how I map my flights

OziExplorer works great for this. You can download your tracks from
your Garmin or other brand of GPS and it overlays it on whatever chart
you have loaded. I use the NOS IFR and SAC charts available from
MapSource as well as the chart chunks I download from Aeroplanner.
OziExplorer is cool becuase it can be used on a PC or Pocket PC which
makes having moving map sectionals in the cockpit nice and easy and
not take up a lot of room.

Glenn


On 12 Nov 2003 07:33:07 -0800, (Snowbird)
wrote:

I thought I'd share how I've been displaying the tracks of
my flights. I found this very useful in helping me assess
and analyze my errors. It's also been interesting on long
flights into crowded airspace to see what the tracons actually
do with us.

I'm also hoping it will spark a discussion where more knowledgeable
people have better ways of doing this. If someone says "hey you can
do all this with one program and it's shareware" I'll be pleased.

I posted about this issue some time back and got some answers
but no "complete idiots guide" these are all the steps you need
so here it is.

I start with a Garmin GPS 90 set to log my track.

I then use the shareware program GARTrip to upload the track file onto
my computer.
http://www.gartrip.de/
Gartrip has a fully functional freeware version with some limitations.
Almost everything I do training locally could be done with the freeware
version, except one couldn't save multiple track files. But, I thought
it was a cool and well written program worth the $30 registration. The
author is very helpful and provides good support. The FAQ addressed
all of the minor problems we encountered setting it up.

GARTrip uses three pieces of information to produce a nice map with
track, or a specified part of a track, overlaid. First, it uses a
map saved in .jpg or .gif format (.bmp too). Then one can enter
waypoints, and calibrate the map. One can then display waypoints
for a route defined in the GPS, or display a track file over the map.

I input a local waypoints file using the lat long coordinates of navaids
from the AF/D and the lat long coordinates of the GPS waypoints from
the data file at http://www.airnav.com. *A nice side benefit of this
is that it gives degree-distance bearing between GPS waypoints whatever
VOR I select. So if I wanted, for example, to know exactly how CHOSY
waypoint relates to LIS VOR, I could get that information. This might
or might not be useful to pilots planning GPS approaches into distant
airports, where one can't file to the IAF because the ATC confusers
won't recognize it.* The GPS waypoints are a bit of a PITA. If someone
knows of a text file with the data which I could just search, or some
FAA pub where they're listed, this would be helpful.

When we subscribed to Aeroplanner, I downloaded several IFR low-altitude
chartchunks and saved them as .jpg or .gif files. (Now I'm gonna be
visiting Kyler Laird for some sectionals!!!)

I also download .pdf files of approaches from AOPA. A lot of common
graphics programs won't convert .pdf files to other formats. I use the
very useful freeware program Ghostview to convert .ps and .pdf to
.jpg and such at work, so I use GSview (windows version) to convert
the AOPA files to .jpg which GARtrip can read.
http://www.gnu.org/software/ghostview/ghostview.html
Of course approach plates are also available at Dennis' site
http://www.myairplane.com for those who aren't AOPA members.
I did find the AOPA plates to be higher resolution and cleaner
but Dennis's site is very useful and of course, does not require
membership.

These maps are then calibrated using the local waypoints file.

The setup of inputting the waypoints and converting the approach
plates took a little time but of course it's a one time deal, if
someone is starting training for the IR or PPL it will work for
the whole training.

OK, so now I'm out shooting approaches. I come home, hook up
the Garmin 90 to the confuser, load the track file, and see what
I've done. It will display a chart of airspeed. If I had a GPS
which saved altitude data, GARtrip would handle that as well.

The display can be printed to a postscript file, which Ghostview
will convert to .jpg or .gif for editing or use in presentations
like PowerPoint. I was thinking that instrument ground instructors
might find something like this useful to show exactly what happens
when the student crosses a VOR and has to wait for indicator reversal
and the effect of small errors in CDI and in setting the radial.

I haven't explored yet what I'd need to use track files from our
installed GPS. They're more of a PITA for me to get since I have
to bring a computer into the cockpit and hook it up to download
the track. From browsing it looks as though GARtrip should
handle a file format I can output.

One thing I found useful was to see the GPS waypoints and navaids
all displayed on a local sectional chart. It helped me understand
how they fit into the local airspace picture and how they interact
with other approaches in the area.

Anyway, something I found useful getting back up to speed with
instrument flying. Hope this is useful to someone else.

Sydney