Hi forum and of course the "Sky Demons" ;-),

‌at the moment I´d like to ask wether there is a possiblity to adjust the zoom-levels while taking off or landing.

I experienced that after take off and after starting the flightlog the zoom-level changes in a quite huge step to see the vincinity of the airfield. Is there a way to adjust the steps of zooming out of the chart for e.g. watch the traffic pattern a longer time more detailed?

The same I experienced while approaching. I would prefer or suggest a more slightly zoom-in during the approach to be sure that the traffic-pattern is close and clearly on the chart while approaching. During the last flights I always had to zoom in manually to hit the circuit properly.

I would request maybe 2 adjustable zoom-levels depending of time or distance from or to the airfield.
Is that a single user-opinion or do you agree?‌‌

Kind regards,
Renzo‌

At least a twin user-opinion.

Eric

We've looked into automatic zooming depending on the phase of flight before, and asked for pilots' opinions. Unfortunately there didn't seem to be a consensus so we have so far not implemented automatic zooming.

The exception is zooming in to ground features when you land and out of ground features (back to your nominated preferred zoom level) when you take off, which is an unambiguous feature to implement. ‌‌

But when there´s no consensus - why not implement and let the users decide to switch on or off? OK, implementing costs effort and money - but autozoom makes sense anyway - ok, maybe not for all users but I´m sure not only me and Eric would like and use it. ;-)

Sounds funny that there is no Consensus.
In my eyes this is a more than useful feature. One of the most impressing features of another program is exactly an automatic zooming in as you come closer to your airport,, including a Change to the (georeferenced - surprise, surprise :-) ) Taxiway Chart.
Approaching and Landing at an unknown airfileld‌‌ is for me the most challenging Phase of flight, especially when you descended early to pattern altitude.
‌Therefore I would love to several more Settings concerning Autozoom or swithcing to Chart view.
- distance or time to an Airport at which an Autozoom process‌ starts
- distance or time to an airfield at which the Approach Chart is displayed in map.
‌‌  Comment. There are some airfields which have more than ONE Chart. In These situations NO Chart is automatically displayed. I learnt that SD does not know which one to Display. This is okay. Egelsbach EDFE is a good example. It has 2 Charts available, therefore None is displayed automatically. EDFE is a busy place surrounded and covered by Airspace C and CTRs. So, approaching this airfileld is not the right Situation to be confused waiting for the Chart to appear and then having to select it manually while coming closer and closer.
‌A configurable time/distance at which the Chart appears or not would be helpful. At the Moment at least the Setting is too Close.

‌- max. zoom Level or zoom Level of the Approach Chart itself
 At the Moment sitting on the ground I can see often only the Apron where my aircraft is located due to the Maximum available zoom level. But I would like to have an Impression where to go‌ next. A more conservative zoom in would be useful.
‌‌

I am not a fan of auto-zoom. To me, it is an example of the program trying to be smarter then I am which mostly leads to frustration. You can please some people at the expense of pissing of another crowd. I like the way it currently is. Zooming in and out is easily accomplished.

One thing I would like to see is the auto-popup of plates when you are approaching an airport. I understand the conundrum of which plate to show from among the (possibly) many plates available. So why not let the user specify a "default" or "preferred" plate at planning time? This setting is remembered for each airport and that's the plate which pops up as you draw closer.

-- Chris.‌‌

It is not just a matter of making it optional. That part goes without saying. It also turns out that every pilot has a different idea of when it should activate, how it should work, what different zoom levels should be triggered and un-triggered, etc.

Most people say, "I think this function should be implemented and made optional for those who don't want it." What this results into is a jungle of settings and options that confuses everybody and makes nobody happy. Good software has to steer a judicious course when it comes what to include and what not to include as a function. And Tim does an admirable job in that department!!!

-- Ch‌‌ris.