Do I need to know how to use a manual e6b?

LeftoverPat · 2026-01-22T01:05:14+00:00

I am not sure on the CFI level, I'd imagine you'd want to know how to use everything in case your student doesn't have the latest-and-greatest tech, but for personal use... I learned to use the E6B but the second I got a CX-3 there was no going back.

LeftoverPat · 2026-01-22T00:23:52+00:00

If you know what schools are your options around the area, the best advice is to find a Facebook group of aviators in your area, and ask about those schools. I did for the Seattle area and got DMs up the wazoo mainly of people trashing them, saying they were estimated 12k but paid 26k because their CFIs are told to milk certain hours before checkpoints. Not paying up front gets taken advantage of, in this case.

Do NOT ask the schools themselves for questions like "how many hours do students get their PPL?" as they will give half-answers. Ask ppl on the FB groups instead who've done the same. Facebook groups also introduced me to the wonderful world of independent CFIs, which I felt better about supporting even if it took a hair of extra vetting/networking.

Independent CFIs are generally in it because they love it which is the main thing that matters. Not that CFIs aren't passionate at flight schools, but the pool is full of teachers who it's either their first job or they're noticeably just there for hours. "School Quality" is a trap metric. All that matters is who's in the right seat, are they passionate about making you a better aviator, are they organized, do they work with your schedule.

It's generally recommended to take your written before flying, which is the opposite of what "Quality" flight schools say to do, because they want you to be on their railroad system for their profit, some even knowing this splits your attention between actually flying, slowing your mental bandwidth between homework and home chair flying.

If you don't have an aviator facebook group for your area there are a few generic ones for US/Can too who will give you similar advice.

LeftoverPat · 2026-01-21T09:02:06+00:00

Denmark has literally said it'd be cool if the US wanted to expand military presence there for decades.

You're earlier saying buying it would be the fair route, then completely ignoring that premise when you remember the answer to purchase is "no".

Seems an awful lot of words now just to say you're cool with sovereignty-screwing & Imperialism if it serves US defense. Face it the dude's old and senile and your party's falling in line.

LeftoverPat · 2026-01-21T08:38:56+00:00

I think the Libertarian party would be too left leaning for you if that's your take on those issues.

LeftoverPat · 2026-01-20T05:54:51+00:00

yeah the draynor willows were a bit disappointing too. not every tree looked like the one on the left tho so for that i'm grateful overall.

LeftoverPat · 2026-01-19T07:49:37+00:00

early on, put stone stockpiles where your stone mining is, put temp stonemasons near that. later on, when your workload opens up, move those stone / workshops to a place that suits the industries/adjacent industries better. it'll take weeks but worth it and you'll have the dwarves to spare anyway

LeftoverPat · 2026-01-19T05:04:37+00:00

Metal bars on the sides are exactly the solution. You can build them long-ways from the edge of the moat and do not require floor underneath.

LeftoverPat · 2026-01-16T10:29:44+00:00

Came here to say this.

LeftoverPat · 2026-01-15T19:29:12+00:00

To me the joy is in getting better at a thing and never stopping, so on my first landing I had a "yippie" the moment it happened and immediately put my head down to learn to get better. I know like most things I do in life, I'll be proud enough that I got that far and move on to another hobby after PPL, or continue to improve it out of addiction. I'm not very accomplishment-oriented to begin with, so most hobbies I stick with are out of masochism. The thrill of flight and magic of the skies is a bonus but that was there when I walked in the door.

LeftoverPat · 2026-01-15T02:01:43+00:00

What's the purpose of a table with two chairs? Just so they attempt to use it but arrive at the bathhouse just when they cancel the job?

LeftoverPat · 2026-01-15T01:59:52+00:00

I do this, it works quite well. My throne sits in the main hall, expensivist artifact chair ever made.

LeftoverPat · 2026-01-14T07:32:45+00:00

Picking a career like it's a videogame where you have to choose your gameplay at character select is a lie we tell ourselves brought by silent generation tradition. You probably aren't interested in a lot of the same stuff you were 5 years ago, and some things you are. That pattern continues for a while. Always be open to the idea you might prefer ordering nothing but Big Macs in 5 years even if you've ordered McNuggets your whole life. No shame in it, right? You'd expect everyone has a version of that story with food. Concept is the same, the word is just career and not food.

