A few of us are fortunate in that we were introduced to navigation in a time before GPS and cell phones — for me it was map/chart, compass, sextant and a large celestial table as a reference for calculating a fix based on moon, planets and stars. I’ve seen Dead Reckoning (DR) (an art form) when an aircraft lost all electrical power while the crew was in the middle of the Indian Ocean — (the navigator used winds he’d calculated during prior flights and navigated the aircraft close enough for the pilots to take over visually). I digress...

We have been grounded with navigation basics. That said, I like GPS for its convenience, speed and accuracy. My new (on the way) Garmin GPSMAP® 64sx can access three different satellite systems (as required) and also has a barometric altimeter which when used with a good topo map can yield a very accurate location. From that you (or at least I) put the GPS receiver in standby to save the battery and continue to navigate with a mag compass and DR. If/when the GPS dies, I won’t be without navigation; I’ll have lost a convenient shortcut, but I won’t be lost.