BEagle, Sir...
so anyone doing such lazy still-air planning could fail the navigation section of the PPL Skill Test before even getting airborne
Yesterday I planned and executed a 1:30/1:45 landaway, over completely unknown terrain (and wildly different to the flatlands of the Fens), and did it all with still air planning and airborne MDR. Just as well, really, as the wind was a good 30 degrees and 10Kts from that forecast by the metman. Furthermore, I did a good twenty minutes of it in IMC, using point-point radio aids methods; needless to say I hadn't planned that beforehand and would've been scuppered had I relied on headings and groundspeeds I'd calculated beforehand on the Dalton.
Needless to say, I was never more than 10 seconds innaccurate with my ETA estimates at any of the turning points, nor more than 1/2nm off track at any point. I put it to you, therefore, that the Dalton/Whizz-wheel is completely unnecessary for the average GA flight... Whilst I can see the reasoning behind campaining for its use, I think it's a little overkill when it's a) complex to understand
initially (who else spent a good couple of hours misunderstanding the manual) compared to MDR and b) no more accurate in practice.
-D