Technology is fine but has turned a lot of people into morons. I have fond memories of working out the solution to finding one's position at sea using the stars and a sextant as you described. This was one of the 100 great elementary problems in Heinrich Dorrie's great book. Also, it was very refreshing to fly my 1942 L-4B (piper cub) the 524 miles down to the Fort Henry, OK airshow on Sept 1st using only sectionals and the seat of my pants.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.avweb.com/recent-updates/business-military/top-letters-and-comments-november-23-2018