FalconView For General Aviation

This page contains hints on using FalconView for General Aviation. The first place to start is the Quick Start Guide. This page may be updated from time-to-time. See  this blog entry for where this is headed.

Downloading and Cataloging FAA / NACO Sectionals

Sectionals for FalconView are available from the Downloads tab above. Users will need to unpack the archive then add the map data to FalconView with the Map Data Manager. To do this, (1) open the MDM, (2) click on the Paths tab, (3) click on the "Add" button, (3) browse to the folder with the unpacked sectionals. You'll know you're at the right place when you see the "Map Data Found" indicator in the folder browser.

UPDATE!

The FAA has recently made sectionals available for download at  this link. These are not as high quality as the NGA sectionals, but they are up-to-date. Enjoy!

Loading Aeronautical Data as Shapefiles or KML

Aeronautical data may be loaded via the Shapefile overlay or by opening a KML (or KMZ) file. There is some useful FalconView compatible KML data available at  http://cw.sampas.net/kml/. I've placed some of this data for download at the bottom of this page. It should open in FalconView with no problems.

Using the Analysis Tool to Find Distance and Bearing

The analysis tool is the perfect tool for finding distance and initial bearing between places on a chart. It also shows the great-circle flight path between points. To use it, click on its icon in the toolbar and start experimenting with it. It's very easy.

Getting Elevation Data

FalconView can give you elevations at various points if you have DTED data cataloged. One source of public DTED is  http://eros.usgs.gov/products/elevation/srtmdted.php. Unfortunately, the process for viewing your DTED in FalconView may require some manual intervention. See OpenSourceQuickStart for a discussion of this process. (Hopefully we can get some utilities to help with this in the future.)

Aeronautical Data Needed

One of the nicest features removed from the open source version of FalconView was the support for Digital Aeronautical Flight Information Files (DAFIF). This was required because NGA no longer makes that data available to the general public.

If anyone can provide data on airports, navaids, waypoints and airspace in a standard GIS format, then I can probably make it available for FalconView. Thanks.

FalconView in the Cockpit

From RV-4 Pilot Gary Goebel:

In the past I used FV primarily for flight planning, and to digitize turn point lat long data. With the advent of free current sectional and terminal charts from the FAA, I decided to try and use it inflight with GPS input. After experimenting for several months, I finally came up with a cockpit set up that works for my RV4. The configuration is a Lenovo ideapad s10-3t tablet computer with Windows7, on a Ram mount and with a Globalsat bu353 GPS for NMEA input. Rather than the touchpad, a wireless mouse on my knee is used for inputs to FV. It works reasonably well, even in moderate turbulence – my fat finger doesn’t. It stows above the glove box when not in use. The following pictures show the layout:

I had originally tried to use the cockpit GPS196 for NMEA input to the tablet and FV, since a computer connection to the GPS196 is necessary when updating the database, but the serial to usb cable is intermittent and unsatisfactory, even when using the Garmin specific cable. The bu353 is the same size as a remote GPS antenna, automatically turns on and off with the tablet, and was half the price of the Garmin cable. Now I have two independent sources of GPS information in the cockpit, the GPS196 and the FV display on the tablet.