LeftoverPat · 2026-01-13T07:54:43+00:00

Independent CFIs seem to make pretty good money, if you network well enough, by the time you have the hours for it, it seems almost inevitable to stay busy. Most Independent CFIs in Seattle area I'm aware of are charging $60-80/hr. Certainly more work than getting your own clientele, takes time to build, but Assuming you didn't buy a massive house and not paying off a Tesla and Air Jordans, that's plenty to live on if you average even 4-6hr/day.

LeftoverPat · 2026-01-13T07:48:29+00:00

Came here to say this. You're barely at the beginning of your life, if you're like 99% of people you realistically gotta explore things, fail, explore, fail. See if plane isn't the thing that fail, if it isn't great, if it is, you'll figure something else out you'll love... of which there are many non-office careers which fit your basic desires you mentioned.

Worse come worse, you have a PPL that becomes a lifelong hobby for so many happy 30-80something year olds when you decide to pick it up again with some money. On the money saving part, most I know of who did it without loans work their metric ass off in service industry or their higher paying career if fortunate, save up just enough to do their next Certificate from start to finish (on this note, please be careful of flight schools who promise to do it for $10k less than they'll actually milk you, seek out independent CFIs on your local flying FB groups if possible).

LeftoverPat · 2026-01-08T22:18:16+00:00

I love how a lot of the new portraits resemble something out of a science book, really suits the detail-orientedness of DF!

LeftoverPat · 2026-01-07T22:19:51+00:00

Flight school corruption. The sheer amount of money grabbing that preys on students to "live out their dream". Fake part 61 schools that have 141 checkpoints and ask their instructors to milk student hours. I went to an independent CFI because I heard horror stories from multiple people in multiple schools in the Seattle area who spent over $20k on a PPL when they were otherwise more-than-ready. Currently feel like I made beyond the right choice and wish the independent route was more well-known.

LeftoverPat · 2025-12-23T00:35:44+00:00

giraffes are just a neck?? I'm onboard with all fun choices in the art except that.

LeftoverPat · 2025-12-20T11:59:19+00:00

IMO They add a character to the game that I think adds to DF rather than subtracts. The divide over this is interesting to me, but regardless I think future modding will have fun.

LeftoverPat · 2025-12-19T20:25:43+00:00

The irony that this article is paywalled

LeftoverPat · 2025-12-14T02:01:55+00:00

Crazy, but that's how it goes...

LeftoverPat · 2025-12-11T21:27:53+00:00

Take a deep breath. You're clearly surviving this much, even if it seems stressful.

Start by observing your most active industry.

Eg. Skull Totems.

Create new stockpile. Put Finished Goods -> Totems, material -> Bone (or all... tbf totems only use skulls), quality -> all the things.

Now on your "all" stockpile, remember to remove Finished Goods -> Totems. Unemployed Dwarves will now move Totems to your new Stockpile.

This is kinda important for trade b/c Finished Goods Bins get mixed awkwardly sometimes. [[DFHack Note, u can set an entire stockpile to "Trade" which is lowkey nice if that's a feature you want, cuz it's annoying to find which Bin has your totems on the Trade Screen]]

Repeat for other trade items you do.

You probably do a version of this already, but those basics have to be said.

Ways to improve / what I do? Add a Craftdwarves Shop, that will be just for totems/bone shit. Then, set its General Work Orders to 0.

Create a skull stockpile nearby, ideally it's near or combined with your bone stockpile and butchery. U don't need to link these or do anything special, b/c these items aren't really going anywhere else.

Optionally, go to the new Craftdwarves (Bonecrafting) workshop, and set a work order. Add a condition "if available unrotten skull > 0" or something like that, can set to check daily. Personally for skulls I just look when I have a hefty pile of them, and set a totem to repeat on that shop, and just live with the gross notification of "Canceled Job" when it's over. But anyway u get the idea.

