CPL Nav
 

Hi, doing my hr building and doing some nav work, taking instructor up a few times and I am well off on my nav, can always get there but just messy, any hints on how to tidy it up etc.

Some routes on the CPL test would be a doddle if I got them but everytime I go up instructor takes me new places, which is good but I am not finding it straight forward, often make the features fit to suit me and am off a bit.

Good planning, look carefully at the chart before flight, identify the main features, and then fly heading and time and don't over read the chart. Most people feature crawl and let the heading wander. Be accurate.

When it comes to CPL nav (or even PPL), as bingofuel has already stated, try not to constantly feature crawl.
Don't try looking for small details look for larger (the larger the better). As you're probably aware, it's good to pick features every 25% of the route as well using fan lines.
Set your heading and stopwatch and........wait. Wait until your first fix and check your position. The fewer fixes the better, as it's more obvious when you're off track.
If you attempt to check your position every 30 seconds, you'll almost certainly fall foul of confirmation bias as you rapidly move on to your next fix barely a couple of miles away. The added distraction will prevent you from maintaining heading and altitude....then it goes from bad to worse.

Set heading, set stopwatch.....trust your heading is correct, adjust as required.
The less you do between fixes the more attention you can pay to maintaining you heading and altitude and the more accurate your flight.

Thanks very much both, I did one yesterday and much improved, I was over reading the map and falling off track due to confirmation bias. went back to basics time and keep an object at 12 oclock so that I can track it and stay on course.

Sounds like you are track crawling. Google 'RIN Visual Navigation Techniques for Pilots'. It is a free document on the interweb.

Recognise confirmation bias, and look for gross error.

If you see a town and want it to be the feature you are looking for, you will start to see things that aren't there. Take a step back, and as above look for the larger features to cross check your position so you don't misidentify your position. Take an orbit if you need to, you will pass a CPL check doing that rather than blundering on with no clear idea where you are.