This was the kind of response I was hoping for ... I think people "use" RTMM in many different ways. With very little "restrictions" on what we do with the dispatcher's office, people can share "their way" of flying RTMM with others. Interesting, I ran into the same "mental restriction" on passengers with the Beaver ... it's a 4 seater, so dropping of passengers gets a little crowded ... but then you can pick some up too. But that crossed my mind as I was putting this one together. But also being able to start (using lat/lon moorings) anywhere can put us in an area that might be too long to fly to. The Fleet Parts Dock is a LONG way from anything, but there are several things to see in that direction. So it would be easy to start from the Parts Dock and fly around that area. As to passengers, or why we are doing the flight, maybe a storyline is not necessary? Or we could put it in a description, but not in the "ribbon".
I'm not sure I like the 'format' yet. The pdf works, but it seems cumbersome. Basically folks would download the pdf and print it (black & white). Seems like a lot of work for 20 "heading and distance" comments. I'm thinking of using the Trip Tic format so a person can bring it up and put it on the side of the screen, ... maybe more narrow to make it more like a ribbon. I wish I could get the Plan-G map to come up in its own little window ... watching the terrain gives you a clue as to how to navigate. Again, anyone with ideas in this area, let me know. I'm considering this a beta, just something to tweak and make better. Here's how I visualize the "Dispatch Ribbon". It would be in "html" so you'd bring it up like a web page by clicking on the dispatch number ... when it came up, you put it into a little narrow window beside your flight sim window ...
Dispatch #001
Misty's Place
Lat/Lon
Heading 054
Distance 3.6
Herring Bay
Heading 026
Distance 4.1
That's all the "width" we would need if we kept it simple. That would take up almost no room in its own window beside the flight sim window ... yet be right there for viewing. Of course, that is with no "map", which I'm thinking is "key" to this kind of flying.
I'm hoping folks will send me difficult little routes, and I'll put them "up" as we play with the format, etc. Again, all I need is the name of the location and the order in which they are flown. I'm hoping people don't just pick them at random, but actually pick them so we will see the "rest of the scenery" like you are commenting upon. Seeing what people are doing that they enjoy may give us clues to how to put this together better.
And, by the way, if someone wants to send in a route, just post it here under the dispatcher's office thread or you can drop me an email at
doug@jdlinn.com. Remember, with this idea, we do not have to start at an airport, you can start at any RTMM location in the Map Room ... all of them are there.
The part of the puzzle I'm working on now is the "narrowness" ... sounds easy, but what do we do about the map, which I think is key ... the "width" of the ribbon would have to be the width of the map. Unless we got the map to the kneeboard. So I'm looking into using the kneeboard ... no how to make that "easy?" Also maybe even a "new view" top down window would do the trick?
I see plenty of folks "looking" at our threads ... many of them don't post. I'm hoping that one or two of them might have some ideas and jump in here and help us "make" something.
D