I thought it was discouraged for pilots (students) to rely on a none-certified device?
Discouraged by some of the ageing ex RAF jolly good chaps who went to the CAA to continue their pension contributions
No legal basis for that at all.
For sure, when I fly I have both my iPad 2 available in the back, and my 795 on the yoke but for instructional purposes, flying/intercepting a radial, tracking an NDB etc are far better done without a GPS *initially*.
Yes, for training purposes, and then the instructor should use the best tools available to make sure they don't
both get lost. Look up that recent CFIT somewhere in or near Wales, for example. That was a dual instructional flight. Astonishingly they both survived.
I would also have thought that an instructor in the local flying ground would know the local VOR's and 'safe' radials to work to/from for the basis of teaching climbing/descending in IMC, maneuvering etc but alas no, not a single instructor who I ever flew with in IMC (4 in total, 2 for training and 2 personal checkrides for ensuring I'm doing nothing dangerous several hours into solo IFR flying) have ever taken a GPS with them.
Their choice. But then very few instructors ever go past the nearest crease in the chart.