In the olden times, biplanes and when I was still flying and such, we had to learn to navigate with the "wet compass" and pilotage, a watch, and calculating your ground speed. It was kind of fun, but not the easiest thing in the world while you also were controlling the plane and looking out for others.
Buy maps was a bit expensive, but so is flying. A sectional map would cover 3-4-5 states, and you needed a special map of any Class B airport, which Cincinnati became whilst I was flying. The poles are moving unusually quickly right now, which generates speculation about this pole reversal and its effects, but it plays havoc with old timey navigation.
The wet compass jiggles so much in even slight turbulence that it's hard to read anyway. If you are off 1° in your heading, after 60 nautical miles you will be 1 nautical mile left or right of your intended location. This is why they use knots for navigation and not mph or kph.