The Event Technique
Pre-plan known events for your first leg eg a noticeable town, a multiple track railway and road crossing, a disused airfield etc
Using your pre-planned GS work out when they should turn up
You can then find out if your are running early or late
For every NM off track turn through a fixed angle dependent on your a/c TAS and hold this hdg for 1 min for every 1 NM off track
eg. If you are off track by 3 NM hold the hdg change for 3 min then turn back on wind adjusted hdg
how much should the angle be?
60 / TAS (in NM per min)
eg for an Arrow: 60 / 2 = 30 degrees
keep watching events come up every 3 min and to be honest you should not go off track
in the intervening 3 min chk hdg, alt, ias, t+p etc
this may sound hard or a bit mathematical but when demonstrated just once in the air my students at all licence levels pick it up and see its virtue