Airbusboy,
Congrats on passing your skills test. I recently passed my PPL as well and found myself asking a similar question that you are now asking
Personally, my intentions with flying are to travel for short day trips to Europe. All I want at present is to be confident and safe
During the early part of my PPL I got myself hopelessly lost and very disorientated before eventually sighting Didcot power station miles off on the horizon. From there I picked up a train track back to my flying club which I saw on the map
From that day I told myself under no circumstance did I ever want to be in a situation where I had absolutely no idea where I was and made it my goal to really understand how to use the range of radio nav aids
Having passed the PPL in the minimal hours I still felt that I was not confident enough in using these aids for any meaningful trip so I continued flying with my instructor using just these – travelling around the London zone for example just tracking the VOR’s. I found this to be excellent experience for myself and really helped boost my confidence especially with the airspace quiet tight around that part
Having done about 10 hrs of these and similar trips to France with my instructor post the PPL I bought a Garmin 495 which I absolutely love. The Sat nav for me is just a perfect companion to use in conjuncture with the other radio aids that you fly with
I certainly don’t just follow a line on the garmin but I do use it to help confirm what I believe to be true from the other radio aids. From a personal viewpoint, learning to use radio navigation and feeling confident with it will really helps your confidence in flying anywhere meaningful. Having a sat nav to back this up just further increases this confidence and with it your confidence to try more things
At leas that has been my experience
Good luck, nick