The E6B is your connection to history. The small one from ASA is a lot more convenient and I don't think the wind side is all that useful in flight, but the other side works pretty well for a bunch of things and it is cheap, still has value with the FAA, uses no batteries, goes with you out of the plane and doesn't require smooth air to use. I thought it was a bit of a stretch to have to use it for diversion calculations on my commercial checkride but if you use it a lot you can get what you need from it. Use gps as your main tool and know how to use E6B as well. I know a retired U2 pilot (yes the 60,000 foot spyplane) and as late as the 1980's he was using E6B's and sectionals as his main tools of navigation. I thought "whoa" when he said that but I saw a snapshot of the cockpit and sure enough there was nothing in there but a bunch of VOR heads, a radar and a DG. He wasn't kidding.
Planecrazy: how do you fly ifr without gps? Sooner or later you are going to want it because a lot of podunk airports only have gps approaches. Now WAAS has been added in some places the minimums are as good as ILS.
Last edited by Cubdriver; 03-05-2007 at 03:42 PM.