for $14 dollars you get a teraain profile radar gauge added to fsx .With this tool you can see any highground ahead relative to position of your plane.I do warn you though you need to tweak the setting file to tune the range and resolution that best fits your flying style. eg you need to see bigger area for jets, and smaller area for props etc.I have had the chance to try on one flight so far and it nice not to have to keep checking the spot view to see if you clear the mountains in your approach area.

Or just fly the published STAR or SID for free and that will keep you off the hillside, lol.Any noticable performance hit with it running?

I guess I've just been lucky, but ATC never has directly flown me into a mountain. There are times where ATC will instruct me to increase my altitude to clear them, but never have I've been directed right into them.

Many of the Terminal Transitions are already in the Approach portion of FSX if you use the actual approach plates. The airport utilility ADE9X will also update all the approaches in FS9/FSX so ATC will direct you to the entance point of the Transition at the proper approach plate altitude. ADE9X will also change the arrival path of all your AI planes so they do not fly through mountains when on approach.and ADE9X is free

Going into KPDX, I have been directed into the mountains by default ATC, but I never use default anymore. I usually use Aerosoft/OnCourse Software's ProFlight Emulator. It works real good and you can place your own altitudes into the flightplan per the MSA on the STAR.This ADE9X looks like an interesting free alternative too.The terrain profile gauge would be handy too. I guess it must be similar to what the radar would show on an airliner.Bob

I always look out the winders to see if there's any large green things coming up at me. :(

Look the the pictures of dbs studio profile radar in action to get a feel for the idea.[/url]http://www.dbsim.com/I dont use sid or star, even though i know the details of what they mean.But the fact is , if you dont use sid star, you on your own in mountanous area, no matter what ATC you using, cause atc does not know of mountain peaks.Without using sid star, the only other alternative is to use a terrain radar that shows you a box picture of the terrain ahead relative to your current altitude and heading.mine is set to three levels of zoom 5,25,50 miles and 2000, 5000, 10000 feet.The gauge only displays a 2D gragh of the terrian head based on your zoom setting. so no fps hit on my system.Using this guage , terrian clearance visibility is no longer an issue.It would have been better if the tool allows more than 3 preset zoom levels though.But beware that the tool is designed for tweakers, so if you dont like the defualt zoom , panel etc you will have to tweak the files that come with the product, there is no convinient option setting dialogue for the product, just display.xml file you edit.If you decide to go fot the product, send support email asking for the the guage that allows you to use the zoom buttons, and not the simply display that comes by default.Sid and star is nice idea, but it adds extra workload to my flight planning, so i fix that problem by using a profile radar.Its worth making the point that the gauge does not have an icon to indicate where your plane is relative to the terrian, the plane is always in the center of the gauge. If any high ground is close to the center of the gauge along xdistance axis or yaltitude axis that would be in obstacle in your flight path.If you wana go for this ask for the .cab file for gauge that has zoom buttons.adding this gauge to a plane involves using fsx menu item to add dbs profile radar to current plane.then you have to reload the plane for chnages to panel file to take effect. There is also a remove profile radar from current aircraft button. again it edits panel.cfg by itself.Neat product, fps friendly, but lacks a settings dialouge, so you have to tweak an xml file.Its was really designed for those who want to put a custom gauge over the code for the profile radar.So it comes with a very basic sample gauge that has only 3 zoom levels. Even though i can only control 3 zoom levels from vc , i can tweak the radar xml file to any 3 zoom distance and altitude values i want.

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