Per Oren:
I was wondering how did pilots navigated at night in the pre GPS/VOR/NDB/ILS "age"?
Most of the time, your FAA flight training will cover VFR (Visual Flight Rules) navigation. A properly compensated compass, accurate watch (calibrated chronometer is better), calibrated ASI, and chart, will get you where you are going.
You can tell when you have air navigation down pat when you break out of a cloud bank and see the runway directly ahead of you. You have become a REAL pilot when you can CONFIDENTLY land in a 20 meter visibility fog and then, see the cute little runway lights equidistant from your seat. I didn't say it was easy, and inaccurate instruments can kill you.
The old timers learned one other thing: never trust your memory. Instead, rely on your instruments and if you MUST, compensate for a KNOWN error. Radar altimeters make sense, I must say. De-icing makes even more sense if you fly VFR in wet weather.
IFR (Instrument Flight Rules) flight is a little more exacting but is wholly more precise. I always fly under IFR in my old Beechcraft Bonanza. Hey, it was around when Buddy Holly was the new musician. 14,000 accident free flight hours won't hurt an airplane if you maintain it to FAA specs. Just be sure your mechanic has a current A&P license.
GPS navigation is another way to pick your way through the darkness over the ocean -- forbidding flight errors like vertigo.
VORTAC, and the rest of that, is also covered in your ground school. Still, old-timers with more crust than a loaf of sourdough bread and weeds in the wheels still make navigation errors -- and hard landings. If you ever go with an old timer, be sure to take a larger plane just to accomodate his ego.
I will say that the old timers who flew B-29's from Tinian and Iwo Jima had some good hard brass. Stick-and-rudder pilots are becoming a rarity, I must say. Trust your instruments before you trust your instincts. Now, about TACAN . . ..
