The only caveat on GPS is the issue of relying on the database to be both up to date and accurate when it comes to airspace (they usually are if regularly updated but not always) so there's a need to xref a current chart and NOTAMs but that's routine flight planning ain't it???
I would normally agree you need the printed chart for
VFR planning but not for the accuracy. Your chart can be up to a year out, and notams of changes will be in the notam database only until the next AIRAC cycle i.e. 28 days. So if the chart is dated say Jan 06, there is a change 01 Feb 06 and you don't fly the relevant airspace during Feb then you will never know about it. Whereas with GPS databases you have the option to know.
The fact that it costs a lot of money to update is a separate issue, but it can be minimised, e.g. if you are doing a long trip around Europe then you have a choice of
a) buying a load of printed charts, which will be anything up to 2 years out of date
b) updating the GPS database, which will be at most 28 days out of date
For VFR you do both. For IFR (airways) you buy a few airways charts, dirt cheap, and do a one-off database update, but we aren't talking about IFR here.
It's a tough one because CAS depictions on GPS databases have poor clarity; only just good enough to relate to the paper chart on your lap. But, if the two differ materially then it should be obvious there is something wrong.
For hand helds extra caution is required because they will lose coverage from time to time depending on how uniform the view of the constellation across the sky happens to be. Early morning East bound near Luton seems to be a problem at present in this respect
I doubt there is anything in this. There is no correlation between the GPS satellite constellation, early mornings, and Luton
Maybe you have marginal reception and are getting zapped by radar or something.
A current-model handheld with a rooftop aerial will be as good as any panel mount with a rooftop aerial.
Before much longer it feels like traditional ways of navigating will be dumped
The correct thing to do then is to donate them to the British Museum, not fly with them. My heart really bleeds for these wonderful old traditions.
As I've said before 50 times, there is no way navigation is going to improve as long as people are expected to be doing dead reckoning. Unless the CAA donates £5,000/year to each PPL every year for currency, which it won't. Just about anybody can get a PPL if they are willing to survive a year's worth of UK training, and "just about anybody" isn't going to get any better tomorrow than they are today. The only options left are to more carefully select the pilots (which the training industry will be dead against), train them more rigorously (comment as before), or use different methods. GPS is the best method known by far; nothing comes even close.