simple IFR timers

Gerald Sylvester wrote:


Anyone know of a source of a simple timer for approaches? I had one
years ago that was very simple. It was round with two buttons, one to
start and stop the timer and another to reset it. All I can find now
are the West Bend and others that have a lot more features than I need.
Unfortunately, the yoke timer in the airplane is toast so I'm looking
for something I can just velcro to the yoke or panel.


I have the following:

http://www.lcflight.com/timers.html

and then this one.
CON-5004 4 Channel Alarm/Clock Timer


It is 4 channel but I only use #1 timer for enroute timing and then I
have #4 setup ahead of time with the countdown time for the MAP.
It is very easy to use. Count up and count down. I wish the thing had
a light for night flying and I also wish the alarm was a little louder.
time is set very easily just by pushing the H (hour), M (minute), S
(Second) and then the C (Clear).

I wish pilot would invent a truly great timer. amazing that you get
a Garmin 530's, Avidynes, Autopilots, etc, but can't get a great timer.

Gerald


I agree. The Skylane I owned had, I believe, a Terra NavComm which had
a timer built into the CDI display unit. It's been a few years, but I
think you just toggled a switch to start the timer and this is what I
used for approaches. The nice thing is that the timer was right up
where you are looking during the approach so it was easy to keep track of.


Matt

I agree. The Skylane I owned had, I believe, a Terra NavComm which had
a timer built into the CDI display unit.

sarcasm on I can't recommend more this $12000 HSI with slaved
timer.

;-)



What you describe sounds ideal. Again, why can't manufacturers make
this. They can put oscillators into all electrical equipment but god
forbid they make a useful timer. Oh well.....

Gerald

Matt,

I just stumbled into this thread and for some reason found in interesting.
I have no personal endoresment, but West Bend appears to have a simple one.
It appears that you can just press CLEAR and STOP/START to make it work.
Try:
http://www.westbend.com/westbend/cat...d=476&secid=8&
linkon=subsection&linkid=82 or
http://www.westbend.com/westbend/cat...2&linkon=subse
ction

John Bell

Indeed the West Bend basic timer is a model of simplicity. In 1985 I bought two
of them. I modified one of them for Rutan's Voyager as a fuel tank alarm device
and put the other one in my 182.

The one in the 182 has never been turned off nor has it had a battery change in
almost 20 years. So far as I know, the one hanging in the Smithsonian is still
ticking away as well.

Jim



"John Bell"
shared these priceless pearls of wisdom:

-Matt,
-
-I just stumbled into this thread and for some reason found in interesting.
-I have no personal endoresment, but West Bend appears to have a simple one.
-It appears that you can just press CLEAR and STOP/START to make it work.

Jim Weir (A&P/IA, CFI, & other good alphabet soup)
VP Eng RST Pres. Cyberchapter EAA Tech. Counselor
http://www.rst-engr.com

Jim Weir wrote in
:

Indeed the West Bend basic timer is a model of simplicity.
In 1985 I bought two of them. I modified one of them for
Rutan's Voyager as a fuel tank alarm device and put the
other one in my 182.

I don't actually have one of these, but I have read (on the
internet, so it must be true!!) that these have a slight design
flaw, and the timing depends on voltage, so as the battery goes
down the timing slows down.

--
Regards,

Stan

"John Bell" wrote in message
om...
Matt,

I just stumbled into this thread and for some reason found in interesting.
I have no personal endoresment, but West Bend appears to have a simple
one.
It appears that you can just press CLEAR and STOP/START to make it work.

But that's not what I want, and unless I'm misunderstanding Matt that's not
what he wants. The problem is that the most common (only?) "command" a
pilot gives to a timer is "start counting up from zero now". For most
stopwatches and timers, presumably all based on the same silicon, that takes
3 button pushes:

Stop (if it's already counting, otherwise it goes to "lap" mode)
Clear
Start

It may be that the West Bend one doesn't have a "lap" mode so requires only
two pushes. What I want is something that emulates the timer on a KR87
ADF -- *one* press and it starts up from zero again.

Julian Scarfe