Last weekend I went flying from Værnes (IATA code TRD) to Molde (MOL), and back again.
Thanks to my up-and-coming Pilot-buddy Marius, I have the opportunity to go flying nearly as frequent as I wish. But not just that – I even get to maneuver the plane! Great fun 
Cessna 172N Skyhawk 100 II (LN-HOF, Værnes Flyklubb)
Having to assist in managing the plane, taking pictures, and even using my Garmin-software to find out where we actually are flying, I want logs from it all.
To begin with, I usually use Nokia Sports Tracker to log flying, cycling, walking etc… It’s simple to start, have frequent logging-intervals (can be adjusted) and is real easy to upload to the Nokia website, just like this one.
On this trip to Molde, I had to use Garmin to navigate using topographic maps. As my mobile can’t use the GPS-unit at the same time with two different applications, I had to use Garmin to log the rest of the trip.
Back at my flat, I went uploading the photos from my camera to the computer, and geotagging them afterwords – a simple workflow using the exported GPX-logfile from my mobile-phone, and an awesome, free application called GPicSync.
(Norwegian? Please check out eirikso‘s excellent guide for geotagging at NRKBeta)
GPicSync screendump
Using GPicSync is real simple, so I won’t go into details on that (but please, ask if there’s anything).
But, back to the log-files. As I used Garmin, I didn’t have a GPX-output file from Garmin at hand. I had to use Garmins MapSource, import the log from the phone and convert it to the GPX-format.
Now, finally I had the whole log in GPX, so I had to run GPicSync two times, using both GPX-files.
Enough about geotagging for now.
Now I wanted to show my trusted pilot how we actually flew in the air.
Google Earth is an excellent tool for viewing the actual flight-path.
All you need is the GPS-logfiles (preferably GPX), and GPSBabel – another great application for converting between almost every log-format there is.
In GPSBabelGUI.exe you have to choose your input format: GPX XML (.gpx).
Output has to be .KML (Google Earth), and since this is a flightlog, I want absolute values, and a extrusion line from the trackpoint to the ground. To be exact: extrude=1,floating=1
GPSBabel screendump
With everything converted to Google Earth KML, it looks something like this:
Google Earth flightlog /w absolute values + trackpoints drawn to the ground
On top of this, you could include the auto-created KML-log from GPicSync and render your geotagged images on top of the flightlog.
As a part of my GPS-logging -page I’m trying to share my experiences regarding GPS-usage without having to buy expensive equipment.
Some pictures from my second-to-last flight:
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