Google Earth: Flight Simulator GPS Arrow
Behold a new network link from nearby.org.uk:
Once you have chosen a destination point, a small arrow will be shown in the bottom right of your Google Earth window, which points towards your destination! Ideal for use in the flight simulator, where you can play follow the arrow.
Note it only updates every 5 seconds, and comes with all sorts of disclaimers such as don’t use in life or death situations.
July 26th, 2008 at 10:07 pm
A cool addition to this (IF there is interest) would be to be able to define multiple destinations; thereby when reach the first point (say within 0.5km) it jumps to directing you to the next, and the sequence repeats until finished
July 27th, 2008 at 11:56 am
Nice work Barry! One nice thing would be to do an airport identifier lookup (I think there are some public domain databases for ICAO airport identifiers -Google “Airport lookup”). That should be fairly easy and would greatly enhance its utility for the Flight Simulator.
Once you start that, I think you’re well on your way to adding GPS capability to the Flight Simulator. Just add a few other things like an interface to enter a flight plan (you would need navaid lookups for coordinates), distance calculator, and then figure out a way to show a chart plotter (maybe use Google Maps in a placemark window?).
July 27th, 2008 at 3:12 pm
@Frank, I’ve heard that the Google Maps Geocoder used on the page already supports the 4 letter, ICAO identifiers
Will add a note to the page
July 27th, 2008 at 3:32 pm
[...] someone mention a chart plotter? If so have a look-see: Google Earth: Map [...]
September 5th, 2008 at 12:15 am
Flying at 10,000 feet (over YVR) the arrow seems to point the wrong way!
September 8th, 2008 at 10:04 am
I thought had added a note that doesnt work at high altitude.
I think its because the distance between the ‘groundpoint’ being looked ‘at’ is a long way from the camera….