indeed- from flying with people who were relying on GPS and getting very distracted when the thing let them down than anything else. I think GPS is great as a back up and as mine are getting very whiskery will very probably buy the new simple moving map as that's what I really want from a GPS. I think though it's far better to use traditional navigation and then have the GPS as a genuine back up to confirm your position than to risk having the wrong course accurate to 1/10 degree. The great advantage of manual navigation plotted on the chart is that common sense has more chances to spot a gross error, also you're not pushing badly ergonomically designed buttons while flying VFR.
I actually find something very satisfying about doing the navigation calculations and then finding the waypoints coming up bang on schedule and I've had more bad experiences in the air- one of them very bad indeed- from flying with people who were relying on GPS and getting very distracted when the thing let them down than anything else. I think GPS is great as a back up and as mine are getting very whiskery will very probably buy the new simple moving map as that's what I really want from a GPS. I think though it's far better to use traditional navigation and then have the GPS as a genuine back up to confirm your position than to risk having the wrong course accurate to 1/10 degree. The great advantage of manual navigation plotted on the chart is that common sense has more chances to spot a gross error, also you're not pushing badly ergonomically designed buttons while flying VFR.
Join Date: Apr 2008
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tjfly,
I haven't found any good android apps yet, but since I'm now the proud owner of a Nexus 1, I've been having a go at writing my own graphical wind computer.
Rather that the usual 'type in the numbers' ones, it allows you to set direction by spinning round the whizz wheel, and setting the speed with a 'trim' wheel.
I've put some screenshots of what I've got so far at WindComputer
Is this the kind of thing that people would actually want to use if I made it available??
I haven't found any good android apps yet, but since I'm now the proud owner of a Nexus 1, I've been having a go at writing my own graphical wind computer.
Rather that the usual 'type in the numbers' ones, it allows you to set direction by spinning round the whizz wheel, and setting the speed with a 'trim' wheel.
I've put some screenshots of what I've got so far at WindComputer
Is this the kind of thing that people would actually want to use if I made it available??
I learned to use the Dalton MK4A in 1967, I still have it, as well as a MK5A the mini version. I have found it very useful for the past 43 years and have always carried it in my bag. As well as the usual high and low speed slides it has been used with CARP and MEARS Slides, which I doubt anyone has heard of. I like to think of it as a Prayer Wheel that comes in, in times of Desperation.
I'm sure there are those that would say a prayer wheel is more useful. Nevertheless, my whizz wheel is usually in my bag if I'm going away overnight and don't have a laptop with me.
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tjfly,
I haven't found any good android apps yet, but since I'm now the proud owner of a Nexus 1, I've been having a go at writing my own graphical wind computer.
Rather that the usual 'type in the numbers' ones, it allows you to set direction by spinning round the whizz wheel, and setting the speed with a 'trim' wheel.
I've put some screenshots of what I've got so far at WindComputer
Is this the kind of thing that people would actually want to use if I made it available??
I haven't found any good android apps yet, but since I'm now the proud owner of a Nexus 1, I've been having a go at writing my own graphical wind computer.
Rather that the usual 'type in the numbers' ones, it allows you to set direction by spinning round the whizz wheel, and setting the speed with a 'trim' wheel.
I've put some screenshots of what I've got so far at WindComputer
Is this the kind of thing that people would actually want to use if I made it available??
Join Date: Apr 2008
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The Nexus 1 uses the latest Android v2.1 release, but I've been writing the app to work with v1.6 and above.
(Although I've since realised there are more phones still running v1.5 than I thought, so I'll have to tweak it to work with that)
(Although I've since realised there are more phones still running v1.5 than I thought, so I'll have to tweak it to work with that)
Just catching up with this thread... I agree 100% with IO540.
That said, I DO keep my E6B in my flight bag. Where else would I keep it? If I kept it anywhere else, I'd lose it. And it is very occasionally handy, for example to do IAS->TAS clalculations when sitting on the ground doing flight planning, or recently for litres->gals conversion when buying fuel in Mexico. It's kind of a neat gadget, just not much use in flight.
On the subject of winds aloft forecasts... when I flew back from Mexico last weekend, the forecast was for a nice 10-15 knot tailwind all the way up through California. Guess what? For the first half of the journey it wasn't there at all. For the second half it started to show up, then I was asked to climb from 10000' to 12000', and it turned into a 5 knot headwind - which was quite a surprise. When I got back down to 10000' I had the tailwind again. Odd. But anyway, if I had a flight plan and was expecting to keep within 3 mins on a 3 hour flight based on that kind of winds aloft discrepancy, it would be pretty hopeless.
n5296s
That said, I DO keep my E6B in my flight bag. Where else would I keep it? If I kept it anywhere else, I'd lose it. And it is very occasionally handy, for example to do IAS->TAS clalculations when sitting on the ground doing flight planning, or recently for litres->gals conversion when buying fuel in Mexico. It's kind of a neat gadget, just not much use in flight.
