So you're still reading this thread? OK, then here are some details. Ah, and an ASK too at the end
.
After running (and winning) the under-500 class at RCHN3 I also was bitten (at least a little) by the speed bug. I have not been very active in speed, but recently I started to build a dedicated bird, and I was thinking, how could I use GPS data to improve my performance, technique, as well as give me a fairly precise speed indication (that is, AVERAGE through the course, not max).
So, since I'm a software dev by treat, I spent some of my free time in the past 2 months with an application that can take GPS telemetry data and turn it into useful and visual, human-digestible form. What started as a simple little powershell script, grew into a more serious Windows app (sorry Mac guys
). And it's getting ready for mass-consumption!
This is what the app can do:
- Load GPS data. Since I'm using Spektrum (stop laughing) I only have my own Spektrum GPS files that I used to write one import plugin. This is where you guys come in, but more about that later.
- Filter/refine the data. I implemented a Kalman filter generally used in GPS applications, communications, space program and other areas for high quality filtering and data smoothing. The crappy Spektrum GPS data suddenly looks beautiful
. If you have a very reliable GPS data source, this can be turned off in settings.
- Find the flight location and get actual ground altitude data online from the Google Maps API to adjust the GPS' altitude readings. I found that the Spektrum altitude data can be off by 15-20 feet, so the program can recalculate the altitude data from matching the take-off altitude with that location's actual ground altitude. Neat stuff.
- Estimate/calculate (in general, just figure out) where the speed course is (of course, you need to set if you were trying to do long course or short course). If you do actual speed flying (not just messing around), from your flight pattern it's fairly simple to get a good estimated course (flight line, staging, actual course etc.
). This is where things get interesting! Look at the attached Google Earth shots, the course on the ground is drawn by my program. The green area is the 120m short course. The red area is the pre-staging.
- Now we have a course geometry and flight data, the program figures out where your individual left-right and right-left passes are in the GPS dataset.
- Now, let's calculate average and max speed for each pass within the course. These are the numbers after all that we are very much interested in (the faster you fly the more respect you have in the speed community right?
)
- The program also checks your altitudes to let you know if you were within the official altitude range.
- At the end, you can export it all into Google Earth and visualize your speed course on the ground, the individual passes, look at your speed and altitude analysis. Say with me, party time!
Cool, you're still with me? So why is this really exciting? Because, using the data and the Google Earth 3D images, you can:
- Work on making your passes straight and level
- Practice staying within altitude range through the entire course
- Move your turns just outside the staging area
- Most importantly know your average speeds across the entire course and the flight!
- And more...
And now my little ask. So it works for most, or ALL of us!