I perhaps need to expand on that last posting.
You learn to fly (right up to ATPL) using Dead Reckoning a method of navigation using a compass, timepiece and wind information, and pilotage a method of navigation based on topographical maps. These are selected (perhaps) because they are the last resort methods that you may have to revert to one day. In every day life you really have no need to do either in the early 20th century.
You never need to know in which direction you are pointing rather than in which direction you are moving. The only slightly relevant occasion is when you are instructed by ATC "Heading 240" but even then if you don't guess the correct drift they'll soon notice and say "Heading 250". Pilotage only comes in to play if you ever have to do a non vectored approach so you have to work out the layout of the airfield.
The DI in a little plane is doing two things. The obvious thing is to tell where you are pointing but I've just explained you don't really need that. The other thing is to give you a reference to fly to.
You could just have a DI with one line on it. Set your heading with the GPS then align the line with a reference mark and hold the DI against the reference. It doesn't matter whether it is 065 degrees or 337 degrees.
That's just a bit of philosophy. The DIs in small planes can precess quite a bit so you should keep an eye on them every 10 mins. Don't keep adjusting the DI though as the errors in the compass are quite difficult to eliminate so you may be introducing as much error as the DI actually suffers from.
Of course watch for the obvious. Anything affecting the compass (eg golf clubs) and you are lost.