New Features in 8.5 (Release Notes)

Meteorlogix Surface Fronts & Pressure levels
	What: The ability to draw weather fronts and pressure levels in FE. This is for both Meteorlogix new fronts products (see weather menu) and NWA OPP fronts products.
	How: To enable this feature, navigate to the “View” menu, select “User Defined View settings”, and navigate to the “Weather & dyn overlays” section. You will see new Meteorlogix Current and forecast fronts products in the product list.
Range Ring Pixel Accuracy
	What: For ellipse based objects (plane rings, drawing objects, airport range rings and Desktop Interface rings) a new Pixel Accurate choice is now available. This guarantees that all optimizations are disabled and that each dot around the ellipse is at exactly the range from the center point that has been specified. The True Dist option only guarantees that the points at the 4 axis points are accurate and approximates all points in between. This will allow alerts and ETOPS analysis to me done more accurately.
Clear Route Analyzer Re-Routes
	What: This feature allows users to clear Route Analyzer routes without having to go into Route Analyzer.
	How: Use the “Clear all” option on the planes dropdown, or the associated hot key combination to clear all routes.
More Quick Zoom Areas
	What: New regions have been added to the Quick Zoom menu including Europe, Asia, South Pacific, South America, and Africa. You now also have the ability to define your own regions via the ini file.
	How: To enable this feature, navigate to the Zoom in/Zoom out toolbar menu, press the associated down arrow, and select the quick zoom region. The ini file settings necessary to define up to 5 of your own quick zoom areas are: [ZoomAreas] AREA1=Label,TopLat,LeftLon,LatHeight,LonWidth AREA2= AREA3= AREA4= AREA5=
New Drawing Object category
	What: Drawing objects can now be part of the User Defined View type (as all old drawing objects were) or a new “Alert” category, which will come up on a user’s screen in a shared environment even it is not enabled in their currently selected User Defined View. This allows users to push alert areas or .closed airspace areas to all users and guarantee they will be seen.
	How: Create a drawing object and choose the new Alert category.
Improved Tag Sizing
	What: Tag drawing now makes an improved "best" guess at an appropriate size. This can be best seen when using user defined tags.
Minimum FAA Delay Level
	What: This feature allows users to set the minimum FAA delay level to via the Weather settings UDView dialog. The Requirement is to be able to have only GS/GS/Closure info pop-up on screen and otherwise have it blank.
	How: To enable this feature, navigate to the “View” menu, select “User Defined View settings”, and navigate to the “Weather & dyn overlays” section, Product Properties subsection.
FAA Delay product: Allow dot properties to be user selectable
	What: Allows the user to vary the size of the FAA airport delay dots to make them more prominent on the screen.
	How: To utilize this feature, navigate to the “View” menu, select “User Defined View settings”, and navigate to the “Weather & dyn overlays” section, Product Properties subsection.
Save map image to file
	What: This will allow the user to save the current map image to a file. The image can be saved from any specific map window in multi-map mode or can be saved from the active window. The image can also be converted to grayscale on the fly.
	How: Click on the File menu; select “Save map as image…” Choose from options in the dialog and then choose “Save.”
Bug Fixes
	Fixed bug where the lookup toolbar search would incorrectly return the first encountered match instead of searching the entire data set and returning a list of all possible matches.
	Fixed bug where the GDT Editor was incorrectly truncating files that were greater than 1000 lines.
	Fixed incorrect display of Canadian airport location in look-up dialog at times.
	Corrected ETE/Dist route alerts.
	Fixed bug where alerts where being incorrectly generated of pixel accurate ellipses.
	Fixed bug where a variety of weather products were being incorrectly rendered when the map was re-centered.
	Fixed a Desktop Interface bug where the RouteCheck2 messages was being incorrectly handled resulting and the wrong Route Analyzer list item being populated.
	Fixed bug where coast mode was not terminating when aircraft arrived at the destination OR aircraft flew past destination.
	Fixed Desktop Interface bug where the ETE field was incorrectly represented in the SOAP interface.
	Fixed drawing object wrapping bug.
Changes since RC3
	Decoupled Airport rings from labels and icons (zoom levels)
Changes since RC2
	Updated to 4/10 static data files
	Installshield Vista permissions changes to allow FE to run and write to Program Files\Flight Explorer\Professional folder under Vista.

New Features in 8.2b

Features and Enhancements
OPP Maximum Product Count
	The maximum OPP product count has been increased to 250.
Enhanced Route Decoding
	A variety of bug fixes and route decode streamlining has been implemented that increases the performance and reliability of the route decoding algorithm.
Bug Fixes
	Fixed bug where multi-map mode was not being saved between client sessions if no other actions were taken.
	Fixed bug where weather layers 3, 4, and 5 were incorrectly being defaulted to animation disabled. This bug fix affects all new and converted views.
	Fixed bug where the application would not receive EDCT alerts for planned flights.
	Fixed bug where the application would incorrectly use one of the altitude numbers for filtering when performing a speed filter.
	Fixed bug where the position source plane filter was working incorrectly within the application.
	Fixed bug where the application, upon startup, would occasionally draw aircraft tags within the Default view even when the tag option was not turned on.
	Fixed bug where the application would mark the wrong segment as invalid when the decoding algorithm encountered an unknown token.
	Fixed bug where the application’s User toolbar would not respond to the menu on/off selections.
	Fixed bug where the application’s NAVAID filter list only showed the first encountered ID instead of showing a list of all IDs.
	Fixed bug where the MyFleet update file was being incorrectly parsed and causing garbage characters to appear in the MyFleet origin column.
	Fixed bug where the weather product animation checkbox changes would not take affect until the view was reloaded.
	Fixed bug where the MyNotes update file was not being properly reloaded when an external file change occurred.
	Fixed bug where OPP product identifiers with a “3” in the second digit where not being processed correctly.
	Fixed bug where the EDCT date was not appearing on the Plane properties window for planned/scheduled flights.
	Fixed bug where the Desktop Interface route functionality was working incorrectly.
	Fixed bug where showing the flight plan for multiply selected flight incorrectly displayed flight plans for only a portion of the flights.
	Fixed bug where MyFleet aircraft were occasionally ignoring the date filter.
	Fixed bug where the User menu was incorrectly shifted to the right instead of being next to the Quick Weather menu.
	Fixed bug where the application would occasionally crash during startup due to some incorrect startup sequences in the SOAP based Desktop Interface and multi-map mode.
	Fixed bug where the application would occasionally crash when drawing a route that has a path greater than the distance from origin to destination (e.g. circular routes flown by helicopters).
	Fixed bug where the application would crash when loading an invalid shape file.

