Heath,
Sorry, but I'm one of those "hard core older pilots"you wrote about. It's not that I don't like electronics but you can so dependent on them that you can forget how to do it the old fashion way (with a pencil). Let me give you an example.
About ten years ago, I needed to get to another airport to pick up a C-150 that was out of Annual and get it back to the shop. The boss was going to fly me over there (about 35 miles) in his PA28-180. At the last minute the boss had to go somewhere else so we asked one of the local pilots who happened to be there checking on his airplane (a PA28-180 undergoing an Annual) to go with me. The wind was out of the north, light to variable, temp about 65 and severe clear. We took off, turned due East and climbed to 2,000 ft (msl). All the way over the pilot was questioning me about the GPS and I told him it was inop and due in the shop the next day.
When we got there, I told him to head on back cause I was looking at a couple of hrs of checking the 150 out for ferry and besides, the PA-28 cruised faster anyway. He had a dubious look so I asked him if he has any problems. He said he didn't, so I told him, there was a current sectional on the back seat, but all he had to do was fly to (blank), two miles north of the airport, look for the two lane hiway going due west out of (blank) for 34 miles, look down to the left and the end of 36 should be under his left wing. So the last of him I see there is him departing to the north.
Two hrs and 45 minutes later, I arrive back at the home airport and no PA-28 in sight. Landing I talked to a couple of pilots who had been there all afternoon and they said that they had not seen either the pilot or the plane. I took off and finally contacted him on the radio (he hadn't switched from 122.8 when he departed the other airport). He readily admitted he was lost, down to a quarter tank of fuel and could I help him. We compared notes on what we could both see and what he thought compared with his sectional and decided he was some where south of me (I was 5 miles south east of the airport at 1000 ft agl, circling a fair sized lake. (Believe me, there are places in Kansas that identifiable objects can be hard to find) I told him to head north and keep his eyes open. About 20 minutes later I hear him on the radio -"Quincy, there's an airport under my right wing, what's that airport Quincy?" I told him to land there, get fuel and call me on land line at the home airport.
Turns out the airport he landed at was 35 miles southwest of our airport. He finally got home and we had a long chat. He finally admitted that he had not flown by compass and sectional in such a long time (His plane had both Loran and GPs) that he could no longer get to a destination with out it in his GPS. Some of us did some checking around our airport (ten planes based there at that time) and discovered 2 more pilots who were in the same boat. We managed to get them to take some remedial training but the percentages are scary.
And it's not just pilots, a few years ago we tried little test at Summer Camp. For 6 mornings we took a different Lt. out about 8 klicks from the TOC a couple of hrs before sunrise, gave them a map and a compass and told them to wait until 0700 and then they were to find the TOC (they were given its grid location). Only two of them (former NCOs) made it back without help.
PS
I ain't never been lost, but I've terribly confused a couple of times