On the subject of winds aloft forecasts... when I flew back from Mexico last weekend, the forecast was for a nice 10-15 knot tailwind all the way up through California. Guess what? For the first half of the journey it wasn't there at all. For the second half it started to show up, then I was asked to climb from 10000' to 12000', and it turned into a 5 knot headwind - which was quite a surprise. When I got back down to 10000' I had the tailwind again. Odd. But anyway, if I had a flight plan and was expecting to keep within 3 mins on a 3 hour flight based on that kind of winds aloft discrepancy, it would be pretty hopeless.
n5296s
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The Nexus 1 uses the latest Android v2.1 release, but I've been writing the app to work with v1.6 and above.
(Although I've since realised there are more phones still running v1.5 than I thought, so I'll have to tweak it to work with that)
(Although I've since realised there are more phones still running v1.5 than I thought, so I'll have to tweak it to work with that)
Join Date: Sep 2007
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No sooner did I suggest that
than a leaflet popped out of my GASCo/CHIRP publications, just received in the post, entitled 'Using GPS in Aircraft for Visual Navigation - A syllabus for training, published by the Royal Institute of Navigation.
This is the first 'official' training syllabus I have seen and must be a step in the right direction.
KR
FOK
The current situation where no approved training syllabus is available leaves the knowledge imparted open to variation and level of completeness.
This is the first 'official' training syllabus I have seen and must be a step in the right direction.
KR
FOK
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Well, I last used my wheel today... when I PASSED MY PPL SKILLS TEST! (ok, I know, thread is about using it after you've got the license but I had to tell somebody 
)
)
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Bought mine in 1995,
Used it for PPL then again in 1999 for ATPL and last week for my FAA ATP. Only this time I had no idea how to use it!
I just stared at it for an hour in my hotel room in Houston, thought bugger this and went to the bar...
Any Questions?
SP
Used it for PPL then again in 1999 for ATPL and last week for my FAA ATP. Only this time I had no idea how to use it!
I just stared at it for an hour in my hotel room in Houston, thought bugger this and went to the bar...
Any Questions?
SP
Join Date: Jun 2009
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It's an invaluable tool, and I'd never fly without mine.
There is no finer tool for whacking a bug climbing around the windscreen : the square bit is excellent for scraping ice off various surfaces : and (holding the square bit) it's great for cutting the pizza sat on the PAX seat.
I also used it recently when trying to fix my position following an electrical failure, and it was fine : although I was surprised to have reached Edinburgh from Elstree only 25 mins after departure, the whizz wheel showed me that I had 200kt tailwinds, so I suppose that accounts for it ...
People have suggested to me that I should upgrade to some sort of electric planning tool. I rang the nice people at GASIL to ask their opinion, and spoke to someone called Commodore Air Vice Marshall (retd) "Dusty" Miller. It took me a while to explain my question to Dusty, but just before they came to take him back to his room he got the hang of it. He said that he supposed we have to move with the times, although he couldn't quite understand exactly how the battery-operated whizz wheel could be any better than the "trusty" manual one ... fair point I suppose ....
There is no finer tool for whacking a bug climbing around the windscreen : the square bit is excellent for scraping ice off various surfaces : and (holding the square bit) it's great for cutting the pizza sat on the PAX seat.
I also used it recently when trying to fix my position following an electrical failure, and it was fine : although I was surprised to have reached Edinburgh from Elstree only 25 mins after departure, the whizz wheel showed me that I had 200kt tailwinds, so I suppose that accounts for it ...
People have suggested to me that I should upgrade to some sort of electric planning tool. I rang the nice people at GASIL to ask their opinion, and spoke to someone called Commodore Air Vice Marshall (retd) "Dusty" Miller. It took me a while to explain my question to Dusty, but just before they came to take him back to his room he got the hang of it. He said that he supposed we have to move with the times, although he couldn't quite understand exactly how the battery-operated whizz wheel could be any better than the "trusty" manual one ... fair point I suppose ....
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Some people on this thread clearly have no respect for proper traditional authority.
Society has truly gone to the dogs.
We need another world war, to return some kind of proper deferential culture.
Society has truly gone to the dogs.
We need another world war, to return some kind of proper deferential culture.
I have carried mine around plus 1/2 mill chart, chinagraph, rule & protractor in my bag since 1970. Makes a basic nav kit.
Never has a flat battery, never needs re-booting.
It's hardly ever used, but always there ready to go -could be a good luck charm ?
mike.
Never has a flat battery, never needs re-booting.
It's hardly ever used, but always there ready to go -could be a good luck charm ?
mike.
Found this today:
International Slide Rule Museum
has all the oooooold slide/circular/etc rulers with manuals to download
International Slide Rule Museum
has all the oooooold slide/circular/etc rulers with manuals to download
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Excellent site 
About time somebody did a "tribute to the slide rule" - like you get tribute bands for Elvis Presley, Beach Boys, Barry Manilow, all the great classics of the 1960s and 70s. Great stuff.
About time somebody did a "tribute to the slide rule" - like you get tribute bands for Elvis Presley, Beach Boys, Barry Manilow, all the great classics of the 1960s and 70s. Great stuff.
