IO540:
I would ask you how many hours you have?
Just over a hundred (of which nearly 40 during 2003). I certainly need some of my attention to fly the aircraft straight and level with some semblance of holding height and heading, but I have enough left to chat to the passenger, do the radio, look at the pretty gliders magically appearing out of nowhere
and do the visual navigation, on a goodish day. Usually.
That's before you get to cases where you really have to know where you are, e.g. flying ... via the Luton/Stansted gap.
Er, yes. I'll find out whether I can do that on Saturday, weather permitting (which it looks like it probably won't).
But that wasn't my question, I was asking about longer distances: if I can find my way from Cambridge to Oxford why should I not be able to go on, bladder permitting, to Land's End?
I can think of several plausible answers to this question, eg maybe my ability to concentrate sufficiently would disappear after a couple of hours - I'd like to know which answer(s) people are thinking of when they say that PPLs can't navigate visually for longer distances. In particular I'd like to know what the problems are before I plan a long trip!