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alvaro
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+xWe show airfield elevation in the PLOG when you're flying to an airfield. Perhaps if you're flying to a different kind of waypoint we should show the terrain elevation at that location instead. Would that be useful? That would very useful, thank you. Right now I have to guess the elevation of the destination (not an airport) in the virtual radar window. Best regards. Alvaro
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Gax
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It could potentially be included alongside the recent addition of bearing and distance at the top of the "what's here" screen - That would be very useful. I look up spot elevations a lot, and is particularly useful in poor weather where you are restricted by the ceiling but want to know it you can clear a feature atva safe height
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Tim Dawson
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We show airfield elevation in the PLOG when you're flying to an airfield. Perhaps if you're flying to a different kind of waypoint we should show the terrain elevation at that location instead. Would that be useful?
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Gax
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Hi alvaro This thread is about the current elevation shown in-flight where altitude/height is shown in the data tape at the top of the screen, rather than spot elevation of a point on a map. That said, I have previously made a separate post on a topic closer to what you're asking for that you might want to take a look at and comment on. The software does actually provide spot elevation provided: a) you're on a tablet rather than a phone, and b) there's some form of airspace above (so unlikely to show up if you're doing rescue in places like northwest Scotland etc). I unfortunately never got a chance to get back to Tim re some layout suggestions, but that might be a good place to leave some thoughts: http://forums.skydemon.aero/Topic23406.aspx
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alvaro
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+xAn interesting idea. As far as I'm aware you're the only person to ask for this, which means it isn't likely we would add an ELEV option to that instrument any time soon. Have you considered flicking it to altitude then back to height? That would let you check that your GPS altitude is the same as (or near enough to) your pressure altitude, and it is, you then know you can trust the height figure. Hi all. Actually that’s not such a bad idea. It would be good to know the elevation of any random waypoints you place on the map. I’ll give you an example of why I need to know in my job the terrain elevation on the map. I work as a medical helicopter pilot (hems), and they call us to pick up an injured biker near the mountain. Before I get there I need to know the elevation of where he is, because that data will affect the performance of my helicopter drastically (Cat A or Cat B take off). If you could add a column in the PLOG with the selected waypoint elevation, it would be a huge improvement for helicopter operations.
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guille
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+x+xTrue, but that sounds like you want a feature only because your particular device isn't giving you a very good GPS altitude. Have you considered getting a device that gives you a better altitude? An external dedicated GPS would do so. Only precision WAAS/EGNOS capable GPS would give you sufficient accuracy for heights. Is there any external GPS for tablets certified WAAS7EGNOS? I somehow doubt. I think there are some good ones (Garmin Glo and others), even if not certified, but in any case, as most pilots fly using barometric altitude, having the elevation combined with the barometric altitude seems to me the best solution. And I think it could be really easy to implement.
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ckurz7000
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GPs derived altitude will always suffer variable errors. Accuracy in altidude is not as good as in lateral navigation. Therefore it is dangerous to rely on GPS altitude in mountainous terrain.
-- Chris.
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Tim Dawson
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True, but that sounds like you want a feature only because your particular device isn't giving you a very good GPS altitude. Have you considered getting a device that gives you a better altitude? An external dedicated GPS would do so.
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guille
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+xThere's more than one kind of terrain data. We use 30 arc second data which has been specially created from 3 arc second data in order to give the maximum terrain heights; this works well for calculating MSA and keeping you well clear of terrain when using the height function of the altitude readout. We also use 3 arc second data in SkyDemon when you've downloaded high resolution terrain data. This creates more precise terrain relief shading in the background and if it's available, the height reading will use that instead of the former values. Perhaps I am wrong, but the problem is the error for the altitude, compared to the one provided by a barometric altimeter. If I understand well, SD calculates Altitude minus Elevation for providing Height. Elevation measures are very good, the problem is with altitude. If we can have the elevation, a mental simple calculation could provide a very good estimation of height. I found sometimes differences of more than 200 ft between the figures provided by SD (ipad mini cellular) and the ones of the barometric altimeter. Anyway, it is just a suggestion, I believe it would be useful to have the elevation in the button of altitude/height. Even with the more precise high resolution terrain data, the error of the height measure will be originated by the altitude provided by the GPS-
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Tim Dawson
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Group: Forum Members
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There's more than one kind of terrain data. We use 30 arc second data which has been specially created from 3 arc second data in order to give the maximum terrain heights; this works well for calculating MSA and keeping you well clear of terrain when using the height function of the altitude readout. We also use 3 arc second data in SkyDemon when you've downloaded high resolution terrain data. This creates more precise terrain relief shading in the background and if it's available, the height reading will use that instead of the former values.
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