SkyDoodle – sky-writing waypoint generator for pilots

1 What do you want to draw?

Advanced

Letter spacing 0.00 Line height 1.30

Fewer, longer strokes fly best: every pen lift is a hop to the next stroke.

Drop an SVG here or click to choose.

Simple line art works best. Convert text to outlines first.

2 Where and how big?

Click the map or drag the pin to move it, or .

Width 15 NM Rotation 0°

Advanced

Centre latitude Centre longitude

Mirror left–right

3 Check the flight

Groundspeed kt

Advanced · waypoint budget

Waypoints per plan Flight plans Shortest leg (NM)

Optimise stroke order

The drawing is simplified until it fits the budget (flight plans × waypoints per plan). Most Garmin panel units (GTN, G1000, G3X) hold up to 99 waypoints per flight plan; allow more plans for more detail and fly them back to back. Points closer together than the shortest leg are merged.

4 Load it into your GPS

What will you fly with?

You are pilot in command. SkyDoodle only draws shapes. It knows nothing about airspace, terrain, obstacles, TFRs, weather or traffic, so check the route against current charts before you fly.

Advanced

Route name Waypoint prefix (1–3)

Tips for a drawing that shows up well

Go big. Sky drawings are usually 10–40 NM wide. A standard-rate turn at 100 kt has a radius of about 0.5 NM, so keep the smallest details above roughly 1 NM.
Keep it simple. Single-stroke fonts and bold line art read best. The dashed lines are hops between strokes and show up in your track too, so fewer pen lifts look cleaner.
Plan the time. Big designs take 2–4 hours to fly. Check fuel and endurance, and fly VFR in daylight with a safety pilot if you can.

Built with Leaflet, OpenStreetMap, the public-domain Hershey fonts and EMS fonts via hersheytext, opentype.js and Dancing Script (OFL). Everything runs in your browser; nothing is uploaded. Not for navigation.

Click the map to place your drawing drawing hop between strokes