I believe the AOPA Radio nav course includes GPS and counts towards the IR(R).
Whilst the a good grasp of the basics of navigation is essential, and some are happy/derive satisfaction from just applying the basics, the modern world uses everything available.
Yes, there are many GPS devices available, but the underlying principles are the same.....sometimes RTFM is required.

Foxmoth,

The irony was obviously lost along with the sense of humour.

;)

I thunk my reply showed a bit of a sense of humour!:}

What iPad model do you have and what version of iOS

SkyDemon runs best on iPad, but a few people have reported problems with iOS 10 and the Garmin GLO with the symptoms you describe.

I've flown over 150hrs with SD on one of these. It's been faultless, with a battery life better than anything else I've had. http://www.gsmarena.com/asus_memo_pad_7_me176c-6412.php

Funny thing about tech; we bought a bells and whistles glass cockpit a/c at the club. Although made au fait with the glass in the check out and pre brief I found I was still flying it with the standby instruments. Old habits etc.

I run SD on my iphone 5, works a treat and not as clunky as an iPad, plus IMO it stops you fiddling about with it being smaller and keeps your peepholes out of the cockpit.

I'm using an iPad mini 2. It worked well with the GLO until recently. Currently running iOS 10.0.2.

To be fair to the OP, I also have no concept of how wind direction and speed affects drift.
I don't bother with all that archaic whizzwheel "working it out" and writing a plog.

Why would I? I can just draw a route on SD lite and tell it what I hope the wind will actually be and it tells me headings to fly.

In this way I can bypass having any sort of intuition about things like drift.
Max Angle of Drift ? and therefore actual drift ?
PAH! SD will work that out.

I pity you fools who think you are "oh so clever" just because you can do diversions in your head, are aware of the masts along your route and the pitfalls of flying right at a VOR.

I don't have to clutter my brain with any of that junk.

Perfect, just hook SkyDemon up to the autopilot, when it tells you you are in the overhead, pull the shute, job done.

I may be old fashioned or grumpy (or both) but would it not make sense for someone training for a PPL to forget about aids like SD until at least have licence in hand? I'd like to see people able to navigate with map & compass alone at that stage.

It seems fairly obvious (I started learning navigation the “traditional” way) but there are now some interesting counter arguments.

In the gliding movement there is a very similar discussion going on. Yes, teach conventional visual navigation but introduce modern kit at the same time, so when you send someone off on their first cross-country, they have something to fall back on.

In the past, if you became “uncertain of your position”, the advice was to carry on for a bit and if you couldn’t relate to anything on the map, to land in a field before you ended up somewhere you really shouldn’t be. Given the high workload / high stress situation of the first solo flight away from the airfield, trying to stay up as well as navigate, how many incidents / accidents had this as a prominent factor?

Also, in today’s complicated, crowded multi-use airspace, how much leeway is there for making navigational errors before the consequences become serious, given traffic density and the promise of increasing litigation from the regulator? There is definitely a “duty of care” issue and considering you can put together a GPS moving map on a PDA with mount for around £100, there are no excuses. Especially in front of a magistrate.

Being able to have controlled airspace, obstacles, drop zones, danger areas, winch sites, NOTAMs, etc. pop up on the map with a “bing!” if you get too close is such an improvement on what we used to have, that the safety case is obvious. Would you drive a car with no seat belts on the motorway? It’s getting to that point.

I still feel that basic navigation skills should be taught to competence but after that, anything that makes it easier and safer should be welcomed.

As an old fart, I was brought up on P11 compass and out of date rubbish maps. I think it is important that:

1. Pilots can navigate using map and stopwatch for the time when GPS goes down.
2. The should be able to competently use GPS for the accuracy it gives in shark-infested custard and know the pitfalls of SATNAV, eg rubbish in = rubbish out.

I think most agree here. Learn to rub two Boy Scouts together before you buy a box of matches.

Before I uograde my I pad to IoS 10 . I noticed a mention earlier of problems with SD and Garmin gps. Can anyone elaborate on this or have any problems been fixed?
Thanks.

If you use a Garmin GPS, suggest that you do not update to iOS 10. Do you actually need any of the functionality that iOS 10 offers? If not, I'd hold back. I always keep my aviation iPad on a 'stable' version of iOS... Not worth the risk.

Thanks Stevelup. Good advice.
Meldrew.

Treated myself to a new Galaxy Tab. SD works fine in the car - just need to test it in the flying car. Will sell the GLO. Can now install iOS updates free of worry! Problem sorted (I hope).

(Have a fire extinguisher ready. Ed.)

My mini iPad works fine with all iOS updates done. It connects to my Bluetooth GPS (GNS2000) perfectly well,if anything it's quicker than before (it has suffered the previous update woes when Bluetooth GPS connectivity was engineered out).