I suspect the fear/nervousness is not fear of a terrible accident or anything like that - the posts on this thread from the OP don't look like posts from someone who fears for his life. I suspect, having been there recently, that the fear is really a fear of simply not doing one's best in a pursuit which has already required significant effort and where one naturally wants to feel competent. It's not about whether you survive the day (hoepfully), it's about whether you reach the end of the exercise feeling like you have earned the trust of the instructor who sent you up and your own understandable desire to give a good account of yourself. You are probably thinking to yourself that it won't be long before you are let loose with a PPL and you want to feel comfortable exercising your hard-won privileges.
Is that a better description of why you are nervous? If it is, then the answer to your question will come from tactics which you can use to make it more likely that you won't do anything uncharacteristically bad (like getting lost) and ending up somewhere bad (like busting controlled airspace). Such tactics don't want to be too demanding because they will distract you from flying the aeroplane. My suggestion is that you have a plan B which is about "How to know I'm safe while I sort myself out" as a back-up to plan A which is obviously "How do I navigate from A to B in accordance with my PLOG". For me, Plan B looks something like this:
- Look at the areas on the chart which are bad news (a danger area, for example). Think about what features you can use to be sure that you aren't there. For example: "If I stay north of the river, I know I can't ...."
- Have a handy VOR in mind so that you can get a fix if you are unsure of position
- There's usually no harm flying in a circle to take another look at the terrain around you - it can give you some time and it may enable you to get a visual perspective which sorts out your problem (eg finding that you have actually flow past your next reporting point). Just remember your heading when you start the circle so that you know when you have gone 360 degrees - otherwise, this tactic could disorientate you completely.
Some other ideas:
- Use Google Earth before you leave to give yourself an idea what your reporting points look like from the air. You might find, for example, that your plan to turn overhead an airfield will be tricky if the airfield is a small grass strip which is a devil to spot even when there's no pressure. It's not cheating to choose points which are obvious - even if that means giving yourself a route slightly longer.
Hope that helps