Well, for my hot shot fellow pilots on here, how about a challenge?
How well can you fly a compass heading for 120 miles (roughly)?
1. Lay out a straight course on the sectional that is about an hour and ten minutes - give or take.
Have the end point of the course be easily identifiable from the air - and not in controlled airspace where ATC will be vectoring you.
2. Make a first check point roughly ten minutes from takeoff.
3. Remember to get out ye old E6B and calculate your on course heading and ground speed, complete with wind correction prior to take off. (Electronic is OK, but not as sporting!)
4. When you reach first check point use that to fine-tune your on course heading and actual ground speed.
5. NOW fly that final heading for an hour by the clock - or whatever your CALCULATED time is - and then turn to the final check point and use time to measure the distance you were off. (Can also use GPS to measure, or whatever)
How did you do?
Oooh, oooh, oooh, did I remember to mention -
NO gyros - gotta follow the swinging whiskey compass.
NO autopilot
Cover the GPS screen - I won't make you find your way home by compass.
And turn the sectional over after the first check point.
This is a flying test not a chart reading test.
A couple of points.
On a 60 mile leg being off to one side by one mile is one degree of accuracy.
On a one hour leg, roughly 120 miles, being within one mile laterally would be one-half degree in accuracy.
Those of you with faster planes may want to cut the time down to stay roughly within the 120 miles for easy calculation of accuracy.
How did you do on ground speed?
This guys, and gal, is real flying