ATC gave you a lat/long as a DCT, when airborne??
No, they cancelled the SID and sent us to a waypoint in the middle of the sea - by name - no computer programmmed INS at that stage, no option but to laboriously enter every digit, we identified the point on the chart, clearly in the right direction though not actually on the original route -actually saving us distance - and clearly not to the N.W. either. The guy fumbled the insert and the INS heading came up as around 310, to the N.W. when I'd already started the left turn to the S.E - having taken off on rwy. 20. He just blurted out the number, and also started to turn my flt. director, so that the A/H was showing a turn to the left, and the flt. director bars a turn to the right - all in a black velvet night. Not nice. Of course I totally ignored him and just kept turning towards Jakarta, which was on track, until we got it sorted out.
This is all getting too nit-picky, my original comment was that one should have a mental picture of which way to turn - the big picture - not blindly obey commands from an electronic navigation 'aid' - however sophisticated, which after all is only as intelligent as the person who programmes it ! G.I.G.O.
Remember, I'm talking nearly 25 yrs ago, GPS wasn't even a gleam in Michaelangelos' eye then - but Michaelangelos' World hasn't changed, we have, and slavish adherence to the commands of electronic gadgets is the way to trouble. This thread started with a question about whether one uses GPS or the Mark 1 eyeball and a chart. Both have their uses, but both need to be understood.