Aviation Watches

In a previous article, BoDEAN said:
A few cfi's i know have the citizen one, that is like 300 bucks.
They like it, but it's bulky

A woman called up the local Navy base and said "There are a bunch of naked
drunken Naval Aviators on my front yard, and I want you to cart them
away." The Navy person answering the phone said "If they're naked, how do
you know they're Naval Aviators?" She replied "Because they've got wrist
watches the size of dinner plates and teeny tiny penises." "Ok then,
we'll be right over."


--
Paul Tomblin http://xcski.com/blogs/pt/
"He passed away during an important civic function held in his honor when the
platform upon which he was standing collapsed." "I thought he was hanged?"
"That's what I said, isn't it?"

"BoDEAN" wrote in message

Would like to be able to easily computer time/speed/distance
and have zulu available

With a little practice, time/speed/distance can easily be done mentally, and
it is safer than futzing around with your watch dial while you're supposed
to be flying. :-)

I doubt you're going to be changing time zones often or fast enough to need
a reminder about zulu. I never encountered a problem with that.

I still wear a Timex for which I paid $12 in 1980. It has a date function I
occasionally use. Very accurate, and it won't make you a target in some
third world backwater.

Regards,

John Gaquin
B727, B747

I have had the same experience with the Navihawk. The function button
sticking. You have to get your finger nails under it and pull it back out.
Maybe
I should try having it cleaned. I like the watch because it had two biggies
I wanted. Zulu in the digital window .. and the E6B on it.



"John Ousterhout"
wrote in message ...
On Thu, 30 Oct 2003 20:47:34 -0500, BoDEAN
wrote:

Suggestions?

A few cfi's i know have the citizen one, that is like 300 bucks.
They like it, but it's bulky

I received a Citizen Navihawk as a gift about six years ago. It looks
impressive. Having Zulu time in the digital window and local time on
the analog face is convenient. The alarms are nice but not loud
enough to hear in a cockpit. I had to have it cleaned after one year
because the main function button quit working. The same thing
happened in another year. And a year later it happened again and
couldn't be fixed so Citizen gave me a new watch under warranty. The
same thing happened with the new watch. I would not buy another
Citizen.

Previously I had two Casio $39 watches that lasted about six to eight
years each with no service except for new batteries,

- John Ousterhout -

One night at a hotel where many airline crews overnighted a captain
had to pee, and slightly drunk, opened the door to the hallway instead
of the bathroom and locked himslef out of his room. Naked, and in
panic he knocked on the room next door.

The Flight Attendent in that room looked through the peephole and
seeing the naked man, picked up the telephone and called the front
desk, "There's a naked man outside my door" she cried.

"Does he have a little dick and a big watch?" asked the front desk.

"Why yes" the Flight Attendent answered.

"It's just a pilot" relied the front desk.

"BoDEAN" wrote in message
...
Suggestions?

A few cfi's i know have the citizen one, that is like 300 bucks.
They like it, but it's bulky

I thought hard about getting a Navihawk last year when I was in the Bahamas,
but it was still $270, so I didn't. Well, that's not the whole story, I
didn't because it was a big ol' chunk.

Right now, I wear a Timex Expedition. It has a bright white analog face,
very legible numbers, an indiglo backlight, and a rotating bezel that I use
to mark checkpoints. I got it as a gift about 8 years ago and the damn thing
won't quit. I've gone through two bands and it's on its second battery.
Secretly, I've been wishing it would break so that I could get a new one,
but it just won't. The only thing it doesn't have (that I wish it did) is a
second time window for displaying Zulu time. I have the hardest time with
METAR/TAF because I have to mentally think through the time zone conversion,
so that little extra time window would be nice. I think the AOPA watch is
pretty nice, but it's still a little big.

Oh, and about the E6B on the face, I don't think that is very useful, so I
just use the real thing. The right tool for the job.

-Trent
PP-ASEL

The only things I require from an aviation watch are accurate time and a
stopwatch, both of which must be very easy to read and simple to operate.
Everything else is clutter that makes the watch difficult to use. The
closest I have come to my ideal is the Swiss Army Cavalry watch, though this
watch is unsuitable for night use.

Sweep second hands are better than digital. In fact, digital watches are
inferior in most respects. You can use a dial watch to determine direction
and estimate distances.

However, the Cavalry watch is hard to find.

The new Swiss Army Star Tech 3000 appears to have most of the functions you
want.

Given that my cell phone and GPS have pretty good clocks on them and the
fact that you can download all kinds of free timers for the iPAQ, I am
beginning to wonder why I wear a watch at all.

One other comment on my earlier post. The Swiss Army Cavalry watch no longer
comes in an officer's version with a stopwatch.

They do have "Air Boss" and "FA-18" watches that look promising.

Sweep second hands are better than digital. In fact, digital watches are
inferior in most respects.


Why? Timing an approach with digital, I start the timer and wait for 3:18 to
show up. Timing it analog I have to count and remember the number of times the
second hand went around, or remember which little tic mark the minute hand was
on. Digital is drop dead simpler.


You can use a dial watch to determine direction
and estimate distances.


how?

Jose

--
(for Email, make the obvious changes in my address)

Pretty much any Seiko chronograph will have a second time
zone on a small clock. They even have an alarm on it though
you wouldn't hear it in a plane! I've had one for a few years now
and it's still on the first battery (seem to remember I bought it
in 1997 but I wouldn't swear by that). It's also got a stopwatch
feature on it, but I don't tend to use it while flying.

Paul

"Maule Driver" wrote in message
newswuob.32892
The one feature on a clock that I truly do use and appreciate is GMT time.
I can do it in my head but appreciate a visual reference

So what do I want for Christmas? A simple GMT watch. No whiz wheel, stop
watch, alarm or whatever. Just the ability to show me local and/or GMT
time.

here is a classic B-Uhr (observationwatch) replica:
http://www.laco.de/indexe/flieger-uhren/index.html




"C J Campbell" schrieb im
Newsbeitrag ...
One other comment on my earlier post. The Swiss Army Cavalry watch no
longer
comes in an officer's version with a stopwatch.

They do have "Air Boss" and "FA-18" watches that look promising.

"Maule Driver" wrote:
So what do I want for Christmas? A simple GMT watch...to show me
local and/or GMT time...Of course a nice one probably startes at $800

Don't get a nice one. Get the cheap AOPA "Zulu Time" Timex. After 6
years, mine looks pretty cruddy but it still works fine.
--
Dan
C172RG at BFM