Direct To in mountainous area

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Direct To in mountainous area

Author	Message
chrisn	c chrisn posted 10/4/2022 6:49:48 AM Topic Details Share Topic
c Group: Forum Members Posts: 31, Visits: 0	Hi! I was playing with the direct to in simulate mode, and when flying near WIL in Switzerland, I was surprised that Meiringen was showing in the list of direct to. Then I realized that I'd discard that because there's quite a big mountain range I'd have to climb over. That's nice in an area where I know my way around, but if I'd be further away from home, I'd still not want to climb 6000 ft because of an ill-chosen direct-to. It might be handy to see some sort of vertical path that I'd be encountering. When I accepted Meiringen, the virtual radar at the bottom didn't update until I dragged the airplane on the right route, so even then you'd have to commit to the route to see that it might not work out. (Also, the directional arrows being relative to the airplane when my map is always north up was a bit confusing, which made me glad to figure that out in the simulate mode!)
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chrisn	c chrisn posted 10/4/2022 7:01:44 AM Post Details Share Post
c Group: Forum Members Posts: 31, Visits: 0	This is version 3.16.4.27124 on Android,so with the updated Direct To from this summer.
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Tim Dawson	Tim Dawson posted 10/4/2022 9:09:40 AM Post Details Share Post
Group: Forum Members Posts: 7.8K, Visits: 8.4K	Have you tried turning on the glide range ring when flying over land? It's the same calculation SkyDemon uses to indicate whether you could glide to an airfield, so it's useful if you think you might need to tweak the glide properties of your aircraft to make it more accurate.
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chrisn	c chrisn posted 10/4/2022 10:15:12 AM Post Details Share Post
c Group: Forum Members Posts: 31, Visits: 0	+x Tim Dawson - 10/4/2022 9:09:40 AM Have you tried turning on the glide range ring when flying over land? It's the same calculation SkyDemon uses to indicate whether you could glide to an airfield, so it's useful if you think you might need to tweak the glide properties of your aircraft to make it more accurate. I have gliding range enabled, but in the Direct To popup that's not visible. If I need the glide distance, I'm probably not looking much at the Direct To, but maybe that would be useful when flying higher. I'm usally flying somewhat near-terrain VFR, so I imagine I'd use the glide range to help me find where to land if my engine is no longer functioning (or when crossing a large lake, that it'd be much better to climb). The "Direct To" would be for unhappy engine/passenger/weather, so in addition to the horizontal directions we now get, I think some vertical indications might help in deciding which field to choose, without trying them one by one and pointing the nose in that direction. My long trips are so rare, that I was usually able to examine the map long enough that I already had some ideas on where to divert to at each point in case of some obscured mountain passes.
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Tim Dawson	Tim Dawson posted 10/5/2022 8:49:17 AM Post Details Share Post
Group: Forum Members Posts: 7.8K, Visits: 8.4K	It's an interesting idea, but somewhat specialised. Obviously we don't do anything that addresses this at the moment, so would you like me to move this thread into the Suggestions forum so others can weigh in? We don't generally develop new features unless we can see a significant proportion of customers would benefit from them.
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chrisn	c chrisn posted 10/5/2022 9:05:41 AM Post Details Share Post
c Group: Forum Members Posts: 31, Visits: 0	+x Tim Dawson - 10/5/2022 8:49:17 AM It's an interesting idea, but somewhat specialised. Obviously we don't do anything that addresses this at the moment, so would you like me to move this thread into the Suggestions forum so others can weigh in? We don't generally develop new features unless we can see a significant proportion of customers would benefit from them. Yes, please do.
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