By lhe - 11/26/2014 7:44:11 PM
Currently, SkyDemon computes the minimum safe altitude by checking for obstacles within a corridor on each side of each leg. This means that whenever the route makes a turn at a waypoint, there is a sector on the outside of the turn which is not checked for obstacles/terrain.
I don't know if this is the intended behaviour or not, but it would arguably be more useful if SkyDemon also checked this sector.
With the new SERA minimum altitude for night VFR being 1000 ft above the highest obstacle within 8 km of the (estimated) aircraft position, you would want to use SkyDemon to compute the minimum altitude. Currently, this is a problem not only at turning points but also at the beginning and end of the route as obstacles/terrain behind the first waypoint and after the final waypoint are also not considered.
The best solution would be if SkyDemon checked not only the "corridor", but also a (semi)circle around the beginning and end of each leg. That would solve both the turning point and the beginning/end problem.
I have checked this using SkyDemon 3.2.0 on a PC.
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By kholt - 11/28/2014 7:02:45 PM
The SERA-rule mentioned by lhe is very relevant if you want to use the new EIR, where you take of and land VFR. The transition point to and from IFR has to be at least 1000 ft above the highest point (terrain or obstacle) within a radius of 8 km.
I start training for the EIR next month and would like to continue using SD. But apart from this MSA issue, SD also has to unlock the flight rules part of the flight plan filing. For now, it only allows V(FR), where I will need to file a X-plan (VFR-IFR-VFR).
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