GoogleGeorge
Autopilot for Google Earth Flight Simulator

GoogleGeorge is an autopilot that flies the Google Earth Flight Simulator. It's a free Windows program. It was designed for Windows XP, but it should also run under later versions of Windows, including Windows 10.

• Downloading
• Running
• Normal view
• Controlling GoogleGeorge
• Plane position
• Flying a circuit
• Following a Flight Plan
• Creating a Flight Plan
• Flight Plan dialog box
• Menu options
• Warnings dialog
• Diagnostic view
• Notes
• Release history
• Acknowledgements
• Links

GoogleGeorge provides automatic control of the following flight parameters:

• Speed
• Heading
• Altitude
• Vertical speed

• Navigation to Waypoints, and Flight plan
• Glideslope and Instrument landing system
• Ground hugging (not Windows 10)
• Landing at a specified location (eg. an airport runway)

Downloading

• Download Google Earth
• Download GoogleGeorge (32-bit or 64-bit)

Running

• Run Google Earth.
• If you haven't done so already, configure the font size in Google Earth (you only need to do this once):
  • Click on "Tools" in the menu bar.
  • Click on "Options" in the drop-down menu - this opens the Google Earth Options dialog box.
  • Click on the "3D View" tab.
  • Click on the "Choose 3D Font" button - this opens the Select Font dialog box.
  • Click on font "Arial", style "Normal", size 12, writing system "Any", do not check "Strikeout" or "Underline".
  • Click on "OK" to close the Select Font dialog box.
  • Click on "OK" to close the Google Earth Options dialog box.
• To enter the flight simulator, choose "Enter Flight Simulator" from the Tools menu, or press Ctrl+Alt+A.
• In the Flight Simulator dialog box, choose your aircraft and your starting point, then click "Start Flight".
• Run GoogleGeorge.

  
  Click to enlarge

  GoogleGeorge is the small window to the bottom right. See Normal view.

Normal view

This is GoogleGeorge's normal view. It has the following controls:

• The 4 controllable flight parameters, each with up/down arrows to set the target value, and a toggle button to control that parameter when pressed:
  • Speed, in knots
  • Heading, in degrees clockwise from North
  • Altitude, in feet (above sea level)
  • Vertical speed, in feet per minute
• ENGAGE toggle button – enables the autopilot when pressed
• Circuit toggle button – see Flying a circuit
• A slider controlling the transparency of the window
• Outer, middle, and inner markers, which light up as they are encountered
• A warning triangle appears when there's a problem - click it to see what the problems are

Controlling GoogleGeorge

• Choose the target Speed, Heading, and Altitude or Vertical speed (the last two are mutually exclusive). Type numbers into the fields, or use the up/down arrows or the mouse scroll wheel.
• Press the button for each flight parameter to be controlled.
• Press the ENGAGE button.
• As an example, when you enter the Flight Simulator, choose the SR22 airplane, and New York (KJFK) Runway 13R. Then run GoogleGeorge, set the Speed to 150, the Heading to 121, and the Altitude to 1000. Press the SPEED, HEADING and ALTITUDE buttons, then press ENGAGE. The plane accelerates, at about 110 knots it takes off, gains height, and levels off at 1000 feet, flying at 150 knots on a heading of 121.
• Make sure that the mouse cursor is an arrow while it's over the Google Earth window. If it's a cross then you will be controlling the joystick as you move the mouse around – left-click once (or possibly more times) to turn it from a cross into an arrow.
• Adjust the target values, press buttons to control different flight parameters, as required.

Plane position

So if you're using Google Earth version 7.3.3 or later, you need to create a KML file and open it in Google Earth. The instructions below tell you how to do this:

• Right click here.
• Then click on Save Link As... or Save Target As... in the popup menu to save the file as GoogleGeorge.KML on C:\ or somewhere else on your computer.
• Open the GoogleGeorge.KML file in Google Earth (File > Open, or Ctrl+O).
• When Google Earth closes, you might get a warning about unsaved items. If you save them then you won't have to follow these instructions every time you run Google Earth.

Plane position refresh

• Right-click on the GoogleGeorge entry in the list of Places in Google Earth (you might have to disengage GoogleGeorge to do this, otherwise you will be fighting GoogleGeorge as it uses the mouse to control the plane).
• Click on Refresh in the drop-down menu.
• Make sure that the checkbox is ticked. (You might want to leave the checkbox unticked when you are not using GoogleGeorge, this will save a small amount of resources.)

