AviatorCalc
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Contents |
[edit] AviatorCalc
[edit] Introduction
AviatorCalc is flight planning software which runs on popular mobile devices such as mobile phones or Personal Digital Assistants (PDA). It is primarily intended for use by general aviation pilots. It emulates the popular E6B Mechanical Flight computer used by both private and professional pilots alike.
AviatorCalc has seven modules:
- An E6B Flight Computer Emulator
- An Aircraft Database
- An Airport Database
- Navigation functions
- Weight and Balance calculator
- Online Weather enquiries
- GPS Position module
[edit] E6B emulator
The AviatorCalc E6B emulator has some thirteen functions which electronically duplicate the tasks typically carried out by a Pilot using the highly popular E6B Mechanical Flight computer. These functions include Leg Time, Heading and Ground speed, Crosswind calculator, Endurance, Mach number, True Airspeed (TAS), Mach to TAS, Density altitude, Pressure altitude, Fuel calculations and a Speeds and Distances calculator.[1]
[edit] Aircraft database
The Aircraft Database allows creation and modification of Aircraft records for use with the other AviatorCalc modules. It contains a selection of templates for popular light aircraft including Cessna, Beechcraft and Piper aircraft which can be loaded and modified accordingly to match the actual aircraft being flown. Each record contains both performance and aircraft limits information. The latter is used by the AviatorCalc Weight and balance module to calculate Center of gravity of an aircraft and its Maximum Takeoff Weight (MTOW).
[edit] Airport Database
The Airport Database allow details of airports to be stored using the four letter ICAO airport code. Information such as the radio frequencies, Navigation aids and airport elevation can be stored for each airport. It also contains the UTC offset (timezone) for the airport, which is then used in the sunrise and sunset calculator.
[edit]
The Navigation module has such functions as Flight Plans generation, a Waypoint database, a Rhumbline calculator, a Holding pattern calculator, Critical point and Point of No Return (PNR), Course Corrections (1 in 60 rule) and a sunrise and sunset calculator. An AviatorCalc flight plan may be e-mailed from the mobile phone that has an Internet connection to any legitimate email address where it can then be printed or displayed. The email contains attachments with the flight plan in both plain text and Adobe PDF formatted output. The Flight Plan also shows the Morse Code identification for Radio navigation (RNAV) beacons.
[edit] Weight and Balance calculator
The Weight and balance module takes information from the selected aircraft record and provides entry screens for passenger weights, fuel loading and baggage. The result of the Weight and Balance calculation can be displayed as either a text summary or a graphical display of a typical Weight and Balance Centre of Gravity (COG) graph.
[edit] Online weather service
Pilots are able to download current weather information via the internet in the form of a Terminal Aerodrome Forecast (TAF) and Aviation Routine Weather Report (METAR). The weather information comes from the NOAA web site. This facility requires an Internet connection.
[edit] GPS position module
For mobile devices that have Global Positioning System (GPS) capability, AviatorCalc comes with an emergency GPS positioner which gives the current Latitude and Longitude of the aircraft plus a track and distance to the currently selected waypoint such as an airfield or Radio navigation beacon.
[edit] Platforms
AviatorCalc is written in Java Platform, Micro Edition (Java ME) and runs on devices which comply to the MIDP 2.0 and CLDC 1.0 standards or later. It is known to run on the Symbian, Windows Mobile and BlackBerry OS Operating Systems. This allows it to run on many makes of mobile telephones such as Nokia, Samsung, Siemens, LG, Motorola, Sony Ericsson and the HTC Corporation. It fully supports modern touchscreen devices which are becoming ever more popular.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- [AviatorCalc web site http://www.aviatorcalc.com]
