Originally Posted by
A and C
The last thing that you want is to become anther follower of the magenta line, now is the time to hone your VFR navigation skills because that is what you will need to pass the CPL skills test.
At this moment in your flying career there are better things to spend your money on than a GPS.
I find these kind of remarks more an indication of a lack of knowledge and understanding of how to practically use GPS for VFR cross country, than a rational argument. There is a lot more to using a GPS than "following the magenta line". It is a navigation tool that has great strengths but also some weaknesses. Properly using this tool makes flying safer, more efficent, and (sometimes) easier. To willfully deprive yourself of accurate postion information is IMO simply silly. In fact as silly as mindlessly following the magenta line. My advice is get a simple used GPS unit of e-bay, then learn how to use it. There is a wealth of practical GPS usage tips on the web so do your homework and undstand exactly what the unit is telling you. Plan your trips as normal and us the bearing/track/speed/time/distance infomation to back up your PLOG, and most important keep your thumb moving along the Map
Finally if you need to get onto the ground
now don't mess around with some huge complicated 20 step diversion process , hit the nearset airport button !
I had an interesting chat with a very long time and very proficent VFR PPL. He was an early and enthusastic adopter of GPS. He remembers a fellow making a disparaging comment along the lines of "real pilots don't use GPS to navigate, they only need a map".
He learned to fly in 1960 and remembers the exact same comment only than it was "real pilots don't use a Directional Gyro to navigate they only need a magnetic compass". At that time most small light aircraft did not have vacuum systems and DG's were fairly rare. Over time the obvious advantages of the new technology became so obvious that not using it was exceptional.....