Flight Practice using Google Earth (tilt, rotate, and zoom)

[Barb-SAN]

I was wondering how many folks here have been playing around with Google Earth?

For those who don't know, there is a free download here:
http://earth.google.com/. I think it works best if you have a high speed connection. Has anyone gotten the version that costs $20, or $400?

I've only used the free one, but really like the TILT, ROTATE, and ZOOM functions. It's another way to experience "flight" from the comfort of home. You can also choose what features you want named in your google map (e.g. roads, airports, etc). I like to find my local airport, and taxi myself right out on the runway, (rotating and tilting the google map as necessary to simulate the pilot's view out of the cockpit), then "take-off", and fly around over the city and see how things look from different altitudes, see what I can identify, etc. It's sort of like a flight simulator, except you're not in any plane! I've found it useful for trying to identify landmarks from my aerial photos too. I look for a Google Earth view that matches the photo, and then see what's what.

It's also the easiest way to climb Mt. Everest and roam the streets of Paris all in the same day.:lol:

Barb-SAN

[EyesSkyward]

I was wondering how many folks here have been playing around with Google Earth?

I have, ever since they came out with the Mac version. It's pretty cool.

It's also the easiest way to climb Mt. Everest and roam the streets of Paris all in the same day.

But not the only way. I suppose you could always get the "park hopper" option at Disneyworld and hit both Animal Kingdom (Expedition Everest ride) and EPCOT (French section) in one day. :cool:

- Jeff

[Barb-SAN]

But not the only way. I suppose you could always get the "park hopper" option at Disneyworld and hit both Animal Kingdom (Expedition Everest ride) and EPCOT (French section) in one day. :cool:

- Jeff


Em....Jeff, do you suppose you could do that (Disneyworld) in Google Earth and post a screen shot? (I still haven't figured out that trick...got my Southpark character into Word, but couldn't figure out how to trim it and make it a jpeg). I'd like to show people how it looks "tilted", since that's a step above the satellite maps people were looking at to find their own houses on "Make your mark". :cool:

Barb-SAN

[Barb-SAN]

I got as far as taking a screen shot of an overview of Disney World (tilted) and imported it into MS Word. Couldn't figure out how to trim it. Then I tried to upload it as an attachment (Word Document) to the forum, but it said that the size was too large...it would only accept 19. KB, and the file was 665 KB. So...guess that if anyone wants to see it....you'll need to fly yourself there! (Unless someone else knows how to make it a smaller file).

Barb-SAN

[Barb-SAN]

:) :) http://www.takingflight.us/gallery/albums/userpics/10042/normal_DSCN9159E.jpg (http://javascript<b></b>:;)

Well....I'm still trying to figure out how to post pictures. I put this one in the gallery...I thought I put it in "destinations", but it showed up in "aircraft photos". So, then I copied it from the gallery, and pasted it here (since when I tried to upload directly to the forum before, it said the size limit was 19KB. This is a photograph of a "tilted" Google Earth map of San Diego's International Airport on my computer screen (since I couldn't figure out the "screen capture" process!).

For those who are unfamiliar with this program, you can see all the controls for the map directly below the picture. In the center the arrows control the map moving up, down, right, left. The circular arrows rotate the map. The slider on the left controls the zoom, the slider on the right controls the tilt. It's interesting to see perspectives of familiar places from a bird's eye view.

At the top of the left side of the page is a space to type in the address you want to find (a street address, or a city, state, country, etc). You can specify how much detail you want in your map further down on the left hand side. Enjoy....

Barb-SAN

[Barb-SAN]

http://www.takingflight.us/gallery/albums/userpics/10042/normal_DSCN9161E.jpg (http://javascript<b></b>:;)

Here's another Google Earth shot...coming in for a landing at San Diego International Airport, zoomed in closer than the previous photo, and tilted a bit more.

[Jeff California]

I am divorcing Andrea and marrying google earth.

[scaredy_cat]

I am divorcing Andrea and marrying google earth.


:lol: :lol: :lol:

I have it, just haven't figured out how to make it work yet!

