Thanks guys, I've been flying every weekend since the thread started and every flight has been a cross country flight as I have been working on a 65 mile silver distance triangle. I mostly navigate by chart and by being familiar with the area before flying. I use the nav computer to give me more accurate arrival altitudes to turn points and nearby airports. It did also prove helpful once when I got lost and did not recognize my position on the chart.

Most of the time it's been no problem to look at the map and know roughly where I am, and thumb the map to determine roughly how high I will arrive, but having the nav computer makes this much more efficient and keeps my eyes outside the cockpit. I had a powered aircraft fly directly towards me while in a thermal on my last cross country flight. Fortunately I saw him coming and exited the thermal only to watch the plane fly right through where I was circling without the slightest sign of awareness of my existence. Glad I wasn't busy looking at my chart and playing with a slide ruler when this happened.

I am not part of a club and where I fly is a commercial operation. If I land out, there are no club members waiting to come get me, and the tow plane will not tow me out of a field, only an airstrip. A field landout is going to be a big inconvenience for more than just myself. This doesn't mean I am not prepared to land out.. or that there aren't friendly fellow pilots who will come get me if they happen to be at the airport at that time, but it may take all day.

Of course I still keep other landing options available at all times in addition to a nearby air strip, but using modern tools really simplifies things..

Tom