Flying a circuit

• Enter the flight simulator, and choose any airport as your starting point.
• Run GoogleGeorge.
• Click the "Circuit" button.
• GoogleGeorge flies a circuit around the airport, and lands back on the runway:
  • Accelerates and takes off
  • At about 500 feet off the ground, banks and heads off in a random direction
  • Continues to climb to about 2500 feet above the ground
  • When about 6 miles from the runway, banks and heads back towards the airport
  • Lines up with the runway on the glideslope
  • Displays the outer, middle, and inner markers as they are encountered
  • Lands on the runway and brakes to a halt
• Then it does it again, and again ...
• To stop, click the "Circuit" button again.
• The starting point can be anywhere in the world, apart from a few places near the North Pole and the South Pole, where the navigation does not work properly.
• Note that after the Circuit button is pressed, there might be a short pause before anything starts to happen. This is because GoogleGeorge has to find out the current position of the plane from Google Earth, and this can take several seconds. If nothing happens after 10 seconds then you might need to enable and/or refresh the GoogleGeorge.KML file in Google Earth.
• The pictures below show various stages of a circuit starting at New York (KJFK) Runway 13R

  

Following a Flight Plan

GoogleGeorge can be made to follow a flight plan consisting of a list of waypoints and other instructions in a plain text file. Here is an example:

• We're flying the F16, Plane, F16
• Let's go!, Take Off, 500, 3000, 500
• Raise landing gear, Gear up
• Slow down a bit, Speed, 300
• Long Beach, Waypoint, 40 35 19 N, 73 29 28 W, 3000
• Lower landing gear, Gear down
• La Guardia runway 31, Land, 40 46 19.48 N, 73 51 25.64 W, 7, 302.25

If the F16 plane is sitting on runway 13R at JFK, then this list of instructions will cause the plane to take off, raise the landing gear, fly around for a few minutes, line up with La Guardia runway 31, lower the landing gear and land. A detailed explanation of these instructions is given below.

To activate this flight plan, copy and paste the list of instructions above to a text file, run GoogleGeorge, choose "Flight Plan..." from GoogleGeorge's "Options" menu, and open the text file. Then click the "Start" button in the Flight Plan dialog box. See below for more details.

Creating a Flight Plan

Each waypoint or other instruction in a flight plan is described by a single line in a text file. The line starts with the name of the waypoint/instruction, which can be any text you like, so long as it does not include a comma (","), for example Let's go!, or La Guardia runway 31. Following the name is a comma, then the type of the waypoint/instruction, which must be one of the following (whitespace and capitalisation are ignored):

• Waypoint
• Gear
• Gear up
• Gear down
• Speed
• Take Off
• Land
• Plane

• Waypoint (fly to a particular place) – requires 2 or 3 values to say where the waypoint is:
  • Latitude
  • Longitude
  • Altitude, in feet (above sea level) (optional)
• Gear (raise or lower the landing gear) – no further values needed
• Gear up (raise the landing gear) – no further values needed
• Gear down (lower the landing gear) – no further values needed
• Speed (fly at a specified speed) – requires 1 value to say what the target speed is:
  • Target speed, in knots
• Take Off (apply power, take off and climb to a specified height) – requires 3 values:
  • Speed, in knots
  • Vertical speed, in feet per minute
  • Target height, in feet above the ground – when this height is reached GoogleGeorge goes on to the next waypoint or instruction
• Land (approach a runway on the glideslope, land, and brake to a halt) – requires 4 values to say where the runway threshold is:
  • Latitude
  • Longitude
  • Altitude, in feet (above sea level)
  • Heading, in degrees
• Plane – requires 1 value, which must be one of the following:
  • SR22
  • F16 or F-16
  This does not change the plane that you are using in Google Earth, instead it allows you to tell GoogleGeorge which plane you are using in Google Earth, this affects the way that GoogleGeorge flies the plane (see the Plane option in Menu options).

