Learning to fly, or thinking of learning? Post your questions, comments and experiences here

Moderator: AndyR

#1866737
This has been asked previously however not as far as I can see in the last year or so and the CAA site doesn't definitively help far as I can see:

I want to take Nav next week. Have all this week to study because I work from home and nobody's watching :thumleft:

I have a CRP-1. Hate the thing. And it's now literally got a screw loose.

I love the learning involved in the PPL and am getting 90 / 100 on all exams after serious study on Easy PPL plus book plus an app. (Apart from Ops Procs which I arrogantly took a punt on last week and by 1 mark. Quite right too and good to show they work. BUT I have zero interest in learning the arcana of a slide-rool seemingly because that's what Pontius used in flight school

Having watch YTs of the CX-3 it seems the best, well...course.

https://www.pooleys.com/shop/asa/cx-3-f ... rom=search

(My FI's opinion is the one I ultimately listen to of course and that is that the Wheez Wheel is not needed in the current exam)

Others' thoughts and experiences v. welcome :-)

Thank you

TW
#1866804
Wheel or electronic do the conversions

Electronic very intuitive. Also more accurate than wheel. Wheel 'less than intuitive'

With the exam £40 and the invigilator £20, the £120 of the calculator is not really significant I think. Especially as it may well see post-exam use! I want to spend a week on Easy PPL and You Tube to get the gist, not 'turn the third concentric velocity ridge to Umlaut B and simply read off the correct answer as B-y on the outer orbit just like Grandad did'.
#1866808
TrickyWoo wrote:Electronic very intuitive. Also more accurate than wheel. Wheel 'less than intuitive'


Wheel quicker to use and easier to check for input error. One digit out of place on the electronic gizmo, which you are as likely to use after qualifying as you are the whizz wheel, and you are stuffed.

If you can't master a simple circular slide rule I worry about your flying future.

Just adding the contrary view for balance. :)

Rob P
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#1866811
I am reasonably sure that unless things have changed very recently, you are not allowed to use an electronic flight computer in the exam.
What your instructor meant was that the nav exam doesn't require a whizz wheel. Which is true.
I suggest you ask your instructor for more clarity on this. Oh and you won't need the electronic computer once you're qualified - your GPS tablet app can do the flight planning stuff.
By TopCat
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1866814
TrickyWoo wrote:£120 of the calculator is not really significant I think. Especially as it may well see post-exam use!

:lol:

I bet it won't. Betcha betcha betcha.

I'll give you a fiver for it. The stopwatch function is the only useful thing about it.

The thing I always loved about the whizz wheel is the way it allows you to really visualise the triangle of velocities, which you can't do at all with a calculator.

I haven't used it for a long time but my CRP-5 is a keeper.
#1866822
Rob P wrote:
TrickyWoo wrote:Electronic very intuitive. Also more accurate than wheel. Wheel 'less than intuitive'


If you can't master a simple circular slide rule I worry about your flying future.



I don't see why. After all, it's not a question of ability it's a matter of choice. The calculator will take far less time to learn to achieve the same goal. Pass exam. Bin it.
By archerflyer
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1866823
lobstaboy wrote:I am reasonably sure that unless things have changed very recently, you are not allowed to use an electronic flight computer in the exam.
What your instructor meant was that the nav exam doesn't require a whizz wheel. Which is true.
I suggest you ask your instructor for more clarity on this. Oh and you won't need the electronic computer once you're qualified - your GPS tablet app can do the flight planning stuff.


I'm going to be sitting Nav in the coming weeks & I've also been advised that I can now use the calculator during the exam. Presume the guidance has changed and technology is being embraced. I'll be using my whizz wheel though, spent long enough learning how to use the thing.
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#1866827
TrickyWoo wrote:I don't see why. After all, it's not a question of ability it's a matter of choice. The calculator will take far less time to learn to achieve the same goal. Pass exam. Bin it.


