I was drinking a few beers inside a buddy's hangar and we were watching the planes come and go in the pattern. Leaves were wafting in the breeze. The smell of cactus was thick in the air. Coyotes could be heard calling in the distance. An ancient looking man wearing a Hopi dress practiced Tai Chi on the tarmac.
Most of the planes kind of showed up, sloppily entered some sort of downwind, turned base at various points in the pattern, and sort of fudged final. And there were the occasional yayhoos that would do power off 180's. I mean, give them some credit, they made it to the ground. Almost all of them. Well actually all of them, come to think of it.
But there was this one guy - this one guy, flying a Cherokee. I want to say it might have been a Cherokee Six, but I'm not sure. Anyway, my god, he just entered a PERFECT 45, and made a exact half trapezoid in to final. I mean you couldn't even tell he was turning. He was pointing one direction, and just rotated to the next. If he had smoke his pattern would have looked like a CAD drawing. I turned to my buddy and ask "How can somebody be THAT PRECISE?"
He just kind of laughed, reached in to his flight bag, and pulled out a metal object. "One of these, son, one of these."
"What's that? I never seen one before?"
"It's a landing calculator. Learn to use it, and you'll be a real pilot too."
"But, but, but.... I have a DG...."
"DG's are mechanical son, they can fail. What if you had a complete electrical failure? What if your AHRS went out? What if you lost your EFIS? What would you do if you had to land without an ILS?"
"You mean, like... Asiana Flight 214?"
"Yeah. Like Asiana Flight 214."
"But, but they didn't have a landing calculator. At least not one like yours."
"Exactly my point. Entirely avoidable at the tune of a single twenty buck cockpit accessory. Reach in the ice box and grab me another King Cobra, will you."