GPS Nearest Airport feature

I was flying over Colorado in FS 2004 the other day and was thinking, if
this were a real plane and I were too loose power, what would really be
nice would to have the GPS tell me which of the airports had the
steepest glide to get to it. It would be trivial to have a feature like
that. Do any of the GPS units on the market have such a feature?

--
Chris W

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"Chris W" wrote in message
news:LG2Vd.70$Ci7.38@lakeread07...
I was flying over Colorado in FS 2004 the other day and was thinking, if
this were a real plane and I were too loose power, what would really be
nice would to have the GPS tell me which of the airports had the steepest
glide to get to it. It would be trivial to have a feature like that. Do
any of the GPS units on the market have such a feature?

I've never heard of an aviation GPS that did NOT have a "nearest airport"
feature. The simulated GPS in MSFS should have that feature as well.

AnywhereMap (I think) has something they call "safety cones" (or something
like that) where they graphically portray volumes from within which you can
glide to a given airport.

Pete

They all have nearest, but I've never seen one with steepest descent.
It may not be so trivial to provide steepest descent with no
obstructions on the path.

On 1 Mar 2005 11:03:36 -0800, "Bravo8500"
wrote:

They all have nearest, but I've never seen one with steepest descent.
It may not be so trivial to provide steepest descent with no
obstructions on the path.


But, as the OP stated, he was flying in Colorado. Being based out of
Colorado, that "nearest" feature may not be your saviour. The nearest
airport maybe on the other side of that mountain. So if you have lost
power, you may not be able to make it over that mountain to get to
that airport. So it is always best to know where you are and where
your outs are. We are constantaly playing the "what if" game when we
cross over the range. I want to know, not only where the nearest
airport is, but the nearest VFR airport, the valleys and the lowest
terrain. Hopefully, we leave nothing to chance while we are in the
mountains.


Scott D

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Reminds me of a story a friend of mine told me about..

A few years ago, he was taking some sort of check ride, and was asked where
he would land if he had an engine out.

He proudly pointed out a cotton field, an interstate highway, and several
other locations.

The check pilot told him that was very good, and asked him what was wrong
with the airport that was right under them.

My buddy looked out the window, and there was a beautiful little airport
right below.

Needless to say, from then on he always flew with a sectional and a plotter
on his lap...



Scott D. wrote in message
...
On 1 Mar 2005 11:03:36 -0800, "Bravo8500"
wrote:

They all have nearest, but I've never seen one with steepest descent.
It may not be so trivial to provide steepest descent with no
obstructions on the path.


But, as the OP stated, he was flying in Colorado. Being based out of
Colorado, that "nearest" feature may not be your saviour. The nearest
airport maybe on the other side of that mountain. So if you have lost
power, you may not be able to make it over that mountain to get to
that airport. So it is always best to know where you are and where
your outs are. We are constantaly playing the "what if" game when we
cross over the range. I want to know, not only where the nearest
airport is, but the nearest VFR airport, the valleys and the lowest
terrain. Hopefully, we leave nothing to chance while we are in the
mountains.


Scott D

To email remove spamcatcher

"Bravo8500" wrote in message
ups.com...
They all have nearest, but I've never seen one with steepest descent.
It may not be so trivial to provide steepest descent with no
obstructions on the path.

And if you take wind into account then the aircraft may well glide "more
steeply" towards an airport that's not the initial "first pick" of the GPS.

Perhaps a better option is to have the current glide ratios and glide ration
to target get up on an 'emergency options' configured page of the GPS?

"Bravo8500" wrote in message
ups.com...
They all have nearest, but I've never seen one with steepest descent.

Huh? The steepest descent is the nearest airport. Even in mountainous
terrain, it's incredibly rare to find an airport uphill.

It may not be so trivial to provide steepest descent with no
obstructions on the path.

The original poster didn't stipulate "with no obstructions on the path".

I don't think the original question was intended to be nearly as
sophisticated and complicated as you seem to be making it.

Pete

They all do. However, it is based on distance and runway length, not
"steepest glide". I'm not sure why you would want the steepest glide.
Don't you want to use your best glide speed and go to the nearest
airport? I guess the steepest glide would be straight down.

-Robert, Flight Instructor

I think he means if he's flying over a plateau, with an airport on top
of the plateau say 5 miles away, but over the edge of the plateau,
there's one 7 miles away, and 4000 feet lower in elevation since it's
down in the valley or something. If you can make the cliff edge, you've
got 4000 more to drop.

Robert M. Gary wrote:

They all do. However, it is based on distance and runway length, not
"steepest glide". I'm not sure why you would want the steepest glide.
Don't you want to use your best glide speed and go to the nearest
airport? I guess the steepest glide would be straight down.


I guess I wasn't very clear in my first post. I know they all have the
nearest airport feature and give runway length. Lets say that I am
flying along at 14,000ft and the engine starts doing bad things. Since
I was stupid and wasn't paying attention, I ask my GPS where the nearest
airport is. It tells me that there is an airport 5 knots to my left and
10 knots to my right. What it didn't tell me is the runway to the left
was at an elevation of 10,000ft and the runway to the right was at an
elevation of 5,000ft. Lets make the math simple and pretend there are
6000ft in a nautical mile. To make the airport on the left you would
have to maintain a glide ratio of 7.5 to 1. To make the airport on the
right you would need to maintain a glide ratio of about 6.7 to.
Obviously the runway to the right gives you more room to maneuver. This
is of course assuming there are no obstructions in your path. As
another poster pointed out, if you are flying over the rockies you
better always have a plan on where you are going to go if your loose
power, you are just asking for something bad to happen.

Even from a single simulated flight over Colorado, it's pretty clear to
me, careful planing should go into any such flight in real life.

--
Chris W

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