By, "Old Fashioned," I of course mean "without a GPS."

Don't get me wrong, I love the GPS. Since I am a pilot, I know firsthand how it revolutionized the field of aviation and turned navigation tasks that used to be tedious and prone to errors into convenient button-presses that take mere minutes. That being said, to get a pilot's license even today, airmen are required to prove to an examiner that they are capable of navigating without a GPS. Why, you ask? Is it just because guys who write the FAA rules are old and had to learn how to do it, and they hated it so they want you to do it too out of spite? That's possible, but it is more likely due to one or several of the reasons that I will give below.

1. GPSs Can be Unreliable: To function properly, a GPS must have two things: power and a signal. The power part is easy if you prepare properly, but in the days of using the GPSs in our cell phones, batteries can be sucked dry quite quickly. This is especially true if you are using your phone GPS to get to dinner and didn't have time to charge it all day. The signal part is easy if you live in a populated area, but wander far from the city lights and you may have a hard time acquiring all the satellites necessary. So, you may be thinking "I'm always good about keeping my phone charged and I never go anywhere without a singal," but don't think that you won't one day be out in the wilderness with nothing but your own brain...

2. GPSs are Dangerous: This seems self explanatory, staring at a GPS (or worse, messing with your GPS while trying to drive) will obviously take your attention off the road. Don't be the next star in a "don't text and drive" PSA, keep your eyes on the road!

3. It Could Save Your Life: So, despite your best efforts, you are stranded in the middle of nowhere either with a dead cell phone or no signal. You know there might be a town to the East of you, but will you be able to find it? If you know how to navigate without a GPS, then you can find your way to safety even in the most dire of circumstances.

4. You See the World When You Self-Navigate: Instead of staring at a screen, you are forced to observe your surroundings. You may find things you weren't looking for, and that is all part of the adventure that is life. This is especially true in aerial navigation, as you are pretty much sightseeing in order to know where you are. It's kind of fun, actually.

5. You Can Assert Yourself as a Leader: The definition of a leader is that they have followers. What better way to get people to follow you than by being the only one that knows where they are going? When I traveled around in Europe, we couldn't use cell phones because we didn't have international plans and the rates were super expensive, so we had to navigate through cities we had never been to before with nothing but maps and our brains. Typically, the person in the group who was best at navigating was the one who led the group, so it became almost a competition to see who was the best navigator. Don't be the person blindly following others, know where you are going!

6. Getting Lost Builds Character: I always remember a scene from the 90s sitcom Home Improvement where Tim is camping with his sons and gets lost in the woods. Of course, he happens to run into his wise neighbor Wilson (which makes me wonder if Wilson is really a figment of Tim's imagination...) who, of course, says this: "...when I'm lost, I feel I begin to find myself." I'm probably paraphrasing since it has been awhile since I have seen that one, but you get the gist.

This is of course funny in the episode since Wilson always says very philosophical and cryptic things that may or may not be helpful, but I really think that it is true. When you are lost, you have to dig deep into what makes you YOU and find a way out. In our increasingly sterile society we tend to avoid things like discomfort and pain, and to some degree this is weakening us. Being lost is very uncomfortable, especially if you start to drive through the bad side of town, and it is through this discomfort that we learn things. We learn how to problem solve, we learn how to conduct ourselves, and in this case, we learn not to make that wrong turn again. You can't build muscle without feeling the burn, you can't graduate college without a lot of studying, and you can't build your own character without feeling vulnerable sometimes. Being lost isn't fun for anyone, but when you find your way out you will feel stronger, more confident, and will certainly know your way around town better!

In my next post I will share some tips that I have found helpful for old-fashioned navigation.