Exuse me for cutting in but I have to utter a hearty "Bull****!".

You're not "cutting in," you're joining the discussion. Welcome.

I was out of flying for 15 years after flying every day for various part 135
outfits.

I had a somewhat similar experience. I could not afford to fly at my
expense when I got out of the marine corps after six years and went
back to college then had a mortgage and four kids to feed.

Seventeen years later my two boys got out of school and enlisted.
Suddenly there was money left at the end of the month! I could afford
to start flying again.

The difference was amazing. I had never seen a VOR or an ILS. I had
never heard "...radar contact seven miles north of...."

I had to learn the new instruments and the new rules. But it was a
hell of a lot easier! IFR flying was now child's play compared to
what it had been in the days of Acock ranges and ADF approaches.

In a similar way, GPS has made it a hell of a lot easier.

I probably only use 10% of what that GPS is capable of doing.

True of me, too. But that's all the new private pilot who ''needs" a
GPS would use, too.

vince norris