I think the AAIB is infected with the same attitude against GPS as some in the CAA. Old retired airline pilots and ex Military navigators, with little operational knowledge of the subject.
Evidently whoever wrote that one-liner is, but I would have seriously thought that the old guard would have moved on by now, retiring to their rightful fine china teacups at the Royal Institute of Navigation.
Let's face it - they must get more than adequate exposure to modern avionics in the wreckage which they pull the remains out of. They must wonder what all those LCD displays are showing.
Personally I would not stray far from my base in the London area without GPS, in anything other than good VMC, for the enhanced situational awareness it gives.
The recent advent of cheap, IPad based, GPS moving map displays is one of the greatest navigation airsafety advances in recent years.
Absolutely so.
If one wanted to be useful one could say that a route should be planned as far as possible to be VOR/DME-navigable, flown 100% using a GPS, and then you have an instant drop-down backup. That is what I do when flying VFR (though often a VOR-radial route is not viable). But PPL training isn't like that. It is possible that a good IMCR instructor might suggest to a new IMCR holder that from now on, every flight is planned as "IFR"; that was suggested to me in 2002 and it's obviously a great idea.