I agree - it is rather a grey area. What I do during PPL Skill Tests is to explain to the 'applicant' (JAR-speak for candidate) that the ground below has become obscured by fog and then ask them to 'establish position by use of whatever radio aid(s) you wish except for ground-based radar or GPS'. Once they've done this, I ask them to track towards a suitable beacon on a constant radial/bearing for the required 5 minutes. This tests 2 separate but related skills, radio-aided fixing and tracking a radial/bearing. I do expect them to identify their navaids, but I'm quite happy for them to write the morse idents for whatever aids they like on their chart or log beforehand - although I don't tell them in advance which beacon I'll be using. But wouldn't it be sooo nice if the CAA had morse idents on the chart like they do in the USA!! As my aircraft all have VOR/DME/ADF/ILS/GPS, the students get reasonably well used to the function of each (except GPS!!) during training - and so far the ones I've tested haven't had any problem sorting out their radio nav.
[This message has been edited by BEagle (edited 01 September 1999).]