I was wondering... After I master this overglorified slide rule is it worth it to later get one of those electronic flight computers?

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Not only that, but anything electronic can fail. Would hate to have the batteries fail at the worst possible time

My flight computer may be old fashioned, but it will never fail me

Well I would always carry both because I've heard of FAA examiners on checkrides telling people to pull out their E6B and its just good practice to know how to use it. I figure for overall efficency though that the electric ones would be faster.

And speaking of elecronics those Eelectronic Flight Bags (EFB) look awsome but theres no chance I can afford one anytime soon. Its pretty cool that theres an FAA authorized all in one carts, AFD, FAR/AIM, flight computer, ect computer you can carry, but its expensive.

I see your point about the inaccuracies and I thought about that in private ground because our little planes are pretty easily blown around and gyro drift is a real problem. Now CG limits... I'm not sure if we train for that or not. I guess we could, just throw some stuff in the baggage compartment I guess, put another guy in the back seat.

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True, they're not always perfect, but my flight planning so far has always been close

I remember by PPL oral exam like it was yesterday (a lot of you weren't even born yet    ). It was memorable for the obvious reasons, but also because it was extra stressful. I was  "lucky" enough to pick the day that the FAA decided to evaluate my examiner. You guessed it.. some ornery, mad at the world, career government pencil pusher decided it was my day to hate life as much as he did.

Anyway.. what sticks in my head most was how prepared I "thought" I was. I was told it was open book.. as in.. the examiner would rather you show that you knew how to quickly find the right information than guess and be wrong. I had EVERY book, chart, graph, tool I could think of with me.. except that silly little cross-wind component calculator(E6B crosswind component calculations are almost useless (except for the electronic variety)). He asked: You're taking off on runway 27 and winds are out of 250  25 gusting to 40 knots... What's the cross-wind ?  After a few, tense minutes digging through everything I thought might have that graph.. I said..  "Well, that's 20 degrees off runway heading which is about 1/4 the way from a direct cross-wind.. I know that at 45 degrees (exactly 1/2) the cross-wind component is quite a bit MORE than 1/2 (forget geometry.. trust me.. it is) so 20 degrees should be more than 1/4 so 1/3 seems like a good, safe estimate. So... rounding up for safety.. the crosswind compent is 10 gusting to 15.  Since 15 is the published limit for the C172 that's right on the edge.. BUT.. since the gust differential is 5 (15 minus 10) and is 1/2 of or more than the base of 10, it's also right on the edge of wind-shear and though taking off might be ok, landing is outside of my comfort zone, so I'd stay on the ground.

I think I was more impressed with myself than he was.

My point ?  Well... like Rotty said.. Drilling with the E6B while training and even after training will keep your estimating skills honed. But trying to fly an E6B'd flight plan is pointless and might even lead you into position awareness assumptions that are more dangerous than a seat-of-your pants guess. If you get lost or disoriented enough to KNOW you're lost and disoriented on a VFR flight.. I can't imagine what good an E6B would be. How much fuel would you waste spinning that wheel ? And if you're truly lost.. you wouldn't have any idea what point-to-point calculations you'd be making anyway.

Now.. if you are not lost, but have to alter your flight plan, in flight, there are two scenarios. 1) You fly to your alternate which is well within range for even a worst-case fuel burn.. OR.. for whatever reason (prob some E6B corner you painted yourself into) you're looking for the nearest airport period and need to know if you have enough fuel left to get there. A yes or no answer from the E6B isn't gonna do you any more good than your own yes or no guess, if it's your only choice. 2) You need to choose between two or more airports OTHER your planned alternate and for some unknown reason you'd rather try to make it to the further (how silly does that sound when a VFR flight has gone this awry ?) . Now.. if these two airports are not in the same direction.. how much fuel are you gonna burn spinning the damn wheel again ?

Was I making a point ?  Oh yeah... If you find yourself in a situation where an E6B might save your butt, it's most likely that that same E6B let you feel comfortable with the limits you pushed to begin with. It's a great learning/practicing tool and certainly helps, if for some ungodly reason you need to confirm your own, limit-pushing, estimated flight plans (hopefully make you choose otherwise)while you're still safely on the ground, but I've long since decided it borders on counter-productive... ecpecially in the cockpit.

(confession:  I still have one in my bag.. maybe it's a security blanket      )

Personally, if I were to spend my money on some sort of electronics for an airplane, I would first get myself a nice handheld nav/com...

That's what I have done and I've never needed it (yet) but man do I feel good knowing it is in the bag with 2 spare battery packs.

I always had a bit of a 'thing' for the wiz-wheel. I agree with Rotty; the E6b is just one of those things a pilot should have and be familiar with. It's more intuitive than an electronic computer IMO (not that I've any real experience with one) - just haul it out, spin 'er with the thumb and read the answer.

Funny - I'm on my third. The second one walked away with another student way back and the third stays at the bottom of my briefcase. It's shiny and new and I just don't like it.
I stick with my first one - it's the one my Grandpa gave to me when I announced I was going to get my PPL. It's worn, dented and the slide rattles when it spins; it's at least 15-20 years older than I am - he used it back when he flew bush. But it's just a lot more comfortable than the new one. (shrug)

Funny story about a handheld. The only time I've ever actually used mine was about two months ago. I had driven out to the east ramp to load the plane. On pre-flight, I found the oil a tad low and there was none in the plane. Instead of driving back to parking lot .. then walking to the hangar,, then back to the car and then drive back to the plane.. I called ground on the handheld and asked permission to take the much shorter drive from the ramp to the hangar via taxiway Alpha. I was OK'd as I was in constant contact with ground/tower 

Sweet, it already paid for itself Brett! haha

Some older pilot in the area was selling his nearly brand new David Clarck headset, and the Icom handheld nav/com I own now... along with some added toys such as PTT switch so I can use the handheld the next time I go fly something like a Cub that has no electric system.  IT was $350 all together... couldn't pass it up.

I've saved many trips down to the airport on flights I needed to cancel due to wx also.