EFIS 98, Part 2
By Simon Sparkes (3 June 1999)
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discussed in my previous article, EFIS 98 is basically two programs:
the FMC system and a comprehensive flight planner. This article will
deal with the flight planner which is a major piece of software in
itself.
The first thing you have to do is turn the map on so you have
something to work on. Once you have done that you can use the menu
bar to zoom in the selected map