[Barb-SAN]

I am divorcing Andrea and marrying google earth.

:rotflmao: :rotflmao: :rotflmao:

[Barb-SAN]

Note also that there is a little compass in the lower left corner of your map, so you always know your orientation (as you rotate the map, and study your destination from different directions). There are also the latitude and longitude coordinates listed (GPS fans?), the elevation above sea level, and the "eye altitude" in the lower right corner. So, if you want to see what your house looks like from 2,500 ft, approaching from the southwest, you can manipulate your map until you get that view.

I wish this had been available when I was a kid studying geography!:cool:

Barb-SAN

P.S. Looking at my "landing" photo of San Diego's airport....it might be a "go-around", as the "eye altitude" is 517+ feet....not sure if the jets would drop down fast enough or not. But this was the tilt angle that made the best photo.

[Barb-SAN]

:lol: :lol: :lol:

I have it, just haven't figured out how to make it work yet!

Paula, Where are you confused? I posted some tips...but if that's not enough...ask away...maybe I or someone else will know the answer. I'm not sure if the program works with all versions of Windows...I have Windows 2000 and cable (high speed) connection. It still takes a little while to "build" your map...the details become sharper in a minute or so as they stream in. I believe there are specifications listed on the download page for what you need in your computer system to run the program.

Barb-SAN

[scaredy_cat]

Ok, I got it to work yay! I don't have a photo program on this computer at work though, so can't save it to show you :shakehead

It did show my house, but the marker was over the house on the corner, when mine is in the middle of the block, so that was a bit off, but its amazing the detail it shows!

[Barb-SAN]

Yay, Paula!

Yes, I've found some errors also in addresses of houses. I wonder where they get the information in the first place about which house is which number.

I found the easiest way to get a photo from Google Earth to post here is to take a picture of the computer screen with a digital camera. You have to turn off the flash first, then hold the camera VERY steady, as it will be a slow shutter speed and will blur otherwise. I set my camera to "close-up" mode.

If anyone can suggest another way of doing this....please post it!

Barb-SAN

[scaredy_cat]

I did a print screen which copied the whole google earth program including the picture. If I had photoshop or something similar I could just crop the picture to show the part I wanted. They just don't put "fun" programs on work computers unfortunately! :lol:

[Barb-SAN]

Thanks, Paula. I have Photoshop Elements, but haven't installed it yet. I have a number of simpler photo programs which have been adequate for my needs....but didn't seem to work for this particular function. So I guess it's time to get out the manual and get that program on board!
Barb-SAN

[scaredy_cat]

Any photo program that will let you create a new document, rather than just viewing and editing will work. You just need a blank page to paste the 'print screen' into. Also, if you hold Alt + print screen button, it will only copy the active program (google earth) rather than the whole screen.

I need to install google earth at home, then I can make it work!

[Barb-SAN]

Hurray....It worked! Thanks Paula for the tips....I didn't know about the Alt + Print Screen. I used Microsoft Picture It. The steps I used are the following...in case anyone else has that program:

1.)Get the desired picture in Google Earth (in this case, touching down on the runway at San Diego Intl. Airport).
2.) Alt + Print Screen (nothing visible will happen)
3.) Open Microsoft Picture It
4.) Create a Project
5.) Flyer (this gives a blank full size sheet of paper)
6.) Rt. click the mouse, and "paste"
7.) The Google Earth screen appears on the blank page
8.) Crop the picture (see Jeff's post below on how to crop, dragging mouse to make a "box")
9.) Save Special (web-ready picture). It will only save what's inside the "box". I made this a small, 25kb picture.
10.) Name the file as a jpg. and save it to a folder
11.) Go to Taking Flight, start a post, go to "additional options, manage attachments", browse, find the file in its folder on your hard drive, and upload it.

[Barb-SAN]

Well, I hope this helps someone else figure out how to do this too! Now I see that the acceptable size for a photo attachment is larger than for a document. Photos have a limit of 97Kb in the forum. In MS Picture It, you can reduce the size of the image when you "save, special" and then go to "make a web-ready picture".

