Blimey Piltdown, expecting a new PPL to undertake a min 400 mile round trip (Stapleford-Lake District) dodging Stansted, Luton, East Midlands (or possibly zone transit) Manchester, then a long leg across pretty featureless countryside from mid Lancs to the Lakes, without GPS, is asking a bit much don't you think?
Scoobster - GPS is a wonderful tool when fully understood and used correctly, and hugely reduces cockpit workload. From a personal viewpoint, I would have no qualms whatsoever undertaking Piltdown's suggested route given 20 minutes planning on Sky Demon and a decent aviation GPS by say Garmin or Bendix King to fly with, but that confidence has been gained from several hundred hours using GPS as primary nav. I would suggest you start with much shorter trips; there are loads of airfields within 30 mins of Stapleford that you probably haven't visited yet. A triangular trip with landings at 2 new airfields would be a great start
