Google Maps for Pilots

I recently discovered the “3-D” button on Google maps. It gives a “flight” of your intended route <link>. The only caveat is that it follows roads only. I would love to see it be able to “fly” a flight path. Many pilots that I know are fearful about flying from the East Coast to the West Coast and vice versa, fearing the Rockies and the Sierras. A sectional map gives contours, but not a pilot’s eye view. A “flight” would familiarize the pilots with how the terrain looks in flight.

Google Earth does have the hidden flight simulator [ctrl] [alt][a], but it doesn’t slew as fast as Google maps. Even flying the F-16 can take a lot of time. It also does not allow for waypoints.

Google maps could let you choose a departure/destination, climb/descent rate, altitude, speed, slew rate and waypoints. There is a website <link> that allows planning, but doesn’t give a visual picture of the actual flight like Google Maps allows.