I have an exit profile database as a beta feature in BASEline, available to known jumpers (PM me).
However, I haven't made it publicly available because I can't verify all the data myself. I know that FlySafe and maybe now SkyDerby are making these available, but to me it seems risky to outsource that kind of decision making. The worst case scenario is that a laser measurement OVER estimates a start profile, and someone goes in because of it.
Then you can click the button to relocate track data
Choose your destination
And you'll get a google earth KML file that looks like:
Which shows where you would be able to fly assuming the same flight performance as the uploaded track. It does this by showing a cylindrical rotation of your track data, centered on the exit point. This shows what would happen if you flew in different directions from exit.
Love your work. Since we are on it, would you know a couple of google earth 'tricks' to work around a couple of relatively annoying issues? Got to say, those issues are not with your program which works beautifully, but with Google Earth itself.
Is it possible to copy the lat/lon from google earth to sort of copy and paste to bring the location into baseline, or is the only way to hover on GE, writing down in a piece of paper, and then type it in Baseline?
And is there a way to just drag the exit point in GE to finesse the location instead of having to write it all down again and go back to BL to do a new file?
Is it possible to copy the lat/lon from google earth to sort of copy and paste to bring the location into baseline, or is the only way to hover on GE, writing down in a piece of paper, and then type it in Baseline?
A little faster and without paper: Add new placemark in GE, copy coordinates to the basline-kmz-generator. To get decimal coords in GE: Tools>Options>3D View>Show Lat/Long Dragging and rotating in GE would be nice but I think it's not possible with GE.
@platypii 1. Is there a way to quickly quantify the margin? As in height over ground? Fastest way I've found so far is to create an elevation profile of the Flight Path got to 2D view and individually compare path altitude to ground-altitude.
2. Is there a way to straighten out a flight path and the solid of revolution (sombrero)?
(This post was edited by setarkos on Oct 16, 2018, 2:43 AM)
Yea I'll often add a placemark, and then read the coordinates from that. It also helps if you set the lat/long to display "decimal degrees".
As for the height, if you want exact info then you'll probably need to look at the Flight Profile chart on the website, and compare to a known laser measurement. If you want to just see roughly what it looks like versus google earth terrain (which is NOT always accurate), then the best way is to use the "Flight Height" that is included with generated googleearth files:
As for the height, if you want exact info then you'll probably need to look at the Flight Profile chart on the website, and compare to a known laser measurement. If you want to just see roughly what it looks like versus google earth terrain (which is NOT always accurate), then the best way is to use the "Flight Height" that is included with generated googleearth files:
Yeah, I saw that - was just wondering if you can get the actual height above ground at a given point. But you're right of course regarding the reliability of GE elevation data and hence quantifying it in such a way is misleading at best.
I love the feature though! It's great to just get a rough idea whether a given exit might go. To be confirmed by laser data of course.
It looks like the rotational surface that baseline produces for GE is the flight path rotated around the exit point, right?
Would it be possible to make a rotational surface of a hypothetical straight flight by taking elevation lost vs horizontal distance traveled similar to FlySafe?
I've been thinking about adding that as an option to the Flight Profile to "unroll" the track distance.
The reason I am hesistant, is that it will OVERestimate your real world performance. If you sum the total flight distance, measuring errors and slight deviations in flight path will cause the path to appear longer than what you could actually clear in reality. Doing the straight line "distance from exit" will never overestimate your performance, so it seems safer as a baseline.
I'd say you already have a slight underestimation since a non-straight flight path has performance losses due to flying turns already - so you still have a bias in the conservative direction. All other inaccuracies could go either way.
Yea I'll often add a placemark, and then read the coordinates from that. It also helps if you set the lat/long to display "decimal degrees".
As for the height, if you want exact info then you'll probably need to look at the Flight Profile chart on the website, and compare to a known laser measurement. If you want to just see roughly what it looks like versus google earth terrain (which is NOT always accurate), then the best way is to use the "Flight Height" that is included with generated googleearth files:
flight_profiles.png