New Features in 8.2a

	Corrected a bug where an application fault would occur or app would lock-up occasionally when switching map orientations
	Corrected zoom back/forward functionality in multi-map mode
	Corrected a bug where the automatic zooming associated with Follow Me and Event Manager would not center properly under certain conditions
	Corrected a bug where the background between FE windows would not always update/paint when uncovered by larger window
	Corrected an issue where the application would incorrectly request duplicate User Defined View saves for the same View when switching map configurations
	Corrected an issue where going from multi-map mode to spherical view would render the map incorrectly to the screen

New Features in 8.2

General
Shareable Drawing Objects
	The drawing object file is now monitored for any changes by other users (if set-up in a shared environment) and changes will be reflected on-screen immediately after being detected if the drawing object (or all drawing objects) is included in the current UDView filters.

User Defined Views
Weather & Dynamic Overlays Weather Layers
	What: All 10 layers are now animatable. You no longer have to select a product into layers 4 or 5 to be animated. Note: Although you can select animated products on any layer, it is advised to not exceed 2 or 3 animating products for performance and screen clarity reasons.
	How: To animate a product, you must:
	1. Make sure the product is animatable in the first place (it will have an asterisk after it in the UDView Weather Dialog drop down menu) 2. Make sure the “Animate” box next to the Weather product layer in the UDView Weather dialog is checked 3. Turn on animation with the Quick Weather toolbar Animate (play/pause icon) button.

Weather & Dynamic Overlays -> Animation & Alerts Weather Animation Synchronization
	What: When weather animation is enabled for multiple products, their animation can seem out of sync. This occurs because some weather products do not have the same time interval updates. This feature allows you to sync the animation of all weather products to a single layer. All other layers will display the closest slide, in time, to the “sync” layer. If no sync layer is defined, the topmost weather layer is chosen as the sync layer automatically.
	How: To enable this feature, navigate to the “View” menu, select “User Defined View settings”, navigate to the “Weather & dyn overlays” section, and choose the “Animation & alerts” setting. Here, you will find a drop-down box that allows you to choose your sync layer. This feature is always enabled.

Weather
Split No. Atlantic Tracks and Pacific Tracks into Eastbound and Westbound Products
	There are now separate weather products for east and west bound North Atlantic Tracks and Pacific Tracks. You will need to update any Views in which you had either displayed to include both east and west bound products.

Tools
Multi-Map
	What: Multi-Map is a versatile feature that allows you to see up to four windows at the same time. This is very useful when tracking aircraft through different weather conditions or keeping an overall view open while concentrating on as many as three other groups of aircraft in different parts of the world.
	How: To view single, dual, tri, or quad windows, navigate to the “Window” menu and choose your map orientation. Each window has full functional capabilities. Therefore, views can be changed and saved in the same manner as the traditional single window orientation. A blue or highlighted status bar indicates that the window is active and that it can be manipulated. In addition, a status bar is displayed at the bottom of each window that contains the view name, aircraft count, and weather status (if applicable). Simply click the mouse in any window you want to make active, and then use the toolbars, select Views, Save views, zoom, pan, etc. just as you do in single map mode.

Keep Active View When Switching to "Single Map" Orientation
	What: This is off by default. The normal operation is for map window 1 (always top/leftmost window) to always stay consistent no matter how many other windows are open. By choosing to enable this option, when switching from multiple windows to a single window, the active window will always be retained and switched into window 1.
	How: To enable this feature, navigate to the “Tools” menu, select “Options”, and then select the “User Defined View” tab. Here, you will find a check box that allows you to enable/disable this feature. By default, this feature is disabled.

Virtual Views
	What: This feature allows you to store the last selected view(s) in each map orientation. This feature is OFF by default. Normal operation is that windows 1 through 4 are tied to one set of views (i.e. window 1 shows the same view no matter how many other windows are enabled). This feature allows you to make each windows view dependent on the window mode/number of windows shown (1, 2, 3 or 4). With this feature enabled you can select a different view for window 1 for each window mode. i.e. with 2 map windows window 1 shows “View abc”, with 3 map windows window 1 shows “View def”, etc.
	How: To enable this feature, navigate to the “Tools” menu, select “Options”, and then select the “User Defined View” tab. Here, you will find a check box that allows you to enable/disable this feature. By default, this feature is disabled.

View Information Bar
	What: By choosing to enable this, the view information bar that appears at the bottom of each map when in Multi-Map mode will now appear when in Single Map mode (including full screen mode).
	How: To enable this feature, navigate to the “Tools” menu, select “Options”, and then select the “Desktop” tab. Here, you will find a check box that allows you to enable/disable this feature. By default, this feature is disabled.

Airport Summary - UVTripPlanner
	Flight Explorer presents an airport and trip support service with data provided courtesy of Universal Weather www.univ-wea.com.

