GEarth

Data and SFO Sectional may take time to load, depending on speed of your connection. The actual Symbolic Flight application does not suffer from this latency, since all chart and symbolic data are local. This is the main reason we do not offer this as an online service at this time.

Buttons toggle features. Click icons for more information

Keyboard and Mouse Controls:

Arrows slide terrrain [So does grabbing and dragging with mouse]. This does not change your alititude.

+ and - keys Zoom. [So does the mouse wheel.] If you're not level, this changes your altitude.

Ctrl + left or right arrows look around--like turning your head.

Shift + left or right Arrows fly around a central point--like a helicopter, always looking towards the center point.

Ctrl + up or down arrows tilt your viewpoint--like looking down or up.

Shift + up or down arrows tilt the terrain--as you would a plate.

Google Earth desktop is free. If you have not already tried it, you should first download and install the latest version. Make sure 'Terrain' and 'Weather' are checked: you'll see Nexrad radar and clouds covering the world in 3d, photo-realistically. Click the Sunlight button and it will be lit properly for the time of day and season. Google Earth's photo-realism and lighting were crucial to our choosing it as our visualization engine. Google Earth does not look like a flight simulator. It looks exactly 'like' what you would see out the window, because it is. Note: many people find maneuvering in Google Earth, or using its Flight Sim mode, daunting at first. Symbolic Flight makes learning that skill optional.