Put a Garmin 430 or 530 in your airplane. They do the countdown timer
thing automatically for approaches and holds. And - they're only a
thousand times more expensive than the West Bend kitchen variety!

Dave Blevins

On 15 Jan 2004 09:44:35 -0800, (Andrew Sarangan)
wrote:

Over the years I have been using various digital timers, but so far I
have not been satisfied with any of them. The LCD displays make them
difficult to read when viewing at different angles. The right seat
pilot (or CFII) cannot see the digits. Lack of illumination in most
units is another big problem for night use. Size is another issue.
Most of the timers appear to be way too bulky for their function. For
example, the ASA timer is larger than any instrument in the cockpit.
If you install it on your yoke clip, it would cover up half of the
approach chart. For some reason, the manufacturers seem to be obsessed
with presenting large digit displays. That may be good for home or
outdoor use, but there is really no need for the digits to be 10
times larger than the font size on the approach charts.


For a long time I have been looking for a very small timer (1" x 1")
with an LED display (not LCD) that could be glued to the yoke clip.
With LED displays, battery life could be a problem, but one could
easily solve that by having an on/off switch (most timers seem to run
continuously regardless of use). Any ideas where I may find such a
device?