I'm sure it must be normal, else I'm abnormal too!
I have so far only one one NavEx in Oz and I did this after completing my JAR-PPL in the UK. After departing YPJT, overhead Armadale and setting heading for Collie, I crapped myself seeing the great green and apparently featureless nothingness we were about to fly over! The complete antithesis of my flying experience in the UK.
Added to that, it was an easterly blowing and the air was as continuously rough as anything I'd ever experienced and with the stress of it all, I couldn't get the thing trimmed up very accurately, so I was up and down like a proverbial yo-yo, (even though I've never heard a proverb about a yo-yo)
After a divert to Narrogin and a few demo go-arounds there, things started to settle down, but by this stage my complicated fuel log was completely out the window and my position fixing was close to pathetic, even though I wasn't actually lost. I began to stress less about making all the numbers add up and just looked out the window, held the heading and altitude and enjoyed the view. It was much more enjoyable and suddenly I could hold an altitude much more easily.
What I did learn:
- don't fly without at least a shirt pocket
- even a crude time and heading will do the navigation business (mostly)
- don't make complicated logging tables to fill in - the scenery is much more interesting, so simplify it as much as possible
- work out and practice how your logs are meant to work before you fly
- don't panic, it doesn't help
- enjoy the scenery (it helps with your nav too!)
A