In the interests of saving bandwidth while we have this discussion again, I offer the following options which can be used in the same way as the numbered menu in a Chinese restaurant:
1. GPS users are either lazy, or incompetent navigators or poorly trained or all of these things.
2. It is acceptable to carry a GPS as an emergency aid, but it should only ever be switched on as a last-ditch alternative to calling D&D. Primary navigation should always be carried out with compass, stopwatch and lines on a chart. Radio aids are acceptable at a pinch, but proper pilots should always fly by dead reckoning alone.
3. All navigation aids are acceptable for primary navigation, except GPS which isn’t because you are almost certain to bust CAS or get lost when the batteries go flat, you get the co-ordinates wrong, somebody jams the signal, or all of these things happen.
4. GPS is acceptable as a supplement to a PLOG and lines on a chart and is no less suitable in this role than traditional radio navigation aids.
5. GPS is suitable for primary navigation on its own. In order to stay on the right side of the law, you might consider keeping a current chart somewhere in the aircraft.
Mine's a number 4 for what it's worth.
Last edited by Fly Stimulator; 19th April 2004 at 16:56.