GlidePlan Experience

GlidePlan was the sleeper hit technology at Region
9. I went with 20 printouts of the task area sectional(s)
on an 8.5'x11' sheet with the turnpoint database overlaid
and some final glide rings over Parowan. I gave a
few out to pilots whom I've known for awhile on the
practice day. Each day, more pilots came to me for
a copy - particularly on days after a MAT task. I
quickly ran out of my stash. By day three I saw copies
blown up to 11x14 and nicely laminated - apparently
someone had found a Staples in nearby Cedar City.

Matt originally developed GlidePlan as an aid to new
cross-country pilots, but more recently it has found
favor among competition pilots who love anything that
can help situational awareness on tasks. I know Matt
would love feedback and input from anyone who finds
GlidePlan useful. We have discussed many potential
enhancements - including some really cool ideas. I
encourage anyone with an interest in competition or
cross-country soaring to download the trial from www.glideplan.com
(buying a copy is even better) and help make the next
version even more useful.

I also have no commercial interest in GlidePlan.

9B


At 16:24 13 July 2007, John Seaborn wrote:
In my experience a good printed map is critical for
establishing
situational awareness even in the GPS world. Over the
years we have
all done pretty much the same thing when flying a new
site. We bought
the sectionals, cut and pasted them together, manually
put on the
various waypoints provided on Mr. Leibacher's amazing
website, slapped
plastic over the whole thing and went flying. Oh wait,
one for the
crew as well.

This was a laborious process especially for contest
pilots. Along
comes the digital age with easy access to electronic
versions of
aviation maps so I started experimenting with how to
do this task
electronically first using fancy graphics software.
Then I came across
software called GlidePlan which at first I was rather
non pulsed
about. But I tried it as this software makes it easy
to find the
electronic sectionals you need, import the waypoint
file in SeeYou Cup
format right to the map, apply the styles you want
for the various
points (say transparent red dots for turn points),
adjust the point
label position and font size and print the whole works
out on your
inkjet or take it to a someone with a big plotter.
You can even scale
the map down which comes in handy on those MAT tasks
in the west where
the sectional for the contest area is the size of a
small tent.

Matt Herron, the developer, is considering offering
customer sectional
chunks for specific contest areas which would be a
plus. The interface
is still a little challenging but I used the software
to prep for the
Region 9 contest and it worked well with the smaller
WAC size map
earning some points on the MAT tasks. BTW I have no
commercial
affiliation with GlidePlan its just useful software.
John