Guess what I found!

FastEddieB

FastEddieB

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Oct 14, 2013
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Lenoir City, TN/Mineral Bluff, GA
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Fast Eddie B
I spent a couple hours this afternoon cleaning/organizing my hangar in anticipation of my annual which expires the end of this month.

I came across this:

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1) So shoot me - it's not metal.

2) I actually bought it for the other side:

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I really just wanted a cheap, small, light E6B to carry in my shirt pocket. I don't think I ever used the Landing Calculator Side.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it!
 
Wow. Copyright 1969. I would have been in third grade at the time.

I like it, though. It appears I could read the numbers without a magnifier.
 
Well, the bottom picture would be the front of an E6B and is a circular slide rule. If you know how to use it, you can quickly compute all kinds of things needing multiplication.

The top was someone's idea of how to compute the courses for pattern legs and 45 degree entry angles. Pretty useless since you can do the same thing from the DG.
 
Interesting. I have never seen one like that. I have one that is pretty rare too. I'm talking about the circular one, not the el cheap o E6B. I'm on my iPhone and will have to make two posts to show front and back. Is there a way to post two pictures from your phone in one thread?
 

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Plastic E6B's are meant to be thrown away after you pass the checkride. I am pretty sure that is what happened to mine, though I still have my dad's sliderule (for sentimental reasons -same era of technology).
 
Makes a great coaster when at the bar as well, then there is no doubt in the girls mind if you are a pilot!
 
In 1969 that was a lot of computing power. Especially for the size.
It's got a permanent built in E6B app!
And it runs on vision!

A guy once told me, the little greeting cards that you open and they play a cheesy sounding happy birthday song with nothing but beeps....had more computing power than the real computers back in the 50's (I think he said 50's, maybe 60's)
If you're in the mood for boring fun, here's a boring interesting link.
http://www.computerhistory.org/timeline/computers/
 
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People are always amazed that I can come up with answers faster with an old fashioned E6B than they can with an electronic version, or with any other gadget they have.
I always carry one.
But, there are a couple of caveats:
When I'm in the plane, I can barely read it anymore if there is any bouncing around. Getting old sucks.
There are a few questions on the FAA written exams where the old E6B just isn't accurate enough to get the correct answer. The FAA sucks?
No memory function to store information. Unless you count pencil and paper. That could suck if you run out of either.

Just last night I bet a steely eyed young aviator a drink off the top shelf of the restaurant bar as a prize going mano a mano against his newest electronic marvel.
After he lost, he wanted to double down for dinner, but my wife wouldn't let me take the bet. Scruples suck.
 
Somewhere, in one of the boxes already packed for the move, I have a whiz wheel for a B-17.

When I find it 6 years after the move, I'll post a picture of it.
 
For those who got into flying recently, it may be hard to relate to a pre-GPS world.

For the most part, the only way to know your groundspeed was to get your time over two different waypoints and calculate from there. Then use that calculated groundspeed to calculate your ETA to your next waypoint.

For the first couple decades of my flying career, an E6B was an essential tool. I used a huge demo one - about 4' tall - to instruct students at Burnside-Ott in the late 70's. Similar to these:

E6Bclass.jpg


The plastic one pictured earlier still works, though my favorite was a compact metal one that I actually cabled to my kneeboard so as not to lose it. In the cropdusters I ferried, anything dropped was lost in the belly of the aircraft until the next stop.

I guess E6B's are largely doomed to the dustbin of history - or the Smithsonian - now.
 
Reminds me of the six foot slide rule my high school physics teacher had hanging above the chalkboard. (For the younger members of the forum, chalkboards were the predecessors to whiteboards.)
 
You could strap a rotax engine on those and fly the damn E6B's

just slide it a little to the right on take off for those pesky left turn tendencies
 
OMFG!

If I'm not mistaken, the top photo is a....

Landing Calculator.
 
FastEddieB said:
And I remember when these were the rage, especially with the road rally set:

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Appear to be popular with collectors now.
Click to expand...

My navigator had one of these!! We competed in SCCA National Road Rallyes back in the day. Had a blast. We went from these to programmable calculators to computers in a few short years. We ended with a driver's display that was actually an amp meter converted into an "Early/Late" indicator.

[For you non-rallyers, it was a time-speed-distance competition run over public roads where you were assigned an average speed and given points for every second (or 1/100th of a minute) you were early or late at a checkpoint. The course was given in a set of sometimes-obscure directions.]
 
I just ordered the colored ASA E6B. I'll probably never use it but I just had to have it! I figure I will keep it in my side pocket in the Cherokee. I had a cheap plastic King one before
 
A young Fast Eddie - on the left - rallying his MG circa around 1967:

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Preparing to depart BCC High School in Bethesda, MD if my memory serves me right.
 
Cool pic, Eddie! I never tried rallies, but I did lots of autocross and road racing.

I have a small collection of slide rules, maybe a dozen or so, as well as old technical books. I keep my eyes open and pick up stuff that looks different or interesting. I have a neat old K&E catalog from the WWI era, among others.
 
Since I assume the statue of limitations has passed...

I used the emblem from a Pickett slide rule to forge a student ID:

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It was to get a discount on Icelandic Airways for a flight to Europe.
 
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