This is a Google Earth photo of Mission Beach and Mission Bay (from 7,531 ft.), with the SD airport up in the right hand corner. Perhaps Sean will recognize where he stayed on one of his trips to San Diego?:)

Barb-SAN

[EyesSkyward]

If I had photoshop or something similar I could just crop the picture to show the part I wanted.

Do you have Paint? It'll work for that. Check your Start menu (Programs->Accessories...)

If you don't have it, kindly disregard this post. Otherwise...

Hit the "Print Screen" key mentioned earlier in this thread. You'd think this would do just what it says, and your screen would print out from the nearest printer, right?

Nope.

Actually, nothing obvious will happen. But secretly, your computer has actually put a picture of your screen on the "clipboard". The clipboard is an invisible holding area for things that you copy and paste. No, I'm not making this up. Trust me, it's there. As you'll see in a moment.

(And they wonder why people have a hard time with computers...)

Anyway, fire up Paint. It will show you a blank, white document. So far so good.

The Paste command always plops in a copy of whatever is on your clipboard. Your screen capture is (theoretically) on your clipboard. So...

Paste in your picture using your favorite method. You can right-click the mouse and choose Paste. Or you can go to your Edit menu and choose Paste. Or (my favorite) you can just type Ctrl + V. (Why "V"? There's a good reason, but that's a story for another time...)

Bingo! There's your picture. (Hopefully.)If your blank, white document was not big enough to hold it, it will expand to make room.

Okay, now you want to click the "select" button on the toolbar of buttons along the left side of the screen. It has a dotted-line rectangle on it. This will turn your cursor from a mild-mannered pointer to a cross-hair lookin' thing.

Use this cross-hair to select the portion of your image that you want to keep. In other words, click and drag to make a box. That box is your selection. If you screw up, just click and drag again, making a new box.

Now copy the contents of your box onto the mythical, invisible clipboard using the (you guessed it) "copy" command. Again, there are several ways. Right-click. Go to the "Edit" menu, or type Ctrl + C.

We're in the homestretch now.

Go to your "File" menu and choose "New". It will probably ask if you want to save changes, which you don't, so click on "no".

Now you have a blank, white document. Again. Nothing new here.

Except you'll want to resize that document to be pretty small. Grab the lower-right corner and drag it up and to the left. Make the document real small. Like a quarter-inch by a quarter-inch. This will keep you from having blank white space around your final image.

Again, do a Paste using your favorite method. Only this time, the clipboard contains not the whole screen capture, but only the part you selected and copied just a moment before. So that's what will get "plopped" in.

Ta-da!

Now just go to your File menu and choose "Save As...". Make sure you set your "Save As Type" thingy to "JPEG". Save you new, fancy picture somewhere on your computer and remember exactly where you put it (otherwise you won't be able to find it and stick in on your post here!)

And if that doesn't work, get a Mac. :duck:

- Jeff

[scaredy_cat]

Ok here goes....

If this works, this is "my" airport (RIC) that I've never actually flown in or out of, but its where I live, lol.

[Agne]

BLQ, Bologna: where all my trips start. :cool:

[Barb-SAN]

Thanks, Jeff, for that tutorial on "Paint". I didn't realize I had that program.:blush: So....everyone with Windows 2000 should have it, right? I ran into one problem, when I tried to make the box small, and then paste, I got a message saying that it was too small, did I want to make it larger? I said yes...but then the resulting photo file was 112 Kb. Since the limit for photos in the forum is 97kb, I still had to go to MS Picture It to make a smaller photo (save special, web photo). Any suggestions? Or, Paula & Agne, what did you do to get your photos uploaded? Yours are larger than mine....

Anyway....this is a Google Earth photo of Montgomery Field, which is the primary General Aviation airport for San Diego, and where I take my Cessna lessons. There is a nice Mexican restaurant which overlooks the airport where you can sit and watch the planes taking off and landing.:cool:

Barb-SAN

Montgomery Field: http://www.airnav.com/airport/KMYF

[scaredy_cat]

Barb -

Not sure what I did... I just copied the photo into Paint like he said and I had no problems uploading it. I wasn't able to do anything with the size or I would have made it a bit smaller but it seemed to work.

