The sad part is GPS does not obviate the need to teach navigation skills it just requires that we teach those skills relevant to the technology, something that is totally absent in today’s flight training.
Yes, agreed. Of course, as instructors we can fall back on the 'I teach what the syllabus requires me to teach' or 'I teach to get the student through the skills test', neither of which puts us in a particularly good light. One defence is that there is a multiplicity of devices either fitted to the aircraft or hand-held, all of which work in slightly different ways. Which one do I pick for my students and how to I then standardize training on that device? At least a 1/2 mil chart/map/sectional is a standard reference document for teaching some form of navigation skills.
I read in a recent 'Flying' magazine that a senior figure in Embry-Riddle, one of the largest producers of airline pilots in the US, has said that having an all-glass-cockpit fleet of trainers has meant that the fundamentals of navigation simply aren't getting across to their students. They are apparently looking at a programme to deliver this training in a different way. Maybe they're going to go back to sectionals/maps/charts, rulers, protractors and stop-watches?
TOO