Hand Job or Batteries

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Member for

20 years 11 months

Posts: 143

Just idle curiosity, how many of you ( apart from students) still regularly use a 'whiz wheel' navigation slide rule computer, or have moved on to battery powered calculator types and above?

Original post

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 16,832

I enjoy using the whizzwheel but my current planning regime of

1) Rough it out on Navbox

2) Transfer it to the chart to look for problems

3) Squirt it into the GPS

4) Run off the short PLOG when I've got the day's winds

Means I never get to use it these days :(

Moggy

Member for

20 years 6 months

Posts: 256

I thought you were going to ask about ... wait for it ... swinging propellers.

I dusted off my whizwheel the other day when I decided I would do a flight without the GPS for a change. I was very chuffed to find I still knew how to drive it.

Now for the next great question: wind up or wind down?

Member for

19 years 10 months

Posts: 804

Bah... well that made me choke on a ginger knob...
BARNOWL

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 3,553

Whizwheel, every time. Partly because I don't have a GPS, but also out of choice. I'd hate to find that I've forgotten how to do the basics...

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 2,606

Hand Job or Batteries

I can't be the only one who found this humourous!!!

Member for

18 years 9 months

Posts: 42

Come on! :rolleyes:

I was suprised you even had to ask! Hand job of course. :D

Member for

20 years 8 months

Posts: 8,505

The whizzweel is an amazing piece of equipment really. So simple to use yet so effective. There aren't many other pieces of equipment which have changed so little in over 60 years that you can say that about.

Member for

19 years 3 months

Posts: 561

I can't be the only one who found this humourous!!!

You weren't, but I was at work when I saw it :)

Member for

19 years 3 months

Posts: 561

Bah... well that made me choke on a ginger knob...
BARNOWL

Ginger nut, surely. OR Hob Nob. What you've described is Chris Evans.

Member for

19 years 9 months

Posts: 1,767

Bloody hell! Family forum you know! :D:D:D:D:D

Member for

20 years 7 months

Posts: 2,623

Certainly whizzwheel, I have no GPS either hence whizzing all the way :)

Dean

Member for

20 years 7 months

Posts: 218

Whizwhat? ;) Flying here in the States, the company I work for uses www.fltplan.com . Amazing what that website can do. I still have my old whizwheel, but it rarely gets used.

Member for

20 years 3 months

Posts: 2,764

I find whipping out a whiz wheel to be just as quuick as messing around getting computers to open and applications to start.

I'd be interested to know how many people are using GPS as primary navigation?

Member for

20 years 7 months

Posts: 218

With charter flying, it is much quicker to use an internet service. I can have full Nav logs (for multiple legs) based on the current wind forecast, weather brief and Notams in my hand within a minute or two. Also once that is done, you can have the flight plan filed and in the system with a click of the mouse. What is amazing is that the service is free and you just need a web browser.

As for GPS.. yes, we use it as our main source of navigation backed up with conventional navaids.

When flying the 172 I use the GPS, also backed up with conventional navaids. I mainly fly it in the local area (giving rides usually), so navigation is not a big issue.

Member for

20 years 7 months

Posts: 2,529

www.fltplan.com.
Hi Paul. That website is awsome. Thank you for bringing it to my attention.

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 16,832

For those who need flight planning tools for the UK and Europe can I suggest a visit to HERE

Moggy

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 933

Still use the whizzwheel. Doesn't need batteries and will go on for ever.

What never ceases to amaze me is what a mish mash of different measurements we have to deal with: altitude in feet; runway length in metres (or feet); distance in nautical miles; airspeed in mph, kph or knots; fuel in litres; tank capacity in US Gallons....

I was back seat in the new Yak on Wednesday/Thursday, (we got stuck at Little Gransden after some maintenance over-ran and thunderstorms caught us out and had to spend the night in a B&B). Back seat altimeter was in metres, with the sub-scale in Cm of Mercury. Lots of mental arithmetic going on when transiting the low level corridor past NW!

YR