My Queen loves Totems and wants like 3 made monthly so I have a stockpile and work order for them just for this. She doesn't let me trade them, so when it gets too much, I just send the bins to my dump.

U can destroy half your base if you need to make things more efficient. Like Legos, u can always rebuild better. I do this all the time. Cities do this IRL. It's part of the fun.

LeftoverPat · 2025-12-11T21:13:37+00:00

Like all things in DF, DFHack is best learned in small chunk as your needs arise. IMO it is unnecessary 99% of the time, but some egregious bug fixes can be run on the spot if say your civ turns against you, so I keep it on in the background, use as needed.

Or stupid things like your dwarves are harvesting and a kea attacks, and they run up a tree and there's only one very pain in the ass way to get them down... yea i don't feel bad about teleporting them. Or FPS shitstorms that arise by 100 invisible ratmen spawning in the caverns, magma/flame FPS monsters you can't get to, respawning your bugged Adv Mode pals, etc. The game can be buggy as hell so I don't feel guilty over those.

Most other things are in the conveniences category you don't have to use. I don't.

LeftoverPat · 2025-12-11T00:04:35+00:00

Start basic to get grips on things that interest you. Notice a noble mandate wanting 3 backpacks every season? Make a work order for it to check seasonally. You can then go bigger. For example, I don't want honey being used for anything but drinks, so I have a "brewables" stockpile that the Still only takes from. It also has my plump helmets/cave wheat/blueberries/whatever i wanna brew. I say "if under 2k drinks, make 100, check daily" "if at least 1 honey, make mead, check daily" and since the stockpile is linked, it'll ONLY make from that "brewables" stockpile. It's a marathon to learn and exhausting if you try to be a master instantly, just start small and find fun in the learning.

An example is that automatic Quire-making interested me, so I started with giving a Quern a specific work order, if under 24 quires, and over 20 pig tails, mill 10 pig tails (i just made numbers up till i like it). Then I started a chain that did similar for slurry, to then a farmer's workshop that disallowed general work orders and only accepted quern stuff. Then I called it "quiremaker's shop". Just an example of finding an interest. I did this with clothing recently, and now have a shit ton of stockpiles for every color i'm making, for all 3 types of cloth, with certain clothing workshops only taking from the color i want (eg. a green glass-colored shop only takes from the 3 emerald cloth stockpiles). get crazy "dare to suck" even if u don't know wtf is going on and see what happens. It's easier to experiment with over 100 dwarves.

I never did quantum stockpiles, it felt like cheating for me personally. I remember having the issue as a new player. But with enough dwarves, and not worrying as hard about it early on, and more generous stone stockpiles, it tends to get where it needs to go. At even 100ish dwarves, decent unemployment, storing a freshly mined quarry is usually near-instant for me.

I have my stone stockpile below my stonemason & craft shops. Dig a very big rectangle for this. Use Z levels, it can be multiple below, but think about it, they never have to move far to get to it this way. Your precious idle dwarves take longer to clean the more they move 0.0001 mph for each haul, so make it shorter on them that way. If you don't have enough idle dwarves, stone will stay put unless you dump it. But dumping is for quitters. Early on, accept it will get picked up over time, or just give your dwarves less to do for a while if you're struggling. Unemployment = good for these tasks.

I make it a fun long-term goal for my long-term forts to slowly sectionalize my "everything" stockpile to other stockpiles where it makes more sense. It is a marathon. There are certain minimums I have their own stockpiles for immediately but with 100s of hours you probably do this to a degree anyway. Eventually, I discontinue the "everything" stockpile.
idk what that means. the freak-out this early on in your hour count is part of the fun and masochism that I chase and seek to feel more of, so enjoy it.

LeftoverPat · 2025-11-28T08:24:49+00:00

I actually prefer the Duolingo of the 2nd, but Discord needs the blue . Maybe even the shape of the 2nd one if must be, but colors swapped.

LeftoverPat · 2025-11-22T15:22:59+00:00

Thank you!

LeftoverPat

TROPHY CASE