My Fleet/Event -> Multi-Map Awareness
	What: By choosing to enable this, the My Fleet and Event System will be notified when you change your map configuration. This feature allows you to specify whether you want the My Fleet List and Event System to be cognizant of the active Window, a specific window (1-4), or all windows. This feature is set to "All Windows" by default.
	How:
	To enable this feature for My fleet, you must: 1. Open the "My fleet Status List Settings dialog" 2. Check the "Filter My Fleet Status List based on currently selected User Defined View" check box. 3. Choose your window setting from the drop-down menu. To enable this feature for the Aircraft Selection Profiles, you must: 1. Navigate to the "Tools" menu. 2. Select "Flight Alert System". 3. Select "Aircraft Selection Profiles". 4. Select the "Generate event ONLY for aircraft in the current User Defined View". 5. Choose your window setting from the drop-down menu. To enable this feature for Plane Zoom triggered by the event system, you must: 1. Navigate to the "Tools" menu. 2. Select "Flight Alert System". 3. Select "Event Manager". 4. Select the "Plane Zoom Settings" tab. 5. Choose your window setting from the drop-down menu.

Bug Fixes
	Fixed bug where My Notes feature was incorrectly enabled for “BLOCKED” flights.
	Fixed bug where duplicate My Fleet entries were incorrectly being disallowed even when the entries varied by Origin, day of Departure, and/or Hour of Departure.
	Fixed bug where the altitude arrow within a plane tag was being displayed incorrectly when the plane was flying at cruising altitude. This fill required client and server side changes.
	Fixed bug where the NAVAID lookup worked incorrectly when a NAVAID identifier was unique (i.e. no duplicates existed).
	Fixed bug where playing back a Flight Explorer recording (.fvr) file that was stored on a CD/DVD would cause FE to not start in the correct home directory.
	Fixed bug where hitting the Cancel button from the “Lookup” dialog would cause the application to crash.
	Fixed bug where entering two (2) character NAVAID identifiers into Lookup/Go to in certain cases would cause the application to crash.

New Features in 8.1

8.1 Build 217
	Corrected problem where certain entries in the My Fleet update file would cause an application fault
	Corrected problem where erroneous single point 3PDI routes would cause application fault when drawing
8.1 Build 216
	Correct issue where some planes and airports lose hot tip and right click ability
	Update MyNotes ini file path to correspond with path documented in FE Help system
	Corrected issue where changing animation weather products caused an application fault at times
	Correct issue with 3PDI flights and scratchpad having blank spaces in it
	Correct route analyzer fault when route exceeds 1000 characters
8.1 Build 215
	Correct issue where My Fleet was not accepting update file records with more than ACID specified
	Modify shape file drawing to keep background from dimming if layers are drawn with "Add alpha" unchecked
8.1 Build 214
General
	View and Setting Backward Compatibility: Views from previous versions of FE will now automatically be loaded and upgraded by FE 8.1.
	Help System: The entire Help system has been updated with all 8.1 features and functionality.
Overlays
	UDV -> Geography: • Longitude re-centering is now fully functional for all overlays including background images, shape files, drawing objects and streets and places. Any longitude can be selected to be the “end of the earth”, which avoids the problems with tracking flights from the left and right sides of the map. How: • User Defined View Settings -> Geography has a new field “Center Longitude”. Here you can set the longitude value center in whole numbers from -180 to +180. Each User Defined View can be different.

	UDV -> Weather & Dynamic Overlays: • Weather overlay restructuring now includes new products as well as non-weather products. How: • In Tools -> Options -> Weather you can select to see the classic style full list or the new style product listing. • When options have been set, the product selection drop-down lists in toolbars, Overlay and Quick Weather are reformatted. • The number of Weather layers has been increased to 10 layers and all can now be animated. This includes the User Defined View Settings dialog and the Quick Weather toolbar. How: • User Defined View Settings -> Weather & Dynamic Overlays (formerly Weather Graphics) you can select, by checking the enabling check box, how many layers of weather products you wish to see. Note: It is advisable to not exceed 2 animated products at one time for performance and screen clarity reasons. • All animated weather layers are now synchronized. • You can now pause and restart animated Weather products. How: • Look at the Quick Weather Toolbar and notice the new Run button to start animation. The Run button changes into the Pause button to stop the weather frames from advancing. Click the Run button again to continue. • Weather products can now be grouped by category. How: • Select “Group by Product Type” in the Weather Overlay drop-down section of Options -> Weather. Weather products are then sorted by category or group.

	UDV -> Planes: • Flown point circles can now be color coded based on position source when displaying “Route Flown”. How: • Color coding is set by default, however, you can change these colors in the User Defined Views -> Planes -> Flight Plan section under Route Flown.

	UDV -> Plane Filters: • New Plane Filter criteria have been added to filter on aircraft speed and the new 3PDI defined Priority field. How: • Change settings in User Defined Views -> Planes -> Filters and select Add to open the Add/Edit Plane Filter page. Then select speed and/or priority. Note: Priority is only available if sent to FE via 3PDI.