• 51 28 20.28 N
• 51 28.338 N
• 51.4723 N

• We're flying the F16, Plane, F16
  • The name of this instruction is We're flying the F16
  • The type of this instruction is Plane, which requires 1 value:
    • The plane we're flying is F16
• Let's go!, Take Off, 500, 3000, 500
  • The name of this instruction is Let's go!
  • The type of this instruction is Take Off, which requires 3 values:
    • Speed is 500 knots
    • Vertical speed is 3000 feet per minute
    • Target height is 500 feet above the ground
• Raise landing gear, Gear up
  • The name of this instruction is Raise landing gear
  • The type of this instruction is Gear up, which requires no further values
• Slow down a bit, Speed, 300
  • The name of this instruction is Slow down a bit
  • The type of this instruction is Speed, which requires 1 value:
    • Target speed is 300 knots
• Long Beach, Waypoint, 40 35 19 N, 73 29 28 W, 3000
  • The name of this instruction is Long Beach
  • The type of this instruction is Waypoint, which requires 2 or 3 values – in this case there are 3 values:
    • Latitude is 40 35 19 N
    • Longitude is 73 29 28 W
    • Altitude is 3000 feet above sea level
• Lower landing gear, Gear down
  • The name of this instruction is Lower landing gear
  • The type of this instruction is Gear down, which requires no further values
• La Guardia runway 31, Land, 40 46 19.48 N, 73 51 25.64 W, 7, 302.25
  • The name of this instruction is La Guardia runway 31
  • The type of this instruction is Land, which requires 4 values:
    • Latitude is 40 46 19.48 N
    • Longitude is 73 51 25.64 W
    • Altitude is 7 feet above sea level
    • Heading is 302.25 degrees

Flight Plan dialog box

• To load a flight plan, choose "Flight Plan..." from the Options menu.
• In the Open File dialog box, choose the file or enter the file name, then hit Open or OK.
• The list of waypoints and other instructions loaded from the file is displayed in the Flight Plan dialog box (see above).
• Start the flight plan at the beginning by clicking the "Start" button, or start in the middle by clicking on a line and then clicking the "Start at marked" button.
• GoogleGeorge will run through the waypoints/instructions in order:
  • The currently active waypoint/instruction is shown with an arrow ">".
  • When flying to a waypoint, the target heading is continuously adjusted to fly along the great circle from the current position to the waypoint.
  • The estimated time to reach the next waypoint is shown as hours:minutes:seconds in the ETA box.
  • Shortly before that waypoint is reached, or when the instruction is completed, the arrow will move to the next line.
  • Once all the waypoints/instructions have been followed the arrow is cleared ...
  • ... except that if the "Repeat" checkbox is ticked then the flight plan is started again from the top.
• To stop following the flight plan, click the "Stop" button or close the dialog box.
• When the flight plan is completed or stopped, all the settings for the target Speed, Heading, Altitude, and Vertical speed will be left at their latest values, and will continue to be followed by GoogleGeorge.

Menu options

• System menu (Alt+Space, or click the GG icon):
  • Always on top – when GoogleGeorge starts its window is "always on top": this means that it appears in front of other windows even when it is not the active window. This option may be turned off, so that GoogleGeorge becomes a normal window, which can be hidden by other windows. But GoogleGeorge will continue to fly the plane even if its window is not visible or is minimised.
  • About GoogleGeorge... – display the About box.
  • Close – close GoogleGeorge. All of the controls in Google Earth Flight Simulator will be left at their most recent position.
• Normal view – this option displays the simple flight parameters. See Normal view.
• Options:
  • Always on top – you can change this here as well
  • Flight data recorder – if enabled then lots of data about your flight, speed, altitude, etc., will get written to GoogleGeorge.csv in the directory that GoogleGeorge is running from, and you can plot some pretty graphs using a spreadsheet such as OpenOffice.org Calc or Excel.
  • Flight Plan... – open a Flight Plan text file
  • Fly inverted – if enabled then the plane flies upside down.
  • Ground hugging – if enabled then the altitude control is replaced by the height control, which controls the plane's height above the ground or sea. This doesn't work with Google Earth version 7.3.3 and later.
  • Marker tones – if enabled then beeps will sound when the outer, middle, and inner markers are encountered (the beeps are somewhat irregular, this is due to limitations in Windows).
  • Plane – choose SR22 or F-16 as appropriate, this affects various things:
    • maximum climb and descent rates
    • maximum bank angle
    • landing speed
  • Warnings – show the Warnings dialog
• Diagnostic view – this option displays much of the inner workings of GoogleGeorge. See Diagnostic view.
• Diagnostics – these options are to help me debug GoogleGeorge.

