Baldrick: Navigation Kneeboard Generator

A tool for flight-simmers to turn a flight route in a CSV file into a set of kneeboard images containing:

• Leg Headings
• Timings for each leg
• Distances for each leg
• Speeds

A legend kneeboard card will also be included, along with an overview card of the entire route, and all of the above bundled into a zip file for easy sharing before a mission.

Usage

Route File

The route file is a CSV in the ./routes folder The tool will search for a map file that the starting coordinate of a route falls within. If such a map cannot be found the tool will give an error

The columns for each WP are:

• Waypoint Name - any text
• Latitude degrees component
• Latitude minutes component
• Latitude seconds component
• Longitude degrees component
• Longitude minutes component
• Longitude seconds component
• Notes for the leg. Leave empty for no notes. \n in the note will add a line break to let a note be spread over multiple lines
• Any additional tags for this waypoint

Tags for a waypoint can be:

• Some Positive Integer - Minimum terrain altitude for leg
• PUSH - marks the waypoint from which the ToT calculations will start. If not included the first WP will be used
• TGT - marks the waypoint as the target. This is what the time on target calculations will aimed to get to on time
• IP - marks the waypoint as the IP
• FIX - Navigation fix point - Automatically includes the coordinates for the fix in the notes for this leg's card
• MAGVAR*+/- some decimal* - e.g. MAGVAR-1.2 - The magnetic declination for this waypoint. The first of these tags will be used as the magnetic declination for the route. If not set will default to 0.0

Config.json

The tool has a number of default values that it uses for certain calculations. These values can be found in and changed in the config.json These values are:

• "metric": flags if the tool will read values in and out in metric instead of imperial
• "minCruiseSpeed": The minimum speed the ToT planner will allow a leg to be flown at
• "defaultCruiseSpeed": The default speed of legs if no ToT is specified
• "defaultDashSpeed": The speed that the IP to Target leg will be specified to be flown at
• "overviewCardDownsampleFactor": The amount the overview card will be downsampled in resolution. This option is intended to allow bundle sizes to be kept reasonable for broad routes
• "routeColour": The hex colour code that drawings on the map will be made in

Command Arguments

An example calling of the tool looks like ./baldrick test The arguments are:

• Route Name
• Optional: start time in hours:minutes:seconds
  • if not included defaults to 00:00:00
• Optional: ToT in hours:minutes:seconds
  • if not included defaults the speed to 430kts and sets leg times to hold that speed

If successful the tool will output the kneeboards in a folder with the same name as the route name specified