	UDV -> Airspace Boundary: • Polygon drawing objects can now be created from the points associated with an Airspace Boundary using the Lookup/Go to tool. This object can then be used to color and indicate closed airspace, avoidance areas, etc. and to generate alerts when an aircraft enters or leaves the area. How: • Use the Lookup/Go to tool on the Tools Toolbar, enter an Airspace Boundary ID, press Lookup/Go, then press Create Polygon Drawing Object to open the Create Drawing Object page. This object can then be edited to reflect your needs.
	UDV -> SUA: • Polygon drawing objects can now be created from the points associated with an SUA outline using the Lookup/Go to tool. This object can then be used to color and indicate closed airspace, avoidance areas, etc. and to generate alerts when an aircraft enters or leaves the area. How: • Use the Lookup/Go to tool on the Tools Toolbar, enter an SUA ID, press Lookup/Go, then press Create Polygon Drawing Object to open the Create Drawing Object page. This object can then be edited to reflect your needs.
Weather
	TAF: • Enhanced runway breakdown is now available with a hyper link to “Show runway winds breakdown”. This shows a head/tail/crosswind breakdown for each runway during that TAF time frame. How: • Use Airport Summary to view the TAF. Each time frame has a hyperlink named “show runway winds Breakdown”. Use this hyperlink to see the Head / Tail / Crosswinds breakdown for each runway.
	EDCT Alerting: • “EDCT updated” alert is now available in Event Manager when being sent via 3PDI. How: • In Event Manager, enable this alert by clicking the corresponding row/column. The minimum minutes threshold for this alert can also be set in Flight Alert Systems -> Advanced Settings. Note: Default is set to zero. This was down for backward compatibility. All EDCT changes will alert unless the default is changed. Alerts and threshold are cumulative i.e. When the threshold is set for 10 minutes, and 3 EDCT changes occur, each with a 4 minute or more time difference, an alert is initiated on the 3rd change. You will not be alerted again until 10 more minutes have passes since the last changed occurs.
	ETA alerting: • ETA alerts now have a threshold that can be set for a minimum number of minutes change in ETA before generating an alert. This setting is in the Event Manager -> Advanced dialog. The alerts and threshold are cumulative. I.e. When the threshold is 10 minutes, and 3 ETA changes occur, each with a 4 minute difference later in time, the alert is issued on the 3rd change. The next alert will not be issued until 10 minutes have accumulated since the time of the last alert. How: • In Event Manager, enable this alert by clicking the corresponding row/column. The minimum minutes threshold for this alert can also be set in Flight Alert Systems -> Advanced Settings. Note: Default is set to zero. This was down for backward compatibility. All EDCT changes will alert unless the default is changed. Alerts and threshold are cumulative i.e. When the threshold is set for 10 minutes, and 3 EDCT changes occur, each with a 4 minute or more time difference, an alert is initiated on the 3rd change. You will not be alerted again until 10 more minutes have passes since the last changed occurs.
	My Fleet: • A new alert for when flights are a specified number of minutes past planned departure times can now be generated. This is done using the Flight Alert System -> Advanced Settings dialog. How: • In Event Manager, enable this alert by clicking the corresponding row/column. The minimum minutes threshold for this alert can also be set in Flight Alert Systems -> Advanced Settings. Note: Default is set to 15 minutes.
	Drawing Objects: • Polygon drawing objects can now be graphically created in addition to the already supported ellipse and rectangles. Alerting on aircraft entry and exit has also been added to polygon and rectangle drawing objects. How: • Create polygon objects by pressing the Polygon Drawing Object button on the Cursor Toolbar and follow the on-screen tool tip instructions. • To enable drawing object alerts select Manage Drawing Objects on the Tools Toolbar and select an object, then press Edit or right-click a drawing object that is on-screen and select properties to open the Edit Drawing Object page, then press Advanced. Click the check box in the Alert section. • Select an alert type for Aircraft entered Area and Aircraft Left Area in Event Manager.
	Show Flight Plan: • Up to 10 aircraft can be selected by using the multi-select curser on the Cursor Toolbar. How: • Use the multi-select cursor on the Cursor Toolbar. Click each individual aircraft to highlight or drag a rectangle around a group of aircraft. Then right-click any aircraft that is highlighted and select “Show Flight Plan” from the Context Manu. All filed flight plans for the highlighted aircraft are then displayed.
	FLEX: • Can now set the plane context menu items for single and/or multi-select aircraft, and for the Flex module to access a list of selected aircraft to perform group operations.
	Hot Tips: • The airport ID has now been added on the 2nd line of each hot tip. Airport based objects include METAR, TAF, RVR, and FAA Delays. How: • Enable any of these weather products in Weather & Dynamic Overlays, then hover over an object to see the Hot Tip.
	NAVAID: • Enhanced look up for matching NAVAID IDs by using Lookup/Go to or the Find Toolbar for names that are not globally unique. How: • Use Lookup/Go to on the Tools Toolbar or the Find Toolbar and enter a NAVAID ID. A selection list will open listing all NAVAIDs with the same ID. Select an ID to highlight then press Select. Your screen relocates and places a bulls-eye or specified symbol around the NAVAID.
	Route Analyzer: • FE now converts routes with 3-letter airport IDs internally to ICAO IDs which match the SID/STAR designators and now draws the entire route. How: • Right-click any flight, then select Analyze Routes.
	Flight Check: • Text has been added to advise you that FAA or ICAO ID’s are required for any Flight Check search. IATA IDs are not supported.
	Projected Positions: • You can now find a plane at its projected location when using Lookup / Go To and Find Plane. To enable projection, select “Show Projected Points” in the Flight Projection section of User Defined Views -> Planes. How: • Turn on projected points in User Defined Views -> Planes. Use Lookup/Go To, Find a Plane, an event from the Event List, or a My Fleet entry. Right-click the aircraft and select Route Flown. The projected flight path is depicted in front of the plane.
Interfaces
	Desktop Interface SOAP Transport: • Allows all Desktop Interface functionality to be accessed using an industry standard SOAP based Web Service protocol. How: • Test with the updated Desktop Interface SDK tester application or by adding to your own application.
Bug Fixes
	Corrected a problem in the Desktop and Sabre Interface that occasionally, did not correctly load aircraft into My Fleet depending on the length of the ACID and source platform from which they were received.
	Airport Range Rings remain visible even when the airport has moved off the edge of the map.
	Tool tip lines correct the problem when some blank lines appear in the RVR tool tip pop-up. Now, all runways are shown (up to 3) on the tool-tip lines, not just those with RVR < 6000.

New Features in 8.0b

	Enhancements to allow display of FE projected flight positions in the absence of real position reports (see Help system for a full description of how this works and how to utilize it) (UD View, Plane settings).
	Updated Plane Properties dialog to show "Proj" for projected position reports in the Position History list.
	Updated Plane Properties dialog to show the valid time of each position report in the Position History list.
	Corrected an issue with the Plane Properties dialog where the first two position reports after initialization had incomplete information.
	Corrected problem where route ETE and distance thresholds were always set to default values. Thresholds now take affect immediately after they are changed (Event Manager, Advanced settings).
	Enhancements to filter out "plane-turn-around" display errors when position reports are received out of chronological order.
	Added "Distance off route" as a field that is displayable on the tag in real-time for all flights (UD View, Plane tags).
	Corrected plane heading while in coast mode without at least two unique previous position reports to determine heading.
	Enhanced My Fleet leg data entry and list display to correctly show day and hour if supplied and show a blank field if not supplied.

