On 2/26/2021 1:30 AM, Tom BravoMike wrote:
Doesn't the OziExplorer's 'Map Merge' supplement software do what you need?

https://www.oziexplorer4.com/mapmerge/mapmerge.html


That might work, if you want to pay $124 for OziExplorer plus the Merge
tool. At least the download files are small and system requirements
modest. There are various free software packages that can interpret
GEO-TIFF files, and some of them may be able to stitch them together.
It appears that QGIS can do that. But it's it is a 390 Megabyte
download, and it expands when you install it. And the hardware
requirements are high.

Either way you'd have to learn to use some complicated software (choose
your map projection, for example). All good if you want to dabble in
what is truly GIS software. But what I would expect for our tax money
by now is to be able to get a map for the area of your choice directly
from the FAA, instead of paper-map lookalikes. They could have several
overlapping combined maps generated and stored, and when you specify
your coordinate limits it would pick the right one and crop it, which
would be quick. I can dream. But that's essentially what Skyvector.com
already does, instantly.

Lacking that, maybe the flying community can get together and create
some merged maps and store them online somewhere. That would need to be
repeated periodically, the cycle of the sectional updates is now 56
days. For most of us the area we want in one map won't be bigger than a
traditional sectional, just needs to be shifted across the seams. Thus
pre-merged pairs of adjacent sectionals, for example, might suffice.
For the purpose, the resolution of the image can be reduced. E.g., my
hand-stitched map image of my flying area is only about 7 megabytes (25
megapixels, covering about 20,000 square miles). Thus storage and
download would be easy enough.

I've found some example merged sectionals he
http://www.glideplan.com/styled-5/downloads-3/files/
but those are from 2014 or earlier, and the whole point is to get
up-to-date maps to electronically carry with you.

The other approach is to use a live cellphone data connection to
something like skyvector.com from the cockpit, but I would much prefer
to have the data with me and not to count on a connection which may not
work when you need it.