GComp is a little C++ program I developped in order to help me build Great Circle tracks for flight simulation. You enter your starting and destination coordinates, and it will compute the great circle track, then split it into multiple rhumb-line legs (fixed true course). It will output two files: a text log and a Google Earth KML file with each waypoints.
Below is an example log:
F L I G H T P L A N
DEPARTURE: _____________________ ALTITUDE: ____________ PWR: ____________
DESTINATION: _____________________ IAS/TAS: ____________ GPH: ____________
DOF: ____/____/____ ETO: ________ EST. GS: ____________ FOB: ____________
+-----+-------------+-------+------+-----+-----+------+--------+-------+------+
| WP | POS | DIST | ETE | TC | VAR | MC | WIND | DRIFT | MH |
+-----+-------------+-------+------+-----+-----+------+--------+-------+------+
| 0 | N032°21'51" | 146 | | 068 | 15W | 083 | | | |
| | W064°40'43" | | | | | | | | |
+-----+-------------+-------+------+-----+-----+------+--------+-------+------+
| 1 | N033°16'06" | 160 | | 070 | 16W | 086 | | | |
| | W062°00'00" | | | | | | | | |
+-----+-------------+-------+------+-----+-----+------+--------+-------+------+
| 2 | N034°11'34" | 156 | | 071 | 17W | 088 | | | |
| | W059°00'00" | | | | | | | | |
+-----+-------------+-------+------+-----+-----+------+--------+-------+------+
| 3 | N035°01'33" | 153 | | 073 | 17W | 090 | | | |
| | W056°00'00" | | | | | | | | |
+-----+-------------+-------+------+-----+-----+------+--------+-------+------+
| 4 | N035°46'11" | 151 | | 075 | 17W | 092 | | | |
| | W053°00'00" | | | | | | | | |
+-----+-------------+-------+------+-----+-----+------+--------+-------+------+
| 5 | N036°25'37" | 148 | | 077 | 17W | 094 | | | |
| | W050°00'00" | | | | | | | | |
+-----+-------------+-------+------+-----+-----+------+--------+-------+------+
| 6 | N036°59'57" | 146 | | 078 | 16W | 094 | | | |
| | W047°00'00" | | | | | | | | |
+-----+-------------+-------+------+-----+-----+------+--------+-------+------+
| 7 | N037°29'19" | 145 | | 080 | 15W | 095 | | | |
| | W044°00'00" | | | | | | | | |
+-----+-------------+-------+------+-----+-----+------+--------+-------+------+
| 8 | N037°53'49" | 143 | | 082 | 15W | 097 | | | |
| | W041°00'00" | | | | | | | | |
+-----+-------------+-------+------+-----+-----+------+--------+-------+------+
| 9 | N038°13'31" | 142 | | 084 | 14W | 098 | | | |
| | W038°00'00" | | | | | | | | |
+-----+-------------+-------+------+-----+-----+------+--------+-------+------+
| 10 | N038°28'29" | 141 | | 086 | 13W | 099 | | | |
| | W035°00'00" | | | | | | | | |
+-----+-------------+-------+------+-----+-----+------+--------+-------+------+
| 11 | N038°38'48" | 141 | | 088 | 12W | 100 | | | |
| | W032°00'00" | | | | | | | | |
+-----+-------------+-------+------+-----+-----+------+--------+-------+------+
| 12 | N038°44'29" | 89 | | 089 | 11W | 100 | | | |
| | W029°00'00" | | | | | | | | |
+-----+-------------+-------+------+-----+-----+------+--------+-------+------+
| 13 | N038°45'43" | TOTAL | |
| | W027°05'27" | 1861 | |
+-----+-------------+-------+------+
Established on Mon Apr 8 20:35:53 2013
In version 1.0, you have to figure out manually the magnetic variation, and the resultant magnetic course. Version 1.1+ computes it automatically. Version 1.3 now works well with North-South and South-North flights paths (waypoints no longer based on longitude). It uses a defined maximum leg length to compute intermediate waypoints.
The program can be compiled under any Unix variant (Mac OS X too). It is just plain C++ using the standard C++ library stuff. A README is included in the source tree.
PLEASE DO NOT USE IT FOR REAL WORLD NAVIGATION.