New Features in 8.0a

	Corrected problem with "Analyze routes..." where all route entries were there same.
	Enhanced "Analyze routes..." to show ALL route changes for the entire history of the flight leg.
	Corrected problem with "Copy to ad hoc" and "Copy to clipboard" in Route Analyzer.

New Features in 8.0

Weather products

New Meteorlogix worldwide, High Level Sig chart forecast package (icing, turbulence, thunderstorms, heights, lows, tropical cyclones, volcanoes, jet streams)

Guam, Alaska, Hawaii, Rainfall estimate, new echo tops and storm attributes products added to existing Meteorlogix packages

New Ensco Plus package including CONUS NEXRAD, San Juan, Hawaii, Alaska, Guam, Echo tops, IR and Visible Satellite

Adjust arrows in Radar Summary/Echo tops/CCFP products dynamically based on zoom level

Overlays

New North Atlantic & Pacific Tracks overlays

GUI

New user defined toolbar buttons that link to URLs

Ability to select multiple aircraft and perform group operations on selected aircraft (new cursor mode)

User Defined Views

Full backward compatibility with previous versions

User Defined Aircraft Tags

Allow filtering of position reports (and coloring of aircraft) based on source

Expand Plane Range rings to support custom, aircraft type based speeds

Static data

Updated 56-day static database

Added world-wide SUAs

Added country names (under Geography Settings)

Route analyzer

Renamed from Route Check

Added the ability to analyze current, previous and original routes for a given flight (on the Plane right click context menu)

Event System

Added event for aircraft deviation from route for My Fleet aircraft

Added event for route distance change for My Fleet aircraft

Added event for route ETE change for My Fleet aircraft

My Fleet

Expand My Fleet to allow specification of Flight legs (via manual, update file and Desktop interface methods)

4D modeling

Provides calculation of ETE and distance of routes to feed Route Analyzer and aircraft tags

Interfaces

Enhanced Desktop interface to allow routes to include list of points and range ring info

Enhanced 3PDI (3rd party data) interface to include pre-flight message and flight details messages

Miscellaneous

km option for distances

Bug fixes

Route Analyzer: Ad hoc and list now work together (previously, using ad-hoc would keep list routes from drawing)

Correct problem where ini Flex based events were not active in Premier Edition

Add Flight plan updated event to premier Edition

New Features in 7.5b

	Add events to Professional Premier Edition (ETA change, destination change and near destination)
	Fixed bug where Flight Plan Updated event pre-flight would cause a fault
	Modify status change handling code to ensure flight list is always current and departure events are triggered properly
	Change daily record option (/Q) to start a new file with an appended letter (a, b, c, etc.) if FE is restarted in a single day
	Corrected fault on certain instances of watch/warning product processing with WSI On-site interface

New Features in 7.5a

	Corrected a 3D problem where the earth was not being shown at times on some machines
	Eliminated airport range ring limit of 500 miles
	Route Exchange Desktop Interface messages now function correctly with the new account right setting
	My Fleet now shows planned flights properly when more than about 320 flights are entered into My Fleet
	Changed title bar for Online Reporting Tool to match the page displayed: "Online"
	Corrected problem where My Fleet file import would not load the full 500 flights due to duplicates and blank lines in import file
	Added the generation of a My Fleet Update event when My Fleet is updated via the import file

New Features in 7.5

Aircraft are now represented in 3D space in spherical mode, along with flight plans, route flown, history trail, velocity vectors, range rings (cones), etc.

In 3D spherical mode, aircraft now have hot tip pop-ups and can be right clicked to access the standard aircraft context menu

Route flown in 3D mode includes the altitude component

3D mode now includes enhanced navigation capabilities


		Keyboard: Up/Dn/Lt/Rt = rotate, Shift-Up/Dn = Zoom in/out, Alt-Up/Dn/Lt/Rt = shift earth on axis
		Mouse: Hold left button + move mouse = rotate, Shift + Hold left button + move mouse = Zoom in/out, Alt + Hold left button + mouse move = shift earth on axis
		Scroll wheel = Zoom in/out

New "Quick Plane" toolbar, exposes the most used plane operations and make them available with one-click

New "Quick Weather" toolbar, exposes the most used weather operations and makes them available with one or two clicks (i.e. selecting a product on any weather layer, turn animation on or off, etc.)

On-line reporting tool now allows historical query of aircraft and airport information

Position report altitude, speed and source is now available in the Plane Properties position history

A new package of weather products from Meteorlogix have been added to the suite of 3rd party weather Flight Explorer resells


		1km, 5min contoured CONUS NEXRAD
		CONUS graphical echo tops
		Canadian radar
		Airmets
		Sigmets
		Convective Sigmets
		Watches/warnings
		North Pacific Visible Satellite
		US Visible Satellite
		Direct link to the Meteorlogix Aviation Sentry product from within Flight Explorer Professional

New "Diversion line" feature draws a diversion line on-screen, to the new and previous airports as they occur

Flight Explorer now includes a fully integrated, worldwide, verified 424 navigation data set (fixes, navaids, airways, airports, SIDs, STARs, runways, etc.)

