Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/5/84; site terak.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!mit-eddie!godot!harvard!seismo!hao!noao!terak!doug
From: doug@terak.UUCP (Doug Pardee)
Newsgroups: net.aviation
Subject: Re: aviation calculators
Message-ID: <215@terak.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 10-Dec-84 10:59:37 EST
Article-I.D.: terak.215
Posted: Mon Dec 10 10:59:37 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 13-Dec-84 02:14:00 EST
References: <128@anwar.UUCP> <208@terak.UUCP> <6436@brl-tgr.ARPA>
Distribution: net.general
Organization: Terak Corporation, Scottsdale, AZ, USA
Lines: 21

> I used a pocket TRASH-80 (which is unbearably slow) for
> a while.  In addition to being able to do rudimentary math, part of its
> programming was to use the spherical law of cosines to tell me how far
> apart two points were given their latitude and longitude.  Handy for
> getting rough distances between fields without unfolding a bunch of 
> charts.  Just look up the coordinates in the facilities directory.

You must not live in the West.  One doesn't fly a straight line
between two points out here.  If you try, you will a) pile into a
mountain, b) bust an Airport Traffic Area, c) bust a TCA, or
d) bust a restricted area.  And that's just during the climb-out!

AOPA keeps sending me literature on Flight Charts.  One of these
days they'll figure out that I've no use for charts where the
"airways" are computer-calculated as straight lines between
VOR's, and not based on the true airway alignment.  In addition,
VOR's out here tend to be affected by the mountainous terrain,
so the radial as computed by Flight Charts is often as much as
3 degrees off the airway as flight-tested by the FAA.

Doug Pardee -- Terak Corp. -- !{hao,ihnp4,decvax}!noao!terak!doug