This site helped me out at work!

[Robbie]

As some of you may already know. I'm a systems engineer by day, and work with the Navy for Naval Survival Training. I work with a bunch of aerospace physiologists, and we deal with the physiological aspect of survival in relation to aviation. Anything from hypoxia to spatial disorientation.

Currently we're recreating some of the classic spatial-disorientation induced naval mishaps. for example, the CH-46E crash in 1999, and now the EA-6B Prowler crash near Aviano, Italy.

The way we're recreating these mishaps is kind of like a discovery channel approach, we're modeling and rendering the mishap in 3d, and playing them back from the pilots perspective to help demonstrate the spatial illusions that caused the mishap.

Anyways, on to how this site helped me.

A new user posted a link to a tutorial on getting DEM data from Google Earth here http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=5057

I used that to get the DEM data for the Cavalese valley, and surrounding area so that I can load it into 3d studio as a height map, and actually fly my aircraft through this valley. Here's a few renders from the VERY early stages of the valley recreation. I still have to texture it, and fire up Vue to get some vegetation, and of course put the Gondola and wire in, but its accurately lit based on the lat/long, and time of day/year.

Thank you Cartographers' Guild!