On Fri, 03 Nov 2006 18:35:04 -0800, Sylvain wrote:

B A R R Y wrote:
I think mechanical E6B's are very useful, I don't feel the need to own
an electronic version. However, computers and calculators have done
much for science and engineering.

I am not advocating using sliderules at work (though, it can
be fun), but folks who started with them have a different
mind set when it comes to numbers, like a better understanding
of what constitutes significant figures and order of magnitudes...
a bit for the same reason glider pilots make better powered pilots
(ok, give me some credit for trying to bringing it back on
topic :-)

Carrying the characteristic in your head while slipsticking through a
lengthy calculation was an invitation to be off by orders of magnitude
when you were finished. What the engineering sliderule did positively
for us silverbacks was to ingrain in us a sense of "significant
figures" and a dislike for false precision.

I think the virtue of the E6B is less it's ability to rapidly perform
time/distance/fuel calculations than the presence of its little
DENALT and TAS windows.

I'm not sure of the value of the wind triangle calculator unless
you're navigating a bomber from Leeds to Ploesti on a cloudy night
raid.

Don