New "great circle" line capability for flight plan and route flown drawing

Updated FAA database to 5/10/07 revision

Added full world default to Auto Zoom feature when no aircraft match filter criteria

Bug fixes


		Fixed a bug in the Emergency Diversion tool where international airport IDs were not in the list and not shown on-screen in the View filters
		Corrected bug where accounts marked as "Do not notify about updates" were still getting notifications
		Fixed bug induced in 7.1 which caused ELI Airport items to be cleared and not displayed
		Fixed fault in LKL tag drawing
		Corrected runway heading display when the Mag Var caused it to wrap at 0/360 degrees

New Features in 7.1

	Airport runway winds breakdown in Airport Summary (head, tail and crosswinds breakdown for each runway)
	D-ATIS now available as an add-on service within Flight Explorer Airport Summary
	All FAA delays are now right clickable and hot tipable
	New lat/lon grid type (dot at each 1 degree corner point) (View settings, Lat/lon)
	Color coded flight status analysis
	Dynamic zoom level adjustment to encompass all aircraft in current View filters (View settings, Plane filters)
	Mouse wheel setting to select between scroll and zoom (Options, General)
	Route flown history is now cleared if a helicopter goes back to in-flight state
	Colors can now be set for runway drawing (View settings, Airports)
	Flight Explorer logo watermark option (Options, Desktop)
	Route Check title bar text corrected

New Features in 7.0a

	Corrected a problem with the display of properties text in Airmets/Sigmets from an on-site WSI feed
	Fixed the use of the ESC key to exit full screen mode
	Hide and redisplay the Windows task bar only when using full screen mode on the main monitor
	Corrected a problem with plane range rings and drawing objects being displayed at the wrong location when Parked planes were displayed
	Corrected a problem where plane range rings were incorrectly depicted when in Coast mode
	Made the airport range ring color selection button visible again
	Includes 1/18/07 static database update

New Features in 7.0

Route Check now includes full support for ICAO route decode and display

Added the ability in Route Check to show/hide point names along a route

Added the ability in Route Check to select colors for various route sections and types as well as control labels and whether airway intersection points are shown

New spherical projection provides a more accurate depiction of worldwide air traffic, weather and overlays. All existing Flight Explorer overlays map into the spherical view automatically.

New dynamic aircraft range rings: Allows you to turn on a dynamic range ring around any aircraft or all aircraft. The range ring can be based on minutes at current speed, minutes at 389 knots, miles based on RLOS (Radio Line of Sight), a fixed number of miles, or screen pixels (the speed based settings are useful for ETOPS).

New option to choose what to display for airport labels: FAA/ICAO (old style), ICAO, IATA

New worldwide airspace boundaries including: ADA, ADIZ, ARTCC, ACC, BZ, CTA, CTLZ, FIR, OCA, Radar Areas, TCA and UIRs. Airspace boundary labels can be either the ID or full name. Airspace boundaries can be filtered by type, airspace class and altitude.

Airports can now be filtered based on runway length

Runways can now be drawn for airports worldwide. Zoom level for runways and runway labels can be controlled independent of the airports themselves.

Drawing objects can now be created at an aircraft's current location based on RLOS (Radio Line of Sight) criteria, and can have the transparency level set for the fill color.

Pop-up tooltips are now active for all overlays that support the mouse selection circle (i.e. Airmets, Sigmets, METAR, CCFP, RVR, etc.)

New "Emergency diversion" tool allows the user to quickly find a set of airports matching certain criteria in the event of an emergency requiring a diversion to an alternate airport.

New "Flight plan received" event (for My Fleet aircraft only)

New "Schedule data received" event (for My Fleet aircraft only)

Left clicking an airport event in the event list will now "Got to" that airport just as it does for aircraft

Added full 2-hour animation support for NASA FACET airport and sector loading weather products

Added the ability to select alphanumeric (old style) or Flight ID sorting for ACIDs in the flight list and My Fleet Status list (see Tools, Options, General)

Added complete support for TN* and LN* prefixes in the Find Plane dialog and the Find toolbar.

Added complete support for TN* and LN* prefixes in UDView filters; i.e. entering only the N # in a filter will display TN and LN versions automatically. (entering the TN or LN version will display ONLY the TN or LN version respectively)

Enhanced full screen mode: Full screen mode in multiple monitor set-ups will now, by default, use the current monitor instead of only the main (Windows default) monitor, so you can go full screen on any monitor in a multi-monitor set-up. Also, a Tools, Options, Desktop setting will allow you to go full screen across ALL monitors in a multi-monitor set-up.

Full FAA 11/23/06 static data update

Worldwide cities have been updated and have much better coverage internationally, as well as using the English versions of most all city names. This will also help the Find plane dialog to use a closer point of reference when identifying position of an aircraft relative to the nearest city, especially internationally.

The My Fleet Status list can now be sorted separately by departure time and ETA in split mode

NavTeq maps updated to Q3 06 revision (requires separate installation CD)

Full UDView and System setting compatibility with previous FE Pro versions. All User Defined Views and system settings will be maintained after upgrading to FE Professional 7.0.

Previous bugs fixed


		Corrected a bug where the Route Check dialog would not open if the dialog size had changed between FE versions
		Fixed a bug where FE crashed when manually adjusting filter groups with more than 500 items in the list
		Airport Summary RVR tab now displays 12/24 hour times correctly based on the user's FE settings
		Fixed a bug where using "Zoom in x 10" six times put you back at full world view

New Features in 6.2

	Proactive airport alerting based on METAR, RVR, FAA airport delays and diversions.
	New graphical animated TAF weather product (worldwide).
	New Event system mode to allow events to be generated based on the currently selected User Defined View.
	Enhanced Desktop Interface Route Check integration allowing multiple routes to be displayed in the Route Check list (from a third party system) as well as controlling display and dialog options.
	Added GEOTiff support to the background image overlay.
	New 'TAF Bar' graphical TAF depiction on Airport Summary.
	Changed display of FEAs to use dashed lines and hollow circles as opposed to solid lines and circles for FCAs to better differentiate without drilling down into properties.
	Added link to Help menu for the Flight Explorer Customer Portal.
	Corrected a Route Check problem where some improperly formatted STARs caused FE to crash when displayed.
	Changed the minimum surface level setting to default to 'Unknown' (indicating that report data is not available for that station) so all stations remain on-screen, even during the last few hours of a TAF animation.

