Victa,
Get your pencil and mark it with a cut every 10nm...so you can use it as a distance ruler. Mark along the route a small line every 10nm.
What everyone is saying about the 1/60 rule is spot on....on the track distances you're flying close enough is good enough. You can't steer to an accuracy of 1 degree and there's 1nm of track error, over 60nm, to begin with.
I presume you are in a C152 or some such....cruises about 95 to 100 kts? That's a fraction over 1.5nm/minute TAS. That's 10nm every 6 and a bit minutes....call it 7. If you're doing 105Kts call it 6.
Fixed over a bend of a river? put your pencil down and see that it's a bit less than 1/2 a 10nm graduation....must be about 3 or 4 nm left of track. Stick your pencil down again....hmmm 3 graduations from your last fix in 18 minutes. Stick your pencil down again...hmmm 4 graduations to where I want to go...hmmmm...say 4 off in 30 = 8 degrees track error....4 off in 40 = 6 degress Closing angle........hmmm 14 degrees right and 24 minutes....my original estimate was in 23 minutes.....
If ya feeling lazy just double your track error and you'll recross track in another 18 minutes....turn back 8 degrees left and you'll maintain original track required for the last 6 minutes/10nm to your turning point/airfield etc.
Hint for diversions:
Sit down with your WAC and draw freehand lines between places...then guesstimate the true track...then measure it with your protractor. Keep doing that until you can get within say 5 or at most 10 degrees....yes it's possible. Then when you are trolling along on a dual Nav....precisely aware of where you are
and your tormentor says........"Ahhhhh don wanna go their anymore....take me here!" you will be able to put your pencil down at a point between two 10nm lines along your track that correspondes to where you're at....draw a freehand line to where dickbrain wants to go...guess a track...apply the variation...turn onto that as a heading...when settled on that heading measure the distance with your pencil.....hmmm 4 1/2 graduations...27 minutes from now at time 13 = 40....What did that take...30 seconds?.
So what if you guess at the track was out by 7 degrees...if you do nothing for the next 27 minutes you'll only be out by 5nm....and we both know ya aren't gunna sit there fat, dum an happy for 27 minutes....are you
Traps:
Carefull with variation....apply it the wrong way and that's 12 degrees TE to start with (East Coast)
Don't just stare out you side window and hope that everything you need to see is there....it wont be....sit back, relax and take in all the view....what is 10nm ahead and a few miles left and right are the important bits.
Don't think in nm, think in minutes. That way you'll stay ahead...what's coming up in 4 minutes....ahh that loop in the river with a bridge 2 nm west....cool.
Don't get too caught up applying wind at the flight planning stage. Yes you need to be able to do it to keep dickbrain happy....but hey, how often do you think the met dept get it right? I personally think you're better served steering heading for track and allowing say 5 degrees for any KNOWN wind and see how you go as you progress along track....you will be surprised at how well that works.
Remember that a navex is just a series of corrections which keep you going in the right direction and within 2 minutes of your revised ETAs. It's not an exercise in precision....how much time you spend calculating the corrections is what makes or breaks you.
With practice and experience in guesstimating you can be within a mile or so of track and +/- 30 seconds with surprisingly little effort.
Chuck.