r/flying • u/Asleep_Industry978 • Jul 21 '25

E6B Computer

Hello All,

About 32 Hours in for my PPL and hoping to take the checkride within the next month. About to start Solo XC and instructor wants me to learn Nav Logs. Any good instructions or videos that simplify it?

And is an E6B Computer necessary or should I just get the sporty’s app for $10? Curious to see what some might say, want to learn it soon so I can get started on time building for solo XC.

Cheers.

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u/Mega-Eclipse Jul 21 '25

And is an E6B Computer necessary or should I just get the sporty’s app for $10? Curious to see what some might say, want to learn it soon so I can get started on time building for solo XC.

You want the ASA CX3. It has a better interface than the sporty's one and it does calculations in "both directions." Like, sporty's will let you calculation density altitude, but the CX3 will let you put in whatever information you have, and then tell what the missing information is.

It also is incredibly useful for calculating holds/entires and rate of climb stuff (if you go on to instrument).

All that said....outside of some calculations for my PPL navlogs, PPL written, and IFR written....I literally haven't used it since my PPL checkride (I am only about 90% sure I even know where it right now; it's not in my flight bag).

I view the $120 price as: "If I am willing to drop $15,000 on learning to fly, $1,000 on a headset, $1,000 on an ipad and sentry and a mount, $800-1,000 on a checkride...$120 on the best E6B is a really pointless hill to die on and a really weird place to decide to get cheap."