R EAD ER STORY
OGY TO IMPROVE
N THE COCKPIT, BUT TO HELP THEM IMPROVE THEIR SKILLS. HERE ARE TWO PILOTS DOING JUST THAT.
Where did you go today? BY KEN NIC HOL A S
I
s that a question asked by someone you know when you return from the wild blue yonder? I don’t know if all flyers are asked the question by their partners, but it is nice if there is some interest. Recently in one of my learn-to-fly columns, I touched on the technology I use to tell me exactly where I actually go on each flight. I have been in the habit recently of recording and producing my own 3D flight track, and this article is a step-by-step introduction on how you can relive your day’s flight the same way. So you can answer, yes, I know almost exactly where I went today. I keep saying almost-exactly because the accuracy of the track you record will depend on the recording method you use, its sample rate and GPS signal quality. On some flights, for example, the recordings showed I made a couple of right-angle turns, but I don’t think the Tecnam actually turns that sharply. I’m not an expert on this sort of technology, but I did get it to work for me quite satisfactorily. It was great to be able to go back and analyse the day’s events, particularly during my early training. Follow these steps and you should be able to produce an elevated track which can be viewed in a 3D map program, such as Google Earth. The real beauty of it is, though, is that it can be viewed from virtually any angle or altitude, from directly overhead to standing beside the runway, to see your approach and landings.
SO WHAT DO YOU NEED?
I’m an Apple man and so the easiest way to record this stuff is with your smart phone (Yes, the Android can do this as well). You could, for that matter, use any device capable of downloading a suitable app and retrieving the track data - but the phone is probably the easiest. I just export the track via email to myself. All you need to do is set it up before you go to the airport. On the day just start the app, hit record, put the phone back in your pocket and forget about it until after you’ve landed. The app I use is called ‘Speedometer’. Another for Iphone is Strava. It’s an app used mainly by cyclists to keep track of their day’s pedalling, but it does the same job. Any similar app should also do the business. You just need an app which will save and export a GPS track log file. Even better if it will export it in Google Earth format (kml or kmz files). You export the file to yourself via email if you are using your phone. I’m not going into app reviews here, so that’s just research you’ll have to do for yourself, but I can recommend the app I use. Speedometer does exactly what’s needed and will show you a surface map and track within the app itself. After exporting your freshly recorded GPS track to your email, copy and save the file to a convenient location on your computer, e.g. your desktop or somewhere you will be able to find it again easily. This is where the fun starts. You will need to go to a website called GPSVisualizer.com. On the home page, after you’ve had a bit of a look around,
you’ll see a Google Earth link pretty much right in the centre of the page. Select this to go to the Upload and Conversion page. There is a lot on this page, but to get started you only need upload your track file (you know, the one you emailed to yourself and saved somewhere so you could find it again easily). Scroll down to the bottom of the Upload and Conversion page, so you can see all the options available. Just right of centre you should see ‘Upload your GPS data files here’ with three file boxes under that labelled File #1, #2 and #3. Select Browse and an upload window will open. Find your saved GPS file, select it and hit Open. It should show in the File #1 box. Next on the Convert page under Track Options (centre left of the page), set up how you want it to look. I suggest the following for a first try. Track Opacity - 20%;Line Width – 2; Colorise by - Altitude/Elevation; Set Altitude Mode - Extruded (connected to the ground by a wall). This will give you an extra box to fill in, Extrusion Opacity: set this to 20%. At the bottom of the page under Waypoint options, set Altitude mode to ‘Extruded (connected to the ground by a line)’ and show waypoints to 0, you can leave the rest as they are. You can obviously redo this as many times as you like until you get the look you like. Now select the green box ‘Create KML file’, a new window will open with your Google Earth output saying, ‘your GPS Data has been processed’. Here is your KML or KMZ file. They are both the same, except a KMZ file is compressed or zipped. The file name is a very long list of numbers which is actually the date and time. It’s best to save this file before you do anything else. So right click on the link and select ‘Save As’. Save it to your hard drive, e.g. your desktop again for easy finding. If you leave this page without saving, the file will disappear and you will have to reprocess it again from the start. So save it.
THE LAST STEP
Download and install Google Earth. A note of caution. Once you have launched Google Earth, never save any changes you make when exiting or they become permanent fixtures each time you load the program. If you do save your changes on exiting, you will wind up with tracks loading over the top of each other each time. You can always remove them by going to the top menu in Google Earth. Next to the magnifier is an icon which will show the side bar. Under temporary places in the side bar, will be the file or files you have saved. You have two options. Leave them there but untick the check box (and they won’t display any more), or right click on the file name and select ‘Delete’ from the pop-up menu to remove it permanently. You can reload it again at any time. Double clicking the file will load it into Google Earth. It will then appear, revealing the track you flew - down to the last detail. It’s endlessly fascinating. So have fun with it. Enjoy looking to see where you went today – almost exactly.
55 / SPORT PILOT