Warnings dialog

This shows various problems that GoogleGeorge might encounter:

• is shown if GoogleGeorge thinks that Google Earth is not running. Start Google Earth, then hit the Retry button.
• is shown if GoogleGeorge cannot see the Google Earth head-up display. In Google Earth, run the Flight Simulator if necessary (press Ctrl+Alt+A), face forwards (press V), show the head-up display (press H), then hit the Retry button.
• is shown if GoogleGeorge is not receiving information about the plane's position from Google Earth. See Plane position.
• is shown if GoogleGeorge is unable to set up a server to listen for KML information arriving from Google Earth. This can happen if you run GoogleGeorge more than once at the same time. Close down all instances of GoogleGeorge except one, then hit the Retry button.

Diagnostic view

Click to enlarge

This shows some of the internal workings of GoogleGeorge. Most of the controls use PID controllers, and the multipliers are in the block on the left. You shouldn't need to change anything here. If GoogleGeorge has problems communicating with Google Earth then the "Info" window might indicate what the problem is.

Notes

• The PID controllers are configured reasonably well for both the SR22 airplane and the F16 fighter. Their sensitivity is adjusted automatically according to the plane's speed.
• GoogleGeorge reads the speed, altitude, etc., of the plane by scanning the Head-Up Display. This means that you must display the HUD (press H in Google Earth if necessary), and you must be looking forwards (press V in Google Earth if necessary). This is a pity, because it would be much better if you could look around while flying and not have the HUD in the way, but I haven't yet found another way of working out what the plane is doing.
• All the controls in the HUD must be visible. With older versions of Google Earth, the compass heading could disappear off the top of a widescreen display, and the "Exit flight simulator" button at the top right could obscure the vertical speed reading. For example, the following displays will not work, in the first the compass is not fully visible, in the second the vertical speed is obscured.

  

  The easiest way to fix this is to use version 7.1.1.1888 or later of Google Earth, in which these problems do not seem to arise. Or you can adjust the size of the Google Earth window so that the compass heading and vertical speed reading are visible.

• If you move or resize the Google Earth window while GoogleGeorge is running then GoogleGeorge will do its best to keep track of it. GoogleGeorge might beep when this happens.
• If GoogleGeorge does not manage to keep track of the Google Earth window then it will beep and disengage. The "Info" window in the Diagnostic view might indicate what has gone wrong. Try pressing the ENGAGE button again. If GoogleGeorge is tripped repeatedly then it might be necessary to restart GoogleGeorge or Google Earth or both. But this is a fallback feature, and should not happen often.
• The altitude can be negative. The Dead Sea is 1385 feet below sea level. So you can fly in the air below sea level! But ground hugging and flying upside down might not be possible.

Release history

• v1.0, 2nd November 2010
  • First released, supports Google Earth version 4.2
• v1.1, 9th April 2011
  • Use the Google Earth COM API
  • Fly a circuit
  • Outer/Middle/Inner markers
  • Use brakes to stop
  • Steer on ground using differential braking
• v2.0, 13th January 2013
  • Support for Google Earth version 5.2.1.1588 added
  • Use different takeoff and landing speeds for different planes
  • Waypoints and Flight Plan added
  • Keep track of the Google Earth window if it's moved or changed in size
  • New PID algorithms to try to prevent integrator windup
• v2.1, 2nd November 2013
  • Ground hugging
  • Fly inverted
• v2.2, 1st December 2013
  • Support for Google Earth version 7.1.1.1888 added
  • Prevent screensaver from running while GoogleGeorge is flying the plane
• v3.396, 9th September 2021
  • Support for Google Earth version 7.3.3 added
• v3.474, 18th January 2022
  • Plane instruction added to Flight Plan
  • Gear instruction split into Gear up and Gear down

Acknowledgements

• Nigel Deacon, who suggested using PID controllers
• David Tryse, who explained how to use a KML file to get the plane position out of Google Earth after the COM API was removed

Links

• GoogleGeorge_v1p0.exe
• GoogleGeorge20101120.exe
• GoogleGeorge_v1p1.exe
• GoogleGeorge_v2p0.exe
• GoogleGeorge_v2p1.exe
• GoogleGeorge_v2p2.exe
• GoogleGeorge_3446_32bit.exe
• GoogleGeorge_3446_64bit.exe
• GoogleGeorge_3474_32bit.exe
• GoogleGeorge_3474_64bit.exe

Cheers,
Chris Hills.

All text and images on this website are © Copyright Chris Hills 1982–2024, or their respective copyright holders.