Sectionals for GlidePlan

Lynn,

I support using your sectionals stitched together use in GlidePlan. But, only for sites with enough pilots signing up to support your time/labor to do the work. Wholeheartedly agree with John Seaborn. My electronic moving map display is nice, but cannot compete with a paper map... at least for backup... if not otherwise.

Walt Rogers WX

Hi All,

I am very sorry that support for GlidePlan has been less than what is needed for quite some time. As Paul correctly guessed, some life changing issues have gotten in my way, and prevented me from providing the attention that it and you deserve.

In the short run, more current maps are now available at http://glide2.glideplan.com. I put this site up as the original was compromised by hackers. While not completely current, they are at least more modern than what is available on the original site.

You can still buy the software there, but I have been considering a drastic price reduction, and a release of the tools I have developed to process FAA sectionals and custom stitched maps. Sectional processing is fairly straightforward, and mostly automated, although instructions must be followed carefully.

Stitching sectionals together is significantly more valuable to pilots, and unfortunately significantly more difficult. It requires the use of Global Mapper for re-projection of different sectionals into a unified geo-referenced file, then post processing with tools I developed to be compatible with GlidePlan. Global mapper is not cheap in and of itself.

I developed GlidePlan to fill a need in the soaring community, and as a way to give back, not to make my fortune. If folks feel there is still some value to GlidePlan, I would like to hear your thoughts about making the program available for say $49 and allowing the community to support map updating and creation themselves. There would need to be a common repository of maps, sort of like WWTE, I would think And a few hardy souls willing to contribute to map making. I can provide the post processing tools (including source code for mapping tools only, in XoJo) and instructions.

I am also happy to host a content repository for now if someone wants to administer it.

Please let me know your thoughts in this open forum. I am open to suggestion.

Cheers,

Matt

Hi Matt,

Thank you for your reply and even more so for your kind offer! I think
making a WWTE-esque map exchange for sectionals is the best possible
outcome for all involved. Though you may not have considered it at the
time, GlidePlan is a tool that has resulted in a very significant safety
benefit.

Under the terms you've outlined, I would be willing to undertake the
processing of sectionals. Someone's gotta help Lynn out!
Additionally, I would volunteer to be one of a number of people to stitch
sectionals together for the GlidePlan community. As Region 2 is my home
region when flying in the US, perhaps that'd be an appropriate start.

Whilst I'm happy to volunteer my time, $449 for Global Mapper...perhaps not
so eager. If an honorarium for stitched maps produced was paid by the users
until the software cost was covered then that would seem fair. 45 users at
$10 a pop shouldn't take long I'd hope.

Best regards,

Casey
B3
see jay el seven six @me.com or the email associated with this post

"Matt Herron Jr." wrote:
Hi All,

I am very sorry that support for GlidePlan has been less than what is
needed for quite some time. As Paul correctly guessed, some life
changing issues have gotten in my way, and prevented me from providing
the attention that it and you deserve.

In the short run, more current maps are now available at
http://glide2.glideplan.com. I put this site up as the original was
compromised by hackers. While not completely current, they are at least
more modern than what is available on the original site.

You can still buy the software there, but I have been considering a
drastic price reduction, and a release of the tools I have developed to
process FAA sectionals and custom stitched maps. Sectional processing is
fairly straightforward, and mostly automated, although instructions must
be followed carefully.

Stitching sectionals together is significantly more valuable to pilots,
and unfortunately significantly more difficult. It requires the use of
Global Mapper for re-projection of different sectionals into a unified
geo-referenced file, then post processing with tools I developed to be
compatible with GlidePlan. Global mapper is not cheap in and of itself.

I developed GlidePlan to fill a need in the soaring community, and as a
way to give back, not to make my fortune. If folks feel there is still
some value to GlidePlan, I would like to hear your thoughts about making
the program available for say $49 and allowing the community to support
map updating and creation themselves. There would need to be a common
repository of maps, sort of like WWTE, I would think And a few hardy
souls willing to contribute to map making. I can provide the post
processing tools (including source code for mapping tools only, in XoJo) and instructions.

I am also happy to host a content repository for now if someone wants to administer it.

Please let me know your thoughts in this open forum. I am open to suggestion.

Cheers,

Matt

On Thursday, June 5, 2014 9:30:39 AM UTC-7, CJ wrote:
Hi Matt,



Thank you for your reply and even more so for your kind offer! I think

making a WWTE-esque map exchange for sectionals is the best possible

outcome for all involved. Though you may not have considered it at the

time, GlidePlan is a tool that has resulted in a very significant safety

benefit.



Under the terms you've outlined, I would be willing to undertake the

processing of sectionals. Someone's gotta help Lynn out!

Additionally, I would volunteer to be one of a number of people to stitch

sectionals together for the GlidePlan community. As Region 2 is my home

region when flying in the US, perhaps that'd be an appropriate start.



Whilst I'm happy to volunteer my time, $449 for Global Mapper...perhaps not

so eager. If an honorarium for stitched maps produced was paid by the users

until the software cost was covered then that would seem fair. 45 users at

$10 a pop shouldn't take long I'd hope.



Best regards,



Casey

B3

see jay el seven six @me.com or the email associated with this post



"Matt Herron Jr." wrote:

Hi All,



I am very sorry that support for GlidePlan has been less than what is

needed for quite some time. As Paul correctly guessed, some life

changing issues have gotten in my way, and prevented me from providing

the attention that it and you deserve.



In the short run, more current maps are now available at

http://glide2.glideplan.com. I put this site up as the original was

compromised by hackers. While not completely current, they are at least

more modern than what is available on the original site.



You can still buy the software there, but I have been considering a

drastic price reduction, and a release of the tools I have developed to

process FAA sectionals and custom stitched maps. Sectional processing is

fairly straightforward, and mostly automated, although instructions must

be followed carefully.



Stitching sectionals together is significantly more valuable to pilots,

and unfortunately significantly more difficult. It requires the use of

Global Mapper for re-projection of different sectionals into a unified

geo-referenced file, then post processing with tools I developed to be

compatible with GlidePlan. Global mapper is not cheap in and of itself.



I developed GlidePlan to fill a need in the soaring community, and as a

way to give back, not to make my fortune. If folks feel there is still

some value to GlidePlan, I would like to hear your thoughts about making

the program available for say $49 and allowing the community to support

map updating and creation themselves. There would need to be a common

repository of maps, sort of like WWTE, I would think And a few hardy

souls willing to contribute to map making. I can provide the post

processing tools (including source code for mapping tools only, in XoJo) and instructions.



I am also happy to host a content repository for now if someone wants to administer it.



Please let me know your thoughts in this open forum. I am open to suggestion.



Cheers,



Matt

I'll pledge $25 toward a license for the Global Mapper software. I've been trying to get going on the GlidePlan for some time but the lack of current charts has been a deterrent.

Come on guys let's get this resurrected!

Mike

Ordered the SeeG / GlidePlan combo at work. License keys were waiting for me when I got home. Thanks!

Matt,

QGIS is an open source GIS program that has many features (http://www.qgis.org) and has expanded considerably in the last year or two. Would it have the features necessary to "stitch" together sectionals?

Walt Rogers WX

And BTW...

Thank you very much for supporting GlidePlan over the years. Without a subscription service, it's hard to keep maintaining it once everyone who is going to but it... has bought it. Also, life intervenes with other priorities.. so it is.

Do you know of any other GIS programs that can "stitch" together maps without the high cost of entry? Lynn... what are you using?

Walt Rogers WX

On Thursday, June 5, 2014 4:34:29 PM UTC-7, WaltWX wrote:
And BTW...



Thank you very much for supporting GlidePlan over the years. Without a subscription service, it's hard to keep maintaining it once everyone who is going to but it... has bought it. Also, life intervenes with other priorities.. so it is.



Do you know of any other GIS programs that can "stitch" together maps without the high cost of entry? Lynn... what are you using?



Walt Rogers WX

Lynn pointed me to what he uses.

"I use GDAL for reprojecting, cropping, otherwise manipulating the images, as distributed in OSGeo4W."

http://www.gdal.org

Seems a lot more cost-effective.

Andy Blackburn
9B

GDAL is a powerful set of command line utilities for manipulating geo-referenced imagery. It is free and open, but the learning curve is quite steep. It is developed, maintained, and used primarily by the research community.. Some familiarity with technical aspects of map making is presumed, and some programming background (i.e. python, perl, and the like) is helpful.

It can do much of what Global Mapper does and more, but there is no GUI at all, much less a slick one.

L.

All,

Here is a summary of the feedback I have received so far. I have had emails from a few of you, as well as the replies posted here.

Most of the interest has been in custom, stitched sectionals for contest sites. Unfortunately, as Matt pointed out, these require significantly more effort (especially the first time), and I'm not in a position now to commit the time involved to support requests for those. I did do the Nephi site as a test, and I'll post that on my website sometime soon.

Given the possibility of Matt publishing instructions on making the sectionals, I don't plan to do much more at this point. Unless I get really bored (after the soaring season)!

L.