Originally Posted by
coldpilot
Being able to fly an NDB approach is an excellent skill to have. Yes many NDBs are being decommissioned but flying the approach really helps develop your situational awareness. Not to mention if you use a RMI to track a VOR it's done the same way. It's not a useless skill at all although extremely confusing until you get that "oh i get it" light bulb
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That is the absolute truth. Yeah, NDBs suck and I wouldn't fly one if I didn't have to, but the skills involved make you aware of wind drift while tracking a course. In addition, you must have a high degree of control over your heading to be successful with an ADF. My advice: remember that the needle always points to the station. If the wind is blowing, you must crab the airplane so your ground track looks like the approach plate.
On a personal note, I sincerely hope your former school didn't take that attitude on instrument training. I understand that they may not have the equipment required to do all the approaches (GPS, NDB, DME, etc). However, if they told you that you only need to be able to do VOR and ILS approaches, they were sadly mistaken. The instrument rating prepares you to shoot any approach your airplane can do. That's especially important for those of us who want to do this for a living.