Sorry, got to jump in here.....
"Quite often outsiders (non pilots or crew) will not see or know of all the behind the scences planning that has already taken place."
Quite true - I often got into trouble by doing it in my head and not wasting time putting a pageful of coordinates in the GPS! if you don't use the GPS these days, the customer thinks you are incompetent, even when he is 300 m away from the target and you have map read there exactly overhead!
"Nobody in Canada ever runs out of fuel"
Yes they do! Especially one "consultant" who came to inspect us who had run out of fuel in a Llama in the air, which is presumably why he ended up as a consultant. Then there's the guy who ran out of fuel in a LongRanger round a fire, also in the air.... I could go on. There are many others.
"You're going to Uncle Bill's cabin and you know its going to take you .8, 1.6 return, add a .2 for weather and another .4 reserve and you need 2.2 hours of fuel."
Hmmm. On longish trip offshore, or anywhere, you'd better work out a PNR. If you estimate the same fuel for each leg of an out-and-back trip, and assume that the head- and tailwinds will cancel each other out, you will run out of fuel not too far from home. As soon as a wind gets involved, you need more fuel than you would in still air.
Example: Every day, you fly a Bell 206 from Rainbow Lake (where there is no rainbow and no lake!) in N Alberta to Shekhili compressor station, at which there is no fuel. The distance is 50 nm each way and cruise speed 100 kts. Fuel consumption is 29 US gals per hour. On a nil-wind day, therefore, it should be half an hour each way but, with 20-knot tailwinds outbound, you get there in only 25 minutes. The journey back, on the other hand, takes 37.5 minutes, which is 62.5 minutes total. This may not sound much, but with 60-knot winds, you would be flying for 35 minutes longer than expected, and the figures get worse with longer stage lengths. Adjust as necessary for your prevailing wind.
"Navigation is 100% GPS" "You don't need a map because the map with all the details is displayed on the GPS screen"
B*llocks. I know in Canada you don't legally need to carry a map when VFR, but what happens if the GPS goes tits up? The antenna is a separate electrical device whiah also reserves the right to quit at a drop of a hat, and there are areas in Northen Canada where you won't get decent reception - I've even lost it around calgary.
For the original poster - learn to do the basics and it will get quicker as it goes along!
Phil