Thanks BP
I have found that once I include expected heading, altitude, duration, fuel circles and last waypoint time on top of airspace, landscape and other features on the map, my map has got quite cluttered and hard to read, so using a paper is something I'm considering (and this is in the less congested Scottish FIR). I'm just worried about the additional workload required to match a paper plog entry to a location on a map (so looking in two places and separate pieces of paper). GQ has PMed me with a variation of writing on a map which might sort me out though.
I have been taught to fly for a duration rather than to a time, although when talking to a FIS (like Scottish Info) I then need to convert that into a time at destination. By flying to a duration I can easily tell that being 1 minute out of a 20 minute leg could mean a 5% headwind difference, rather than being 1 minute out of a 5 minute leg, which could mean something quite different. I think I'll follow my instructor on this one (no offence meant!). Writing it all down though is something, as I've said, I'm thinking about.
The reason I've been given to record waypoint time (and not "otherwise you'll fail your skills test") is so that if my stop watch fails (the stopwatch in the aircraft seems to fail on an alarmingly regular basis when my instructor is with me but never when he isn't...) then I can re-workout current duration and continue on plan. Otherwise a stopwatch and a duration alone would appear to also cover your thoughts.
Is it just personal preference (and what you are trained to do) then that determines whether people write on maps or whether they write on paper? What do people do post-PPL? Most in GA I suspect use a GPS device. Do you also print out a PLOG, mark a route on a map and record progress - "following the magenta line" but still have enough information elsewhere if the device fails? If so - if you record that on paper then perhaps that I should get used to that from the start?