[EyesSkyward]

The beta of Google Earth version 4 was announced today and is available for download!

Announcement (http://earth.google.com/earth4.html)

Among the improvements are texture-mapped buildings (in cities where you actually get 3D buildings) and support for foreign languages (come l'italiano!)

- Jeff

[Barb-SAN]

Jeff....It's been duly downloaded....thanks for the info!:cool: I don't notice much change in the imagery...but the navigation tools have changed. At this point the 3-D buildings in downtown San Diego are still just box-like.
Barb-SAN

[Barb-SAN]

O.K., Here's another San Diego view....overflying San Diego Intl. Airport (which we can do in the Cessnas), heading towards downtown. I did this using "Paint" per Jeff's instructions, except for the last part. I just made the original map about the size I wanted it to appear in the forum (by sizing the on-screen window), and that seems to have worked. Trying to paste into a "tiny" box just resulted in the message that the box was too small, and did I want to make it bigger. I said "yes", then saved the result to my hard drive, and uploaded it here.

Anyone else want to post their airport pictures?:)

Barb-SAN

P.S. You can see the new navigation tools in the upper right corner (tilt, rotate, zoom).

San Diego International Airport (Lindbergh Field): http://www.airnav.com/airport/KSAN

[EyesSkyward]

Um, er... anybody notice the "Save Image" command that's been right there in Google Earth this whole time? :banghead:

So forget everything about making screen captures and pasting and cropping and folding and mutilating and spindling.

Just get the image the size you want by resizing the Google Earth window. Then go to File->Save Image.

That's it. :cool: Well, you might have to fool with it in a separate image-editing program to get the file size down enough to post. Still...

- Jeff

P.S. Here's a shot of Kentucky's Rough River State Park (http://parks.ky.gov/resortparks/rr/index.htm). There's an airport (http://www.airnav.com/airport/2I3) right there on site that I've flow to a couple of times. Google doesn't have very sharp satellite imagery of this part of the world, but the runway is that blurry grey straight thing, running parallel to highway 79.

[EyesSkyward]

And here's one of my "home" airport, John C. Tune (http://www.airnav.com/airport/KJWN).

The runway isn't called 19/1 anymore. It got changed to 20/2 last year, and the numbers were repainted.

And the hills around it really aren't that bad. I've got "Elevation Exaggeration" set to 2.0 to make it look cooler.

- Jeff

[Barb-SAN]

Um, er... anybody notice the "Save Image" command that's been right there in Google Earth this whole time? :banghead: - Jeff

:lol: :lol: :lol:

Oh well...and to think I've been printing out Google Earth images for awhile too, to take in the plane to help find landmarks and friends' houses when flying. It hadn't occurred to me to use the same menu for saving the images to my hard drive as I had for printing them. DUH....:blush::blush:

Looks like some beautiful scenery you have there to fly over, Jeff!

Barb-SAN

O.K....All the rest of you out there....no excuses now for not posting Google Earth photos of your airports!!;)


Added 6/13/06....Jeff & Paula...I still appreciated learning how to do those tricks with the screen shots & how to use Paint. And, I did want to do a full screen shot on my first post, to show the program controls as well as the google earth photo, for people who had not yet used the program. I didn't discover the tilt feature myself until fairly recently, and that's what lets you simulate the views you would see from a plane.

[bw89]

Well now, you can do it for real (http://digg.com/software/Google_Earth_Flight_Simulator_2) :D

[Barb-SAN]

Well now, you can do it for real (http://digg.com/software/Google_Earth_Flight_Simulator_2) :D

Great find, bw89! I'll have to check it out. Here's a YouTube video that explains how to use the simulator: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7z6Yxs69rQ

It's funny to read that thread from the past...when I was trying to figure out how to do screen shots...and figured the most efficient way was to take pictures of the monitor with my digital camera...:rolleyes:. O.K....hope it was a good review for everyone who is still wondering how to do screen shots, and post them. No excuses now....;)