Hello!
If you are in Class E, you are both responsible for separation. How would GPS help?
As I was already saying (two, three or four times?): By freeing 100% of your brain and eye capacity to keeping a lookout for traffic.
Maybe you personally are blessed with above standard navigational capabilities and enough funds to permit you to keep flying frequently and stay in training. Then you really need no GPS (but beware of those prohibited zones around the French nuclear powerplants that were established since 2002: The fine for violating one is over 20.000 Euros - that alone would prevent me from flying VFR to France without a GPS...).
But according to my experience, the average (private - but not only!) pilot has only average navigational skills. This is not helped by the fact that the high cost of private flying prevents many pilots from flying more than the required minimum hours. These people devote a lot, often near 100%!, of their mental capacity to keeping the aeroplane straight and level and navigating at the same time. Nothing else. No proper radio calls (ever been flying on a sunny Saturday afternoon after some weekends of bad weather?) and no looking for traffic either. Even if they look outside momentarily, they see nothing because their brain is too busy. For these people a good GPS unit makes all the difference between a safe and rewarding afternoon spent flying or two hours of panic. They need to train using their GPS of course, but this can be done on the ground with no cost involved at all.
The only good example I find in a short search is the referenced document. ...
This is indeed a good example (Egelsbach). It is one of those airfields where I wouldn't dare to go without a GPS (and I have been there quite often...) _because_ they have so much traffic and so many airspace restrictions. No GPS - me no fly to Egelsbach...
You, presumably with a GPS and a company policy of “no paperwork below 10,000ft”, still enter into conflict with other traffic. You do not see this traffic until your TCAS tells you about it.
Yes. And this is why everybody must look outside. All the time. As you know, most aircraft have somewhat limited visibility outside and there are many dead angles where you can't see anything. Some more than others (the worst I ever flew was the Metroliner that looks from inside like a Concorde with the visor up - you really only see what you are going to hit the next second). If I
can't see him, then he
must see me. Or we both die. But he can't see me, while he looks around his map.
Some interesting sites (American, mainly IFR, but which illustrate some of the issues which I see surrounding GPS):
... someone inventing home made “ILS” approaches by creating waypoints 500ft underground ...
Interesting, but this is not about using GPS, it is about
abusing GPS.
...an interesting discussion on GPS approaches which highlights how something can seem simple but for which workload can increase enormously, especially because of the user interface
GPS approaches are one of the most demanding tasks of IFR flying (second only to NDB approaches, but these have nearly disappeared in Europe). They even require special company training when done in the commercial environment. Before moving-map GPS units became commonplace, they were even more difficult and dangerous.
Greetings, Max