What is Google Earth Pro, and how can you use it for flight simulation planning?
Google Earth Pro is a free desktop mapping tool that lets us study airports, landmarks, terrain and routes in far more detail than a simulator map screen. For flight simulation planning, we can use it to build VFR routes, measure legs, spot visual checkpoints and understand elevation before we fly.
What Google Earth Pro is good for in flight simulation
At its core, Google Earth Pro is a 3D globe with satellite imagery, terrain data and basic measuring and annotation tools. It is not a flight simulator and it is not an aeronautical chart, but it is very useful as a visual planning aid.
Where it helps most is VFR preparation. We can look at the real shape of the coastline, rivers, towns, motorways, ridgelines and valleys, then compare that with what we expect to see from the cockpit in the simulator.
- Airport reconnaissance: study runway orientation, surrounding roads, terrain and built-up areas.
- Route familiarisation: follow a proposed track and pick obvious turning points.
- Terrain awareness: understand rising ground, valleys, ridges and likely problem areas.
- Distance checks: measure rough leg lengths for time and fuel planning.
- Visual checkpoints: mark lakes, bridges, quarries, stadiums, towns and coast features.
- Practice planning: rehearse circuits, local flights and cross-country VFR exercises.
What Google Earth Pro cannot do
This is the part many simmers miss. Google Earth Pro does not replace proper charts, airport information, simulator nav data or weather. It is excellent for seeing the world; it is not a complete source of aviation data.
| Use | Why it helps | Main limitation |
|---|---|---|
| VFR route planning | Easy to see landmarks and terrain | Does not show all aviation details you need |
| Airport scouting | Shows layout and surroundings clearly | Imagery may be old or incomplete |
| Measuring legs | Quick distance estimates | Still needs wind, heading and nav planning elsewhere |
| Terrain review | 3D view makes ridges and valleys obvious | Not a substitute for official obstacle or minimum altitude data |
| IFR procedure planning | Useful only for general context | Not suitable as a source for procedures, fixes or altitudes |
For real-world flying, we would never use it as the sole planning source. For simulation, the same rule is sensible if we want realism: use it to understand the route visually, then confirm the aviation details with the tools or charts appropriate to the aircraft and simulator.
How do we use Google Earth Pro to plan a sim flight?
- Find the departure and destination airports. Search for both airfields and zoom out until we can see the whole route area. This gives us an immediate feel for whether the flight crosses flat farmland, coastline, mountains or dense urban terrain.
- Check the runway environment. Rotate the view and look closely at each airport. We want to see nearby hills, water, roads, towns and obvious landmarks that will help with arrival, departure and circuit orientation.
- Draw a rough route. Use a path or line tool to sketch the intended track. For VFR, do not just draw a straight line and stop there; bend the route around prominent checkpoints that will be easy to recognise from the cockpit.
- Measure each leg. Use the ruler to get leg distances, ideally in nautical miles. That gives us a quick basis for estimating flight time, setting cruise expectations and checking whether our route is sensible for the aircraft.
- Mark visual reporting points. Add placemarks for turning points, overhead joins, river bends, motorway junctions, bridges, reservoirs or coast inlets. A few strong checkpoints are better than dozens of weak ones.
- Study the terrain profile. If the route crosses high ground, review the 3D view and any available elevation profile along the path. This helps us avoid being surprised by terrain that looks harmless on a flat map but dominates the horizon in the sim.
- Save the plan. Put the route and placemarks in a folder so we can reopen them before the flight. Some sim-related tools can work with exported location files, but compatibility varies, so we treat Google Earth Pro primarily as a planning and reference tool unless we know our setup supports imports.
Best ways to use it for VFR flight simulation
Build routes around things you can actually see
The best VFR routes are usually not point-to-point lines between tiny map features. We prefer checkpoints with shape and contrast: a river crossing a motorway, a large lake, a racetrack, a harbour, a conspicuous hill, a quarry, a power station or a coastline change.
If a checkpoint only makes sense when fully zoomed in on a map, it is probably a poor checkpoint in the air. Google Earth Pro is excellent for filtering out those bad choices before we ever load the simulator.
Use 3D terrain to spot trouble early
Flat maps hide a lot. A route that looks easy in plan view may thread through rising ground, bowl-shaped valleys or ridges that would affect a low-level VFR flight. Tilt the camera and trace the route from the side as well as from above.
This matters even more in mountain scenery. We can often spot the obvious safe side of a valley, better entry routes and terrain funnels just by rotating the view a few times.
Scout visual arrivals and departures
Google Earth Pro is also handy for short local flights. Before flying into an unfamiliar field, we can inspect what lies on each base leg, where the built-up areas are, and which runway is likely to be easiest to identify from a distance.
That does not tell us the active runway or current weather, but it does stop the common sim mistake of turning final over the wrong village, road or industrial estate.
Can you use Google Earth Pro for IFR planning?
Only in a limited way. It is useful for understanding the broad geography around an airport, seeing nearby terrain and getting a visual sense of the arrival area. It is not the right tool for procedures, altitudes, fixes, holds, frequencies or legal instrument information.
For sim IFR, we would use it as a supplement rather than the planning backbone. Think of it as a terrain and situational-awareness layer, not as the place where the instrument plan itself is built.
Useful Google Earth Pro features for simmers
- Placemark folders: keep routes, landmarks and alternates organised by area.
- Path tool: sketch routes and compare alternative tracks.
- Ruler: measure rough leg distances quickly.
- 3D terrain view: reveal ridges, valleys and airport surroundings.
- Historical imagery: sometimes useful when current imagery and simulator scenery do not match closely.
- Saved views: return to key airports or training areas without searching again.
Common mistakes when using Google Earth Pro for flight simulation planning
- Trusting it as an aviation chart: it is not one.
- Picking tiny checkpoints: if it is hard to identify on the screen, it will be worse from the cockpit.
- Ignoring imagery age: roads, buildings and land use can change.
- Assuming obstacles are complete: masts, cranes and smaller hazards may not be represented properly.
- Forgetting simulator scenery differences: your sim may simplify or omit landmarks visible in the imagery.
A practical way to combine it with your simulator
Our usual approach is simple. We first use Google Earth Pro to understand the route visually, then we load the simulator and compare the most important checkpoints with the in-sim world. If a landmark is missing or unclear in the simulator, we replace it with a more obvious one before flying.
That small extra step makes a big difference. It turns Google Earth Pro from a neat map viewer into a proper flight-planning aid for realistic VFR practice.
If your simulator scenery is sparse in a particular region, matching the visual world with add-on scenery from our library at Fly Away Simulation downloads can make those planned checkpoints much more useful.