And go charging through controlled airspace with their noses firmly glued to a tiny GPS screen usually relaying data from a long out of date database
Actually, no, most high-time pilots use GPS and VOR/DME concurrently.
I don't know your occupation but your view is common among PPL instructors. Most of them rarely venture beyond the nearest folds in their chart.
Mind you I did get lost on my CPL navex for about 10 minutes - mistook Huntigdon for St Ives as I recall. Happens to everyone.
Actually, NO, it happens only if you've made a navigation error. (I never got lost on my QXC etc, but I did that in fantastic visibility and often in view of the coast and some massive land features.) The landmarks you mention did not change position. The trick is to navigate in a manner which makes an error (especially a GROSS error like you describe, in terms of distance bad enough to land someone in very serious trouble if they are close to CAS to start with) improbable. Visual navigation does not meet this requirement, because there is a variety of small and large errors which can easily be made.
Visual navigation is all that can be practically taught within a 45-hr PPL, given the condition of flying school planes and lack of equipment. But that is nothing to do with the fact that it is also the easiest way to get lost. As you found yourself.
I will accept someone having a go at GPS if used within the existing PPL training framework; there's really not a good place for it. But after that, everything changes.
Last edited by IO540; 11th Oct 2003 at 00:27.