New Features in 6.1a

	New FCA/FEA (Flow Constrained Area/Flow Evaluation Area) weather product for Class 1 users. FCA/FEAs can be right clicked for complete details.
	New AFP (Airspace Flow Program) weather product for Class 1 and Class 2 users. AFP objects can be right clicked for details on the delay and what flights are affected.
	My Fleet Status list can now be set to observe UDView Plane filter settings (see My Fleet Status List Settings dialog). This allows a customer to keep My Fleet set to their entire Fleet (i.e. AAL) but filter the Status list to show only the flights they are interested in out of that entire Fleet. i.e. Individual UDViews can have plane filters set to show city pairs and the corresponding geographical region and the My Fleet Status list will automatically filter to show only those aircraft defined in the currently selected User Defined View.
	Latest static data (6/8/06).
	Route Check: A new check has been added to test for invalid points along a route. i.e. in certain cases the FAA data set has errors which cause a plotted route to go hundreds of miles off course then back. This new check will help detect these cases and will ignore the far off point and draw a dashed line between the two adjacent points to indicate to the user that an anomaly exists in the route string.
	Route Check: Some additional tests have been put in place to select the proper NAVAID when more then one exists with the same ID.
	Corrected bug where Secondary Server IP address on Logon Options dialog would not accept a blank entry under Win2000, Win2003 and WinXP64bit.
	Corrected a bug where a scratchpad entry in My Fleet could not be cleared; a blank entry was not accepted.
	Corrected a bug where Planned and Scheduled flights in a My Fleet Status list print out had their fields shifted left one column.
	Corrected a situation where a duplicate entry sent to FE via the Desktop Interface would, at times, cause corruption in the System Settings, appearing as a deselected My Fleet mode radio button.
	Changed Support phone number in the Support/Contact dialog.
	Corrected a bug where the UDView SUA filter entry box would not allow more than 10 characters (SUAs with names > 10 characters could not be added to the filter list).
	Corrected a bug where a SUA with an interim space in it's ID could not be looked up in the Look up / Goto dialog.
	Enabled all ini file path definitions to support environment variable tokens such as %USERNAME% and %COMPUTERNAME%.
	Added full raw TAF text at the top of the TAF Airport Summary page.

New Features in 6.1

	My Notes: Full, rich text, formatted notes that can be associated with any aircraft ID or airport and updated and maintained manually or by a third party automated system.
	Integrated, 56-day static database update indicator and installation function
	Support for SIDs and STARs in Route Check
	In Route Check, if a token is not recognized, that route segment will be colored differently than the rest of the route
	Total distance along a route is displayed in the Route Check list and below the ad hoc route text field
	The Route Check list can now be sorted on any field by clicking on the column header
	The sequence field has been increased to 4 characters maximum for company routes
	Ability to export the My Fleet list to a text file
	Indicate when an aircraft is "on ground" in Find Plane if enabled by the user and supported for the particular aircraft
	For on ground aircraft (if enabled and supported), the status line will not start showing status until the aircraft is off the ground
	Voice alerts will now spell a 3-letter airline ID if the spoken name is not available in the database instead of saying "unknown airline"
	Enabled animation for Surface Summary weather product
	Added support for FAA/ICAO/IATA airport IDs in the Desktop and Sabre interfaces
	Added the aircraft type to Parked plane tags
	Accounted for an FAA RVR bug where some runways show zero visibility while others at the same airport show unlimited. The FAA bug was causing the RVR weather product color codes to appear incorrect at times.
	Corrected a bug with the GDT editor where an initial layer could not be created with a new GDT file
	Full compliance with the updated NBAA BARR code of conduct. Aircraft type on tags now appear as "BLKD" for blocked aircraft.
	Changed "Current position" to "Last reported position" on the Flight List

New Features in 6.0a

	Static data updated to latest 56-day update release (04/13/06)
	Corrected a problem where the /F command line option did not override the ini file settings as it should
	Corrected a problem where some routes were not plotting properly (would draw a line to a far away point instead of the correct route point)
	Corrected a problem where some drop down lists under Filter Groups and the GDT editor were not operating properly under non-XP operating systems
	Corrected a problem where the usage time-out was ignored in certain cases if the user started FE but never manipulated the map screen
	Corrected a problem where USA land lines did not draw in certain rare situations
	Corrected a problem where the My Fleet update via DTInt, Sabre or update file would stop if a duplicate entry were detected
	Cosmetic change to tag destination field display for parked aircraft when destination is not known
	Cosmetic change to not display the "Recalculating..." message when in playback mode

New Features in 6.0

Airport Summary

Category: General

Completely reorganized into a tabbed format to provide flexibility and more detail.

Added NOTAMs (notice to airmen) and PIREPs (pilot weather reports).

METAR shows ceiling and flight category.

Diversion Summary has been added to provide airport diversion data. Includes: number of diversions to and from an airport, flight identification, previous and current destinations, and flight status.

Real-time RVR with tabular and graphical detail for each runway have been added. An optional single airport "Watch" window has also been added which updates every minute.

Added a link to current FAA airport diagrams.

Cellular Pilot data has been added.

Complete airport details including all runway information has been added.

My Fleet

Category: General

Added the Scratch pad to Aircraft Selection. It can now be set by any My Fleet update method; i.e. manual, DTInt, or Update file.

Can now be imported from a formatted text file. Flight Explorer automatically senses changes and updates My Fleet immediately.

Up to 500 aircraft IDs can now be added to My Fleet.

NASA FACET integration

Category: General

NASA FACET sector loading weather product. Graphically shows multiple levels of sectors approaching capacity or over capacity. A FACET sector can be right-clicked to see detailed loading predictions. FACET sector count (Flying/Planned) is the instantaneous maximum number of aircraft (Flying/Planned) that will be in the sector during a 15 minute period. Updates every 15 minutes. Sectors are color coded and are described in the Map Legend.

