Perhaps those of you that fly (VFR) in a small country with lots of nicely observable ground points
ie the bloke who started the thread.
There seems to be a two camps here who are convinced that one side are Luddites who only advocate "WW1" flying and another who think the other side can't tell where they are unless Mr Garmin tells them.
To get back to the original post, a low-houred PPL about to go out on his own, asked whether he should buy a GPS straight away. My opinion would be no, he should be concentrating on honing his dead reckoning and map reading skills for the simple reason that although electrical failures do happen, they don't happen to laminated maps and the Mark 1 eyeball. When he's happy with his 'antiquated' navigation skills, then buy a GPS and whatever else is going to help him enjoy his flying.
There's also the point that if you're hour-building in preparation for your commercial license, you really should be practicing the skills you'll be tested on then. (All described in great detail by FFF
)