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


Very useful software indeed. Not only will it fill
in whatever waypoints (on an map LEGAL for cockpit
use mind you) you import, but it can also set concentric
circles around them, with altitudes printed for each
ring that can be adjusted for your personal safety
margins and whatever L/D you choose. Not only that,
it can skew the circles off center to accommodate varying
wind conditions as well. I also have no affiliation
with GlidPlan, but agree with John entirely (and EVERY
other pilot that uses this software!) that it is very
very useful.

Paul Hanson
"Do the usual, unusually well"--Len Niemi