Navigation strategy on a short flight

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You can exclude pilotage, but it doesn't sound like you created a
navigation log before your flight.

No, I did not. I had forgotten that navigation log is a widespread aviation
misnomer for a navigation plan. I didn't have a written plan, nor did I log
my
progress. In general I eschew anything that might require writing, because
there is no space on the table for writing things by hand, and because the
room is generally dark except for the monitor, making writing difficult.




Forgetting things that are not facts is the same as not knowing the facts. A
navigation log is the word pilots, instructors, textbooks, schools publishers
use for, well a navigation log. It is not a misnomer for anything. It has
always been called a navigation log, because you log your progress. Learned
early in pilot training, its use is essential to the successful outcome of
every flight, VFR or IFR. It is the link between the planning and execution
phases of every flight. Today, the use of the nav log in flight is beginning
to become less critical, as the GPS navigators and glass cockpits do all of
its functions automatically, and flight planning software can upload the
planning data directly to the navigator, but many pilots keep a log anyway.
Certainly a pilot who refuses GPS and glass cockpits cannot simulate real
flight without a log. Little wonder you got lost!

Do you think there are large, open desks with desk lamps in airplanes? For the
decades I’ve been flying I have never been on a flight where I didn’t have
something on my lap or knee to write on. This is essential to every flight.
You believe, and you want us to believe that your simulation is good enough
that you could step into a real flight environment without difficulty, and now
you admit you don’t know what a navigation log is and you never write anything
down because there is not enough desk space and not enough light!

A Cessna 152 is an extremely fast machine. It travels at 90Kt; more than 30
times man’s normal walking speed. All of our reflexes and responses are, on an
evolutionary scale, tuned to this walking speed. To manage a transportation
device that travels at thirty times this speed requires special training.
Since you do not have this training, it comes as no surprise that your
simulated efforts result in your being far behind the airplane, unable to keep
up with events.

You are, of course, free to use this simulation program in any way you please,
and there is nothing to criticize in having fun with the parts you enjoy. You
must however put aside any notion that your exercise is a faithful simulation
of the use of any real airplane, or that your experiences could translate to
any useful skill in operating a real airplane.