www.PSFmagazine.com | November-December 2019 | 5 4 | November-December 2019 | Powered Sport Flying Support Our Advertisers Letters to the Editor Roy: Why do we “torture” our flight students with the “obsolete” E-6B? As you state in your article “Hating on the E6B", and I quote “ . . . engineers and proper technical people strive to use the best tool to get the job done.” As it turns out, the humble E-6B, developed by Philip Dalton in 1937, just over 80 years ago, is still the best tool to get the job done. • It needs no batteries. Ever. • It needs no internet connection. • It needs no wires to add to cockpit clutter. • You can drop it and it doesn’t care. • You can drop it again, and it still won’t care. • You can get it wet, and it doesn’t care (although the cardboard ones will get soggy). • You don’t have to fumble with tiny buttons. • If you lose it, it isn’t the end of the world. • They don’t cost an arm and a leg. • They don’t require periodic software updates. • They don’t have ‘bugs’ which the vendor claims are features. • You can often find them used at flea markets everywhere, the going price is $5, and they work precisely as well and are every bit as accurate as a brand new one, even though it might be 40 or 50 years old. (Try that with any electronic device!) I personally have taught over 4,000 students how to use the mechanical E-6B. Most of them carried it into the room like it was a dead rat, after couple of hours, they carried them out hugging them. I got comments like “I don’ t know why I was so afraid of this” and “This is easy!” and “Wow, that ’s pretty slick!” My objection to electronic E-6Bs is that they absolutely do not know that you cannot convert kilometers to Imperial Gallons. The student punches the keys and gets a number. The fact that the number they got is total nonsense doesn’t matter, nobody argues with a computer. In fact, a recent study (Google “study on deliberately wrong calculator results,” it is the first hit) showed that on a deliberately rigged pocket calculator with simple math questions, almost nobody noticed if the answers were off 15%. In fact, the answers had to be off by 120% before any significant number of people said “Hey, that can’ t be right.” How do you feel about discovering that your fuel available will only keep you flying for three hours instead of the six and some hours the computer said? Explaining to the engine that gee, we are out of fuel because you accidentally pressed a wrong key won’t make the noise start up again. And how do you feel about trusting your life to a pair of double A batteries from the local discount store supplied by the lowest bidder and made by child labor in a ragged tent in some ghastly third world country? (Not that the ‘name’ brands are that much better, they’re just more expensive.) You will also need to remember to carry spare batteries. Arriving at oh-dark-hundred at some deserted airport way out in the boondocks isn’t the time to discover that the spare batteries are already IN your electronic E-6B, are dead and you are now grounded until Monday morning when you can start looking for fresh ones. With the mechanical E-6B, once you learn how to use it (which isn’t a real big deal), you’ll be able to look at it and say “No, that answer doesn’ t make sense, let me try again.” The E-6B will let you quickly, easily and accurately calculate just about everything a pilot needs, and that explains why they are still around, still in use, and still being taught. About the only thing it won’t calculate is how you will pay for the fuel. In my experience, I have found more than a few student pilots who are utterly dependent on their iWhatevers, and are completely panic stricken without them. There was actually an accident when someone’s gps failed, they declared an emergency (the engine and the radios were working just fine), decided to make an emergency landing, messed it up, and got themselves killed. The low tech, quaint and old-fashioned idea of looking out the window never occurred to them. (Aviate, communicate, navigate, anyone?) And if you get a chance, take a peek into the flight bag of a big iron pilot. You’ll find an E-6B nestled in there, because I’m Lovin’ It (The E6B) Two sample responses to the E6B editorial in the last issue from readers with a slightly different point of view, one from an instructor point of view and another from a pilot. by Our Readers the E-6B always works. The numbers will be bigger on a 7X7 than with a 150, but the principal is exactly the same. With Best Regards, Mike Arman, AGI, N150EM Mike Arman has been fooling around with airplanes since about 1975, and got his pilot certificate in 1977. He bought a Cessna 150 in 1982, and still has it. He is an faa Certificated Advanced Ground School Instructor, and was an faa Aviation Safety Counselor. He taught caa/jaa/easa ground school for 11 years (part time) and all his 4,000 or so students over those 11 years survived him. He has recently been teaching cfis how to teach their students. He and his wife live on an airstrip in east central Florida, and are developing a small fly-in community. He is the author and the publisher of three aviation related books, which are sold by Aircraft Spruce, PilotMall.com, Amazon, and on his own website. The E6B Air Navigation Computer. Image courtesy of the National Air and Space Museum. (Where Roy still thinks this belongs. ) Greetings Roy: I’m a bit slow on getting back to you. To take a saying from the Tom Selleck movie “Monte Walsh,” “You’re certainly entitled to your opinion Chet (Roy), but I happen to see it different.” Yes, the E6B is an antique, but it works. The magnetic compass is centuries old, but it works. Granted, I had no practical use for these flying a ‘Soarmaster’ or an American Aerolights Eagle B (couldn’t fly far enough to get lost) but I actually had fun learning the use of these when preparing for my Sport Pilot test in ‘06. Electronic gadgets are cool but they can go south on you. I still advocate the basics. If we’re to pass on the E6B, let’s forget the compass also. Sure would save time not learning silly things like compass swing or the acronym ands (remember that?). How about the Orienteering Instructor telling his students, “ Forget those compasses, we have gps. Batteries die? There’s always the sun (unless it ’s overcast or night) or look for moss growing on the north side of a tree (unless you’re in a Louisiana swamp).” If anything, the E6B, protractor/plotter and a sectional chart would at least give students a break from staring at electronic widgets! In closing, keep up the great work you and Vickie Betts do with usua. Happy (air) Trails! Ken Kranik
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