Flight Computers · Volume 8
Care, Collecting and the Library
An electronic E6B asks for little: good batteries, a cool place to live, and a case. This volume covers its care, what electronic and mechanical flight computers cost and fetch, and the documents in the Library.
8.1 Care
Sporty’s manual (pp. 45–46) gives eight points of care, and they cover nearly everything that goes wrong:
- Batteries last six to nine months. A dim display or no response means new ones. If the clocks reset in storage, or the batteries run down early, the cells may be loose; the cure is to “gently bend the spring leaf battery terminal in the battery compartment”, to about 45°.
- The case: “It is possible to inadvertently turn the computer on by bumping the face of the computer when it is in its protective case.” A computer switched on in its case runs its batteries down.
- Heat: direct sun or high temperatures “may cause the display to go blank. If this occurs, move the calculator to a cooler place and the display will return.” A glare shield in summer is no place for it.
- Cleaning: “Solvents should not be used to clean your E6B. To clean the display, use a clean eyeglass lens tissue.”
- The timer: a running countdown keeps the display on; stop it when the computer is put away.
- Wrong answers are almost always wrong inputs: “be sure that units agree”.
The warranty, five years, excludes “units subjected to misuse, battery leakage, neglect or accidents”, which is a good reason to take the cells out of an E6B that will not be used for a while; doing so only clears the clocks. Sporty’s adds that its E6B “is an instruction and information aid, and is not an avionics instrument”.
8.2 Telling the Sporty’s models apart
The bottom-right cell of the display’s menu tells the generation of a Sporty’s electronic E6B with the same body and keys as mine:
Table 1 — The bottom-right cell of the display's menu tells the generation of a Sporty's electronic E6B with the same body and keys as mine
| Last menu cell | Model |
|---|---|
| TIMER | the original, before May 2005: mine |
| REQCLIMB | 2005 to 2012, with required rate of climb |
| no printed menu, six menu keys, a backlight, a built-in cover | the redesign of September 2012 (#7095), 24 functions |
Sporty’s also sold, from 2001, a thin E6B-F with lithium cells.
8.3 What they cost
Table 2 — What they cost
| When | What | Price |
|---|---|---|
| 1977 | Navtronic 16 | $197.50 |
| February 2001 | Sporty’s E6B (my model) | $69.95 |
| February 2001 | ASA CX-1a Pathfinder / Jeppesen TechStar | $79.95 / $74.95 |
| May 2005 | Sporty’s E6B | $59.95 |
| September 2017 | ASA CX-3 | $99.95 |
| September 2022 | Sporty’s E6B | $79.95 |
| October 2026 | Sporty’s E6B / ASA CX-3 | $89.95 / $149.95 |
| October 2026 | Sporty’s aluminium E6B / ASA cardboard E6B | $29.95 / about $14 |
| 2026 | Sporty’s E6B app | $9.99 |
A used Sporty’s electronic E6B with its case and manual changes hands for about $30 to $60, by reports of eBay sales and asking prices; sellers rarely say which generation they have, which the menu settles. Wartime E-6Bs were made in such numbers that plain examples are cheap: one Army Air Forces E-6B with its case sold on eBay for $15.50 in August 2025, while a boxed 1944 Weems Dalton E-6B was offered at about $69. Early electronic computers such as the Navtronic, Avstar and ProStar turn up for $15 to $45.
8.4 The documents in the Library
Everything in the Reference Library for this series:
- My E6B: Sporty’s manuals of 2005 (Version 05A, the closest to mine), 2012 and 2016, and its Palm E6B software manual (2003).
- Other electronic computers: ASA’s CX-3 Quick Start Guide; Hewlett-Packard’s HP-65 Navigation Pac 1 (1974) and Aviation Pac 1.
- Mechanical computers: A. C. Zweng’s Practical Manual of the E-6B Computer (1944); Jeppesen’s E6B manuals of 1966 and an undated edition; the Kane Mark 6 instructions (1958).
- History: Keith Smith’s “Philip Dalton: The Lost Navigator” and Paul Sanik’s study of the Army E-6B (1997).
- Patents: Dalton’s US 2,013,603 and US 2,097,116; Lahr’s US 2,775,404; Farris’s US 3,924,111; the two on my E6B, US 3,979,057 and US 3,979,058; and ASA’s US 4,831,538.
- The FAA: the Pilot’s Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge, chapter 16; AC 60-11A, AC 60-11C and Order 8080.6H on test aids; the August 2024 testing advisory.
8.5 Gaps
When Sporty’s first sold an electronic E6B, and who made it, are not recorded in any source found; Sporty’s says only “the 1980s”. When it stopped using the 1-800-LIFTOFF number is unknown. My own manual is an earlier edition than any online, and its title page would date it. No teardown of any Sporty’s E6B has been published, so its chip is unknown. The order and dates of Dalton’s early computers conflict between sources, and so do the wartime production figures.
Sources
- Sporty’s, E6B manual, Version 05A (2005), pp. 45–47; Sporty’s product pages (2026).
- Aviation Consumer, “Electronic E6Bs” (2001); General Aviation News (2005, 2012, 2017); Plane & Pilot (2022); ASA’s CX-3 page; Datamath Calculator Museum on the Navtronic 16; eBay sales and listings (2025–26, as reported).
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