If you can, cash in all your family birthday/Xmas presents for the next 1/3/5 yrs and have them buy you a Garmin 196/296/495 - you will NEVER regret it.
Learn how to use it properly!
When you are training and gaining initial experience, leave it turned off - or better still leave it in your flight bag.
Learn to navigate and gain confidence in your ability to navigate the "old" way - map reading, WAC charts, track lines, 10 nm/5 min marks, 1 in 60's etc
Discipline yourself to NOT dive for the GPS the first time you become unsure of your position - we have all been there!
But if you ever find yourself in a really sticky situation, with the adrenaline levels starting to run off the scale - having a GPS with you may just save your hide.
I can see no reason to die just to to prove that you can navigate like a 'real' pilot!
If the "Digest" was still being published and if we could access all of the back copies on-line, you could look up details of all of the GA aircraft that have crashed because the pilot became totally disoriented or otherwise 'lost'. Having a GPS on board would have turned many of those tragedies into mere aeroclub bar stories.
I recently had a visit from young Pyro and his mate on their post-PPL first big cross-country flight: Caboolture - Charleville - Birdsville - Longreach - Townsville - Mackay - Rockhampton - Caboolture. Good to see them practicing their basic nav/map reading skills - with the GPS turned off the whole way! There is some really lonely country out there when all you have is a C172 (or in their case C175) in one hand and a map in the other.
Good-one guys!
Dr 