In addition to the above. You obviously have a bit of experience and I apologise if I am writing in simplistic terms.
My tip is don't just rely on one item. If you see a road that is expected at a particular time, don't just assume it is THE road you are looking for. The WACs are updated once about every four years, unlike your IFR charts. New features like roads and airports are added that are not shown on the chart. Many small features aren't depicted because they'd clutter the chart.
You need to confirm your position with a series of checks. The road should match the direction that is printed on the chart and the orientation with your track. Utilise surrounding landmarks like towns, mountain ranges, spot heights, powerlines and other features on the chart for confirmation. You should never be flying en route without occasionally checking your approximate position anyway. The turning or end point should simply be a confirmation of good en route navigation. Even if you aren't directly over your turning point at the end of a leg, don't get your knickers in a knot. If you've been navigating (even a little) en route, you won't be far off. A quick look around will usually result in a confirmation. Then, if that fails, you should know which direction to turn to get you to a point over which you can confirm your position, then work out a new track.
Low level navigation is demanding because instead of say ten or more features to confirm position, you're now down to one or two with gaps between confirmations. In this case, you're concentrating on confirming position at every possible reference on your track.
I think I was only once ever unsure of my position for an uncomfortable period of time (outside of my instructional period getting a CPL). It was many years ago in the stupidity of my youth and my passenger wanted to navigate to a farm strip, which was just a lat and long on the chart garnished from a phone call, and I inappropriately let him have the chart. (I should mention I was familiar with 95% of the route and we were in the middle of nowhere.) When we couldn't find the strip where he said it would be, I took the WAC back, made a few crosschecks with terrain and a town about 20 miles away, recalculated our position and then flew direct to the strip.
These are just my tips. Other people are far more knowledgeable than me.
Probably the best tip I have is that VFR is fun. It's not that hard. Don't sweat it. Get out and enjoy it. It's a heck of a lot more fun than IFR. IFR is for work. VFR is all FUN!
Last edited by Lodown; 10th Mar 2003 at 03:36.