"WingFlaps" wrote in message
news:2864057a-bfbf-496a-9b63-

So you are suggestigng that electronics should be the primary nav tool
(why then do we spend soooo much time on visual navigation during
training??)

Depends on the flight. You need to be able to do whatever is required, and
then you can make your choices.

Any pilot better be prepared to use electronics as the primary nav tool.
For example, eastern Washington state looks awful nondescript at night and
if there's a cloud layer above, putting the north star off of one wingtip or
another isn't going to work.

Also, if you talk to NW Pilot here, who is in the (lucky f'in) business of
ferrying flights across vast expanses of water, he'll probably tell you that
there are times when visual navigation won't work.

Personally, I navigate by VOR/DME, but I use GPS as a sanity check. A quick
glimpse at the display is worth long minutes with a sectional and E6B while
you're trying to fly the airplane in, say, turbulence. Whenever I use the
GPS, though, I check outside for quick visual cues, or I cross-reference
with the Nav radios as a sort of reverse-sanity check. The important thing
is that pilot, VOR and GPS all agree on where you're at.

(In the Pacific Northwest, if you can see the mountains it's difficult to
get lost.)


-c