As someone who has always been slightly navigationally challenged, this thread has been extremely helpful. Right from BUS’s original post I wondered if his problem might be similar to mine.
During my training I had no problems when I was flying with an instructor. Even when given a diversion during my NFT, I thought I was lost so stuck to my hastily made plan until my ETA at an obscure diversion. Then I announced confidently that I was there. As I passed the test I assume that I was there or, maybe, he wasn’t too sure either.
Again, flying across the channel, I have no problems because there is no point in doing anything but follow the plan until fixing my position when I can see the coast. Up to now this has always worked.
It is when I am flying over land, especially close to controlled airspace or danger areas, that I start to worry if I cannot immediately recognise a landmark which means that I tend to revert to “map crawling” as eyeinthesky puts it. The plan gets forgotten and discipline goes out the window.
I have to keep telling myself that the system works and, provided I fly accurately and have planned properly, I cannot fail to reach a close proximity to my next fix when I expect to do so.
So thanks everyone for driving this message home. As I am currently flying without a GPS or ADF, this quite opportune.