I'm going to have to say this, although I guess you won't understand..
Irrespective of the merits of whizz wheels etc, that is a pi55 poor attitude. You are acquiring skills that you need to keep you, your passengers and other aviators safe once you are qualified. It very much is a question of ability.
You are learning to fly.
Passing the exams is not what is important.
Rob P, NDB_hold, JAFO and 1 others liked this
#1866832
lobstaboy wrote:
TrickyWoo wrote:I don't see why. After all, it's not a question of ability it's a matter of choice. The calculator will take far less time to learn to achieve the same goal. Pass exam. Bin it.


I'm going to have to say this, although I guess you won't understand..
Irrespective of the merits of whizz wheels etc, that is a pi55 poor attitude. You are acquiring skills that you need to keep you, your passengers and other aviators safe once you are qualified. It very much is a question of ability.
You are learning to fly.
Passing the exams is not what is important.


That's fine and thank you for replying. However please explain why the single skill I will not acquire - the use of the wheel for all of one week to come to the same calculations purely for the point of the single exam - will have such a damaging effect on my future safety as a pilot? (The FAA would certainly appear to agree with my view given the permission to use the EFB.)
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By TopCat
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1866840
Rob P wrote:Wheel quicker to use and easier to check for input error. One digit out of place on the electronic gizmo, which you are as likely to use after qualifying as you are the whizz wheel, and you are stuffed.

This is important.

Kids using calculators these days have no idea how numbers work.

They have no idea why an answer is the wrong sign, or 100 times too big, or 100 times too small, and as they don't understand how to do a gross error check they have no way of checking without doing the same sum on the calculator again, which is pointless as they'll probably make the same entry error next time without noticing then either.

If you're not going to use the whizz wheel, then you may as well go straight to SkyDemon and have the whole PLOG done for you.

That calculator is the worst of the three options IMO.
#1866842
TrickyWoo wrote:
lobstaboy wrote:
TrickyWoo wrote:I don't see why. After all, it's not a question of ability it's a matter of choice. The calculator will take far less time to learn to achieve the same goal. Pass exam. Bin it.


I'm going to have to say this, although I guess you won't understand..
Irrespective of the merits of whizz wheels etc, that is a pi55 poor attitude. You are acquiring skills that you need to keep you, your passengers and other aviators safe once you are qualified. It very much is a question of ability.
You are learning to fly.
Passing the exams is not what is important.


That's fine and thank you for replying. However please explain why the single skill I will not acquire - the use of the wheel for all of one week to come to the same calculations purely for the point of the single exam - will have such a damaging effect on my future safety as a pilot and shows such a lack of maturity in studying? Far as I can see you're equating the wish to save time with the inability to fly a plane. (Also the FAA would certainly appear to agree with my view given the permission to use the EFB.)
#1866843
TopCat wrote:
Rob P wrote:Wheel quicker to use and easier to check for input error. One digit out of place on the electronic gizmo, which you are as likely to use after qualifying as you are the whizz wheel, and you are stuffed.

This is important.

Kids using calculators these days have no idea how numbers work.

They have no idea why an answer is the wrong sign, or 100 times too big, or 100 times too small, and as they don't understand how to do a gross error check they have no way of checking without doing the same sum on the calculator again, which is pointless as they'll probably make the same entry error next time without noticing then either.

If you're not going to use the whizz wheel, then you may as well go straight to SkyDemon and have the whole PLOG done for you.

That calculator is the worst of the three options IMO.


The calculator instructions I've watched demonstrate that understanding the theory is vital to using the it correctly in the same way as the wheel. However I take your point. More research needed and perhaps another go on the wheel. Thank you for the explanation.

btw - straight to Sky Demon - isn't that what 99.999 do post-qual anyway?
User avatar
By Paul_Sengupta
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1866851
TrickyWoo wrote:the use of the wheel for all of one week to come to the same calculations purely for the point of the single exam


It's not just a week though, it's the whole of the cross country part of your PPL course.

In years to come you'll look back on that with nostalgia! When you see a whizz wheel in a museum, you'll smile to yourself at having used one of those in the past...

(there's a Pooley's one in a display case in the computing museum at Bletchley Park!)
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