Wow! Awesome responses. Thanks so much. I do have to say that my CFI
has done a great job in making this the case. Even with the fancy
electronics at hand, he smacked me down if I even THOUGHT about going
for the flashy gadgets. He's very much of the school described below
and I'm grateful for it!

well.. at least leave them a wet compass for the cross country work.. LOL
of course they will really learn compass lead/lag problems

(BTW, I think it is one of the required instruments..)

BT

Personally, if I ran the world, I would strip every piece of avionics out
of
primary trainers except for a transponder and com radio. Airspeed,
altimeter, and tachometer are the only instruments you need to be learning
about at this stage.

-cwk.