Whiz Wheels

[cessna170bdriver]

In another thread:

Did you ever noticethat the guys that have those "teeny tiny tires" on their arplanes do go faster? About 120 ; but then they have to get out their whiz-wheel to see how far they went in two hours.

I'm thinking that very few pilots that have learned to fly in the last 20 years even know what a whiz wheel is, much less how to use one. Mine is still in the map pocket, but I don't remember the last time I pulled it out. I'm sure I can still work both sides of it, but then I'd have to hold a heading (yeah, right). Kinda nice having ground speed and track, distance remaining, ETE, and ETA all displayed real time nowadays. More time to enjoy the ride.

BTW, I rarely see a zero wind component to make use of that 2-miles-a-minute calculation in my head, and I don't really care how far I've flown "through the air".

Miles

[jrenwick]

....I'm thinking that very few pilots that have learned to fly in the last 20 years even know what a whiz wheel is, much less how to use one.

I teach ground school to 10-12 students each winter, and we teach the E6-B. They might never use it again after the knowledge test and check ride, but at least they start out knowing how. I always tell them about the examiner who asked to see the applicant's electronic E6-B, took the batteries out of it, and handed it back.

The lead instructor flies for the airlines, and he's old-school. He takes his E6-B on every flight, and tells me it's still the quickest way to get an answer to any in-flight math problem that comes up. He doesn't fly the Airbus, otherwise I suppose he'd have to use a laptop PC instead....

John

[Brad Brady]

....I'm thinking that very few pilots that have learned to fly in the last 20 years even know what a whiz wheel is, much less how to use one.

I teach ground school to 10-12 students each winter, and we teach the E6-B. They might never use it again after the knowledge test and check ride, but at least they start out knowing how. I always tell them about the examiner who asked to see the applicant's electronic E6-B, took the batteries out of it, and handed it back.

The lead instructor flies for the airlines, and he's old-school. He takes his E6-B on every flight, and tells me it's still the quickest way to get an answer to any in-flight math problem that comes up. He doesn't fly the Airbus, otherwise I suppose he'd have to use a laptop PC instead....

John

John,
I know what your saying......If you can add to ten, then you can use a whizz wheel.....Brad

[GAHorn]

.... He takes his E6-B on every flight, and tells me it's still the quickest way to get an answer to any in-flight math problem that comes up. He doesn't fly the Airbus, otherwise I suppose he'd have to use a laptop PC instead....

John

"We were trying to remember how to use the whiz-wheel so we'd know when to begin the descent.", would have been a much better excuse than "working on the bid schedule" for those NWA pilots.

[Bill Hart]

.... He takes his E6-B on every flight, and tells me it's still the quickest way to get an answer to any in-flight math problem that comes up. He doesn't fly the Airbus, otherwise I suppose he'd have to use a laptop PC instead....

John

"We were trying to remember how to use the whiz-wheel so we'd know when to begin the descent.", would have been a much better excuse than "working on the bid schedule" for those NWA pilots.

THAT'S THE BEST EXCUSE I HAVE HEARD SO FAR! rotflmao

[KS170A]

"We were trying to remember how to use the whiz-wheel so we'd know when to begin the descent.", would have been a much better excuse than "working on the bid schedule" for those NWA pilots.

Great one! They probably didn't think to use that excuse because they probably didn't know what a whiz-wheel is!

[Harold Holiman]

To me the E-6-B was still high tech. I never had an electronic E-6-B. I would also be completely lost in a glass cockpit and much prefer "steam" gauges.

Harold

[GAHorn]

Ahhh. The good-'ol days of cheap, plastic, give-aways!

click to ENLARGE

(I've not acted on it yet, but I've been wanting to find an inexpensive mfr'r to make these with the TIC170A logo for our Members.)

[markeg1964]

I learned to fly about three years ago and the whiz wheel was a big part of my instruction. I’ve used it a few times since but usually flight plan with a computer.

On the first flight with my instructor (I learned to fly in my 170) the instructor removed the handheld GPS and said I could only use it when he was not in the plane. I would guess there are a lot of older instructors out there teaching people how to fly without fancy electronics.

[pojawis]

Ahhh. The good-'ol days of cheap, plastic, give-aways!

I have a paper one, much like the one in your picture, that has "Esso" on top of it. Don't remember where I picked it up. Will post a picture if'n I can figure out how...

[Bruce Fenstermacher]

Over the years I've collected a few whiz wheels from all sorts of places, mostly the Army but also some plastic ones. When I come across one in my collection of stuff I put it in my car and eventually I have it with me to hang on the airport bulletin board to give away for free to the first person to find it.

[Robert Eilers]

I remember my first encounter with the whiz wheel - a big plastic Sanderson SC-1 Flight Computer. I was seventeen and sitting in a big vacant hangar watching a Sanderson Video on how to use the Flight Computer - seemed impossible at the time. I still have the Big Plastic Sanderson Flight Computer. I estimate the Sanderson Flight Computer is over forty years old.

[170C]

When I was learning to fly, the airport/instructor I used didn't have a ground school. They sent me over to the pilot shop at Fort Worth Meacham Field to purchase the Jeppesen Private Pilot manual and told me to study it, which I did. In it was a paper/cardboard Jeppesen CR-1 Computer which I used until after getting my license. I still have it and the manual (that is why I have so much crap around my house & hangar--ie: pack rat) The old CR-1 got me through the course and I could use it pretty well at the time. Its a bit dog-eared now, but would still work. Later I got an E6-B (smaller one) that is metal and it rides in the seatback pocket in the plane, but I sure would have to study it to remember how to use it. I always thought the most difficult part of the whiz wheel was figuring the wind triangle, but it worked.

[bsdunek]

Hey, I still use mine. And, it still doesn't need batteries or charging, software updates, or anything. Just keeps working!

[blueldr]

Aeronautical Navigation reminds me of flying the Pacific with a Navigator on the Dizzy Six when I worked for World Airways on a contract to Kwajalien Atoll.
The navigators had small gummed stickers they used to pass up to the cockpit to be placed on the heading indicator with the heading to fly. One of our regular navigators was a retired USAF Lt. Colonel. By the time we got to Honolulu, we'd have a set of stickers a half inch thick on the instrument, most of which called for a correction of perhaps two or three degrees, which we normally ignored. Have you ever tried to change the heading of a Dizzy Six a couple of degrees?
Ridiculous! He absolutely worked his ass off navigating.
On other trips our navigator was an ex Marine Corporal or Sargeant having flown on their C-130s. He'd give us one heading out of Oakland and a few hours later a correction to the "Boat". (The "Boat" was a Coast Guard vessel approximately half way to Hawaii called ocean station November) At the "Boat" he'd give us another correction, and then a few hours a final correction in to Honolulu. The rest of the time he spent reading "Playboy" or some such. A sheet of gummed heading stickers would have lasted him until he retired. Semper Fi !!!