SkyDemon Forums

Return flights and data blocks on charts

http://forums.skydemon.aero/Topic7993.aspx

By T67M - 12/15/2012 7:39:50 AM

Morning,

I was just planning a flight when two separate but related ideas occurred to me. First, most flights I make are "out and back" which I create as a single flight and then use the "reverse" feature for the second flight. This doesn't allow me to specify two different alternates, however, and I often forget to change the estimated take-off time for the second flight. Would it be possible to have an option whereby a route automatically included a reverse, with a different alternate and take-off time, and to automatically print both PLOGs from a single route?

The second idea is to attach a small "data block" to each turning point on the printed chart showing the heading and estimate duration of each leg as it starts. Again, having both the outbound and return information shown on a single chart would be great, maybe with an arrow to show which figures relate to which flight. Taking this idea further, displaying a small data block for each airfield along the route giving their radio frequencies would be icing on the Christmas cake.

Happy Christmas!

T67M
By T67M - 12/30/2012 9:04:31 PM

ckurz7000 (18/12/2012)
There is too much clutter on the map with all this, at least according to my personal taste. This information can be read off the plog anyway, so I vote to keep the map clean.

I agree it could get rather cluttered (as so ably demonstrated in my hand-drawn demo!) and that the info is available on the PLog, but my point is that I don't want to have two pieces of paper in the cockpit as a backup, I just want one sheet that has everything I need on it in one place. My current approach is to hand-draw the line and headings onto the CAA chart as I used to do before SkyDemon was invented - the frequencies are (mostly) already there. I can also write my ATA on the chart at each waypoint, making the PLog completely redundant.

I appreciate that not everyone will want all of the information, or indeed any of it, but as each data field type (heading, time, distance, frequency) could be individually controlled, each user could have as much (or as little) shown as they personally feel appropriate.

Happy New Year, and may all your landings in 2013 be greasers.

T67M.