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how I map my flights
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 |
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