Welcome to the Mooney Caravan Simulation System

In a desire to making the Mooney Caravan to Oshkosh both safer and more enjoyable, we have created this web application which allows you to graphically see all of the arrivals and departure and then through the magic of Microsoft's Visual Earth, fly your selected caravan route on your computer. It should be noted up front that while the basic route awareness features area available on all browsers, the 3D flying simulation has only been tested on Internet Explorer and Firefox. At this time, Microsoft has not published a 3D module for the Mac OS, so features requiring 3D capabilities will not be availalbe on the Mac.

When the web page starts, you are presented with a view of the MSN airport with a highlighted route emanating off of the MSN 03 runway. You can pan the map by placing your mouse over the map, holding down the left mouse button and then dragging the map to where you want it. You can zoom the map in or out using your mouse's scroll wheel or the controls found on the left side of the map.

At the top of the map, you will find 4 sections. At this point, we are going to concentrate on the left two sections: "Select Departure:" and "Select Arrival:". As the title implies, you can choose your desired departure and arrival by clicking the 'radio-button' to the left of the desired departure or arrival. The path shown on the map will change to show your selected departures and arrivals.

The fun part of this web page is the 3D simulated flying of your selected route.

While the basic graphical overview should be instantly available for everyone and work on most browsers, the 3D simulation requires the 3D version of Microsoft's Virtual Earth. This is a FREE download and you will automatically be asked if you want to install the 3D version. See the notes on this in the Loading the Free Microsoft Virtual Earth 3D Application section below.

The first step in running the simulation is to select the desired departure and arrival. To initialize the simulation to the beginning of the selected route, press the "Initialize" button. If do not have the 3D version of Virtual Earth installed, you will be notified to load the 3D version and given an opportunity to be directed to a link which will install it for you.

Pressing the "Initialize" button will orient the screen so that you are looking at the point where you will release your brakes to start your flight. To "fly" to the next waypoint, hit click the "Fly To Next" button. A typical flight will take you through the following points:

• Start
• Rotate
• Initial Turn and possible second turn over 87Y, based on selected departure
• The MERGE waypoint which is common to all departures
• Either the EARLY, TURNN or LATE waypoint (depending on the selected arrival) where you will turn north.
• A segment to take you to the runway Final Location and touchdown point with an optional base leg depending on the approach.

You can select a different approach or departure at any time and initiate that by selecting the "Initialize" button. If you change the selected departure or arrival and do not click "Initialize", while the path indicators will change, you will continue to fly your previously select routing.

While you are in the process of running a simulation, you will notice that any changes to the map (zoom, heading, location, etc.) will be automatically reset when you let go of the mouse, making it difficult to look around. Clicking the "Suspend" button allows you to pause the simulation and look around. The simulation will continue to the next point the next time you click on the "Fly to Next" button.

While you are flying the simulation, you can observe your current waypoint, your next waypoint and the heading to the next waypoint in the 4th box at the top right.

I have reviewed the flight paths with our fearless Flight Leader and they are depicted with a reasonable degree of accuracy. We took care in the placements of the north bound segments to runways 18 and 27 to position us at the appropriate distance east of OSH. Likewise, the base leg to runway 18 specifically keeps us south of 9/27 and over the closed crisscross runways north of 18/36. Note also that we show approaches for 18L and 18R.

There are two other controls located in the simulation .

• The one marked "Air Path" toggles the red path line. The red path line is the same as the yellow path line with the exception that the yellow path line is located on the ground and the red one follows the vertical profile.
• The one marked "Road Names" toggles the display of highway names and other ground markers.

As mentioned above, the flying simulation portions of this web page are only available with the 3D version of Microsoft Virtual Earth. This is a free download that is highly recommended; however at this point, it is only available for the PC and not the Mac. I have tested it on IE 7 and Firefox 3.0.

If you do not have the 3D version loaded, you will receive a pop-up window when you start the page; however most people will not see this due to pop-up blockers.  On IE, you can right click the alert bar at the top of the browser and temporarily allow pop-ups at which time you will be presented with a request to load the 3D version.

Likewise, should you press the "Initialize" button to start the simulation and either have selected 2D mode on the map controls or not have the 3D version loaded, you will be alerted to the need for the 3D version. Press "OK" to automatically be redirected to the installation page for Virtual Earth 3D or hit "Cancel" to return to the webpage, staying in 2D mode and not being able to fly the simulation.

You can load the 3D version right know by clicking http://maps.live.com/Help/VE3DInstall/Default.aspx?action=install.

The installation of Virtual Earth 3D should be reasonably painless unless you are on a very slow computer or very slow Internet connection. The installation will go a little faster on Vista based computer as it appears to load some prerequisites on XP based systems. In any case, the process will typically only take a couple of minutes under Vista and 5 minutes under Windows XP.

Be careful at the end of the installation to UNCHECK Microsoft's attempt to change your browser's start page and search default.

While you should not have to reboot your computer or even your browser, you will have to reload the simulation page after Virtual Earth 3D is loaded.

Please give this application a try and let me know what you think. Send me your suggestions to Scott Cutler (cutler_at_alum.mit.edu) for inclusion in the version for next year.