Addon Airport Map

[Demious 23]

I wasnt sure about which topic to post this question in, but since it's closely related to flight planning, I think this would be the best forum for it.

 

As I'm from the Netherlands north-west Europe is a bit of a 'comfort zone' when it comes to where all my addon airports exactly are and I know the location and the name and I can make my flight plans almost blindfolded. But I'd love to expand my comfort zone and fly in areas where I'm not that familiar with where every addon airport is located, or when I'm at one of my addons, what the next addon airport will be, that the time spend on planning (looking through the list of addons, comparing it with plan-G/Skyvector, seeing I need something in between, back to the list, back to plan-G, etc, etc) before I come up with a nice flight which takes me from addon to addon, that I spend more time planning than flying.

 

Now what I would like is a big empty map, that is large enough to zoom in on detailed areas, without everything getting blurry or messy, where I can add locations and names of the addon airports I've collected, so I've got an overview of where to go next without wasting time of constantly comparing lists of names with maps that are crowded with symbols and markings, back and forth.

 

I already tried this in plan-G, but with all the other symbols and markings on the map, it still gets very messy and unpractical. I also tried to find an empty map that is large enough to zoom in on and still get enough detail to work with, but all I find are maps with like 1500x800pixels, or so, which get all blurry when zoomed in on.

 

Does anyone know about a program that provides an empty map meant to add... Well, any information I'd like to add on the map? Or is there a place where I can find a proper empty map, large enough to zoom in on that still provides proper detail to work with? Something that could be printed as a 4x5foot poster I can hang on the wall next to my sim, to give an indication.

[FloG 148]

I'm not sure if Google Earth suits your wishes, but something I've tried to do a few years back was creating a *.kml file where I entered the location of all my addons. However, I gave up pretty quickly, because it was incredibly difficult to keep track of all the addons I have collected over time (in articular the freeware ones).

It worked pretty well with the airports I had entered there already, and it's easy to make a first guess on how long a flight is going to take, and which airports might be in reach as well. Don't know how about printing something from Google Earth, though.

[Demious 23]

The maps of google earth are great, but I've been looking at it, but I cant find a way to mark it permanently. If that kind of programs are customizable already, it's saved into the browser and disappears with a reinstall. It would be great if there would be a downloadable version you can install on your computer that makes files you can save.

 

Where are the good old days where we could just walk into a bookstore or even a gas station and buy a piece of paper with a printed map on it?

[FloG 148]

 

 

Where are the good old days where we could just walk into a bookstore or even a gas station and buy a piece of paper with a printed map on it?

Those are still available, at least here in under-developed Austria , but I guess it's hard to get one showing all the area you want covered.

 

Are you sure that you are talking about Google Earth, btw? Unlike Google Maps, you can download that, mark locations and save them as KMZ or KML files (standard location is C:\Users\<You>\Documents). Works fine for me.

[Demious 23]

You're absolutely right, I was talking about google maps, indeed. I found what you mean and I'm looking at how to make KML files now. Indeed a lot of work, but I get what I want!

 

I can find some websites with oldschool roadmaps, but all for smaller areas, but over here, at least in my town, no one sells old fashioned maps anymore. And no one knows who does, either.

But I'm on my way now, so even if it is a lot of work, I can add a small area, fly some and move on, or I'll add one at a time for every airport I fly to. That takes 2 minutes per airport and my map can grow over time.

Thanks for the tip, Florian.

[FloG 148]

You're very welcome, Maarten.

I bet it would be hard to find such large-scale maps you probably need anywhere (after all, they need to cover a rather large area while shoing enough detail to possibly show a whole lot of airports quite close to each other), but I just had another idea: Perhaps an atlas might be a nice substitute?