NASA FACET airport loading weather product. Graphically shows airports approaching capacity or over capacity for arrivals and departures. FACET Airport count is the total Arrivals and Departures during a 15 minute period. A FACET airport can be right-clicked to see detailed loading predictions. Updates every 15 minutes. Airports are color coded and are described in the Map Legend.

Ensco forecast (weather package)

Category: General

Ensco predictive weather products are now available and can be animated and viewed in real-time. Products include 6-hour forecasts for:


	Reflectivity (composite)
	Echo tops
	Clouds
	Turbulence (low level, connective, and clear air)
	Icing
	Winds

Temperatures (surface and aloft)

Diversion Summary (weather product)

Category: General

At-a-glance national diversion status information with a right-click menu for diverted flight details. The arrow color coding is based on the FROM airport diversion count. Updates are loaded every 5 minutes.

Labels are available for Diversion Summary through Weather Graphics.

RVR (weather product)

Category: General

Runway Visual Range. At-a-glance national RVR status at airports supported by the FAA, along with a right-click menu to see full current runway details in a tabular format and past 3 hours in a graphical format. Updates are loaded every 5 minutes. A real-time, up-to-the minute feed of RVR data is received from airports indicated on the weather overlay. Airport Summary data is always current upon request.

Labels are available for RVR through Weather Graphics.

Surface Summary (weather product)

Category: General

METAR surface weather depiction product. At-a-glance worldwide view of METAR based flight category conditions with a right-click menu for complete current and historical, raw and decoded details. Updates are loaded every 5 minutes.

Labels are available for Surface Summary through Weather Graphics.

FAA Delays

Category: General

Labels are available through Weather Graphics.

History Trail

Category: General

Expanded from 10 to 15 points

Added new option for style of history trail line, to see reported positions better especially with 20 second data.

3rd Party Integration

Category: General

The Desktop Interface has been enhanced to run with TCP socket and Windows messaging.

Event Log File Fields

Category: General

The option has been added to use or remove spaces between fields in the log file for easier searching and manipulation in other applications.

The option has been added to include Scratch pad information along with an event to the Log file.

Flight Alert Event Profile

Category: General

Destination change events can now be logged without regard to event profile settings.

Backgrounds

Category: General

The NASA world terrain imagery is now included as part of the Flight Explorer installation package.

FE.ini text file

Category: General

Custom paths can now be set to:


	FilterGroups
	Weather Products
	MyFleet Update file
	Maps
	Shape Files
	System Settings
	User Defined Views
	Drawing Objects
	Logs
	Company Route File

Useful in shared, networked environments so multiple users may use a common filter.

A sample .ini file is now available with a new installation.

Route Check

Category: General

Supports full decoding of route strings in both dotted (FAA ASDI route) and space (Preferred/CDR) delimited notations.

Support includes:


	fix/radials
	lat/lon
	airways
	radial/airways intersections
	airway/airway intersections

3rd party routes can be received and evaluated with the Route Check tool.

Includes route messaging for 3rd party routing information using the Desktop Interface

Supports 3 and 4 letter airport IDs. Example: When JFK is used as an origin or destination filter, JFK and KJFK are included.

Filter Groups

Category: General

Support has been added to create filter groups for Airports, NAVAIDs, and Fixes to enhance Selection lists in User Defined Views.


	To include in any User Defined View (see Airport, Fix, and NAVAID User Defined View Settings).
	To filter the 4 FE generated weather overlays (Surface Summary, Diversion Summary, RVR, and FAA Delays), and show only for a certain set of airports.

Can be defined using Options or can be written to a text file manually or automatically by a third party system.

A setting has been added to FE.ini file to set the location for Flight Explorer to look for the files. Useful to define one set of filter groups on a networked drive for all users which makes updating simpler when in one place.

Flight List

Category: General

Three new columns have been added:


	Current Position - in latitude/longitude
	ToDest - miles to a destination
	Scratchpad - information from Plane properties

Lat / Long

Category: General

Choices have been expanded for selecting the lat/lon log file format:


	The FE system default
	Signed Decimal Degrees
	Decimal Degrees
	Degrees & Decimal Minutes

User Defined Views

Category: General

Can now add up to 100 User Defined Views for more flexibility.

Shape Files

Category: Overlays

FE now supports industry standard ESRI shape files.

Display Shape files created by third parties or create shape files to FE defined specs to enable enhanced features (labels, alpha shading, etc.)

A Volcano sample is now included with Flight Explorer installation, as a demo of Shape File support.

Static database update

Category: Overlays

Sectors

Centers

TRACONs

Airways

Communication facilities

SUA

Airport

Airlines

Aircraft types

Fixes

NAVAIDs

Weather stations

Flight Service Stations

Preferred routes

CDR

Airport Database

Category: Overlays

Has been updated with current FAA, DAFIF, and Jeppesen data.

Time Zones

Category: Overlays

Labels have been added to all worldwide time-zones.

Overlay lines are updated for Indiana, Newfoundland, Greenland, Portugal, and New Zealand.

Airways

Category: Overlays

Added the ability to draw airway point names along airways.

Added enhancement to make sure labels are always drawn on the airway.

Support added for world-wide airways. Colored airway IDs are displayed. Categories include Low, High, and Other (new).

Updated using current FAA data.

Planes Filters

Category: Overlays

Includes diverted planes when current or previous destination matches filters.

Added the ability to keep diverted aircraft on screen even when diverted to a destination no longer in the User Defined View Filter (see Plane Filter -> Add/Edit).

Geography Settings

Category: Overlays

Modified to allow land boundary lines to be visible on top of weather, background images, and shape files.

Weather Graphics

Category: Overlays

A new page has been added, Product Properties, to make room for more capabilities.

Labels are now available.

Background Images

Category: Overlays

Added a full GDT File Editor to create multiple layer background maps without having to manipulate the GDT file directly. GDT files can still be manipulated manually.

Multiple levels of Background maps are now supported.

FLIGHT TRACKING