Do our brains pay a price for GPS?

[enlightenment]

2. Use your head first

and tools after that.

There's nothing wrong with GPS, but when you rely on it - and only it - you're going to suffer the consequences.

Years and years ago - long before GPS (right after WWII) my dad was adding pilot to the three ratings he already had in the AAF, soon to be AF. He'd been training at Kelly Field and had soloed a number of times when he was told to report to the field to ferry a bigwig to Wright Patterson in Ohio - a distance of about 1200 miles or so, I guess.

Said bigwig was a multi-starred general, a veteran pilot of WWI and II. He climbed aboard the plane and told my dad he'd fly co-pilot. Dad pulled out his maps and flight computer (the manual kind, of course) and started to plot his course. The general told him, "son - put that down. You're going to fly by the seat of your pants."

Dad hadn't been trained to do that over any distance, but he dutifully took off, flying by visual reference, with the general pointing out landmarks along the way. Obviously, they got there in one piece - and back to Texas the same way. Dad flew for another 30 years in the AF and didn't have much call if any to fly that way again, but the lesson stuck because he realized how important it is to know what's around you - and below you - as much as you possibly can.

Technology is great, but nature gave us a pretty impressive piece of equipment right between our ears. We should use that, too.