Here's one for the people who don't trust this 'new fangled' GPS.....
Did you hear about the bloke (or are you the bloke
) who took off from Bournemouth en-route down SW? He had this nice funky magnetic sunglasses case, which he stuck somewhere on the dash board, and promptly added a 50° error to his compass which was noticed when he got a boll@cking from Bristol for infringing their class D........
Moral of that story is to use what ever nav aids you have got to back up your other nav system. If you fly VFR, there is no harm using VOR's , NDB's, GPS etc., but you need to know how to use them and know their limitations. These should be cross referenced on the chart if possible, and you should always know where you are. Anyone who doesn't make full use of their onboard nav gear is, in my opinion, not properly acting as PIC. The other thing is, what happens if you unexpectedly go into IMC or an area of bad vis? Ok, a VFR pilot shouldn't, but !!!!! happens, are you now about to add to your problems by not knowing exactly where you are?
So my tip is to practice using nav aids when flying VFR, and if in the future you decide to expand your skills (IMC or IR) then you will have already have an advantage...
Cheers
EA