Google Earth - A Great Pre-Flight Tool

When was the last time you flew to a new airport? In preparing for that flight you obviously reviewed your flight with the use of a sectional chart. You probably also reviewed information about your destination airport in your FAA Airport/Facility Directory. But, you still really don't know what to expect upon when you began to arrive at the new airport.

Google has launched a beta product called Google Earth which can be downloaded for free and can be a nice aid to pilots. The program lets you fly around a 3D globe, with overhead satellite photos, tilted 45-degree photos, 3D rendered buildings, and overlays that display everything from roads to hotels to bike routes. One caution is that most of the images are several years old so they may not be very accurate. But, since the images are old I was able to see a satellite view of Meigs field. Google Earth added in the buildings so I could have visualized what it would be like to fly into Meigs field.