Here's mine that I made in about 15 minutes. It was very easy, but it took me that long to add each of the pushpins to the airports on the list. Short flying career, so i got off lucky.
Step 1) Set up a Google account. You need a Google acct so that they can store your pushpins in their database. If you have a Gmail acct, that will work., just make sure you're logged in before you start. Otherwise, sign up for one.
It helps to select "Keep me logged in on this computer" while during login.
Step 2) Go to Google Maps in your web browser. Once you're logged into Google, go to maps.google.com
Step 3) Click the "My Maps" link in the top of the left hand column.
Step 4) Click the "Create New Map" link. A text box below in the left hand column will appear with the contents highlighted. Replace this with your map name. I named mine "Zane's Airport List." Then click the "Save" button just above and to the right of the text field.
Step 5) Time to start adding airports. Click the link in the left hand column that corresponds to your map name. Now we can add pushpins.
Most of us are familiar with Google Maps, but if you're not, you can navigate it by left-mouse clicking, holding, and dragging around to pan the map. Use the zoom slider on the left to zoom in and out. The mousewheel also works for zooming. I like to run maps in the "Satellite" mode because you can actually see a satellite photo of the airport.
You can search Google's database while in this mode by simply typing "<Airport name> airport, <state>" into the search field i.e. "Grants Pass airport, OR". Hit Enter and the search results appear in the left column. This is often a quicker method of finding the airport than by dragging the map around.
While in My Maps mode, 4 new buttons are overlayed onto the map in the upper lefthand corner: A hand for panning, a teardrop shaped "placemark". a zigzag line, and a polygon. For the purpose of this tutorial, we're going to toggle between the hand and the placemark.
Once you've found your airport, click the
Placemark button. Your mouse cursor now has a pushpin/placemark fixed to it, and wherever your next click lands, that new Pushpin will stick. I like to stick it right on the runway. Once you do this, a dialog pops up that allows you to name the new pin. I use the <airport name>, <state> (<identifier>) convention. i.e. Grants Pass, OR (3S8).
When you've added some airport pushpins/placemarks, click the Save button. Should you ever need to modify or edit your pins, click the Edit button that will appear when one of your maps is selected.
Step 6) Share your map. Once you've amassed some airports on your map, you can copy the link from Google Maps and paste it into the forum or an email.
Configure your view how you want the viewer to see it. Set the zoom level, enable the appropriate map from My Maps, select your overlay type (Map, Satellite, or Terrain).
Click on "Copy Link" link which appears at the top of the map area on the right side of the page. This part is similar to embedding photos-- we need the URL.
A dialog appears with 2 different text fields we can copy. The first is a direct link URL to the Google Maps page, titled "Paste link in email or IM." The second is source code for embedding your map into a webpage or forum post. Highlight the URL text from the top text field and copy it (CTRL+C or Edit > copy.)
Now, let's make a link in a forum post using the URL from the first text field:
Here's the (very complex) URL for my map:
Note: DO NOT PASTE THIS EXACT CODE. You'll be linking to or showing Zane's map. You must copy the links from YOUR map page.
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http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=116253357820088543090.000456303def540dd1d8c&ll=40.212441,-120.014648&spn=20.505529,31.157227&t=p&z=5
Now, I'll simplify the forum link to make it look cleaner to the viewer by using the URL BBcode tag:
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[url=http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=116253357820088543090.000456303def540dd1d8c&ll=40.212441,-120.014648&spn=20.505529,31.157227&t=p&z=5]Link to Zane's Airport List[/url]
Which looks like: Link to Zane's Airport List
Embedding Your Map
If you want to embed the map into a Backcountry Pilot forum post, the procedure is slightly different. The steps are almost the same as copying the link URL from Step 6 above, but instead of enclosing the URL in the "URL" BBCode, we're going to use the "GoogleMap" BBCode.
Copy/paste the link URL in between the "GoogleMap" BBcode tags. Do not use the <iframe> code from the 2nd text field from the maps page. All you need is the link URL, not the embed code that Google provides you.
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[googlemap]http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=116253357820088543090.000456303def540dd1d8c&z=5[/googlemap]
Once rendered in the forum post though, it looks like this:
[googlemap]http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=116253357820088543090.000456303def540dd1d8c&z=5[/googlemap]
I recently discovered that some coordinated based map embed links will cause Google Maps to error for some reason. After reading this fairly comprehensive Google Maps wiki page, I had success with this format:
You must use a plus sign for a space. t = map type (map, satellite, terrain) and z = zoom level.
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[googlemap]http://maps.google.com/[email protected],-110.9573&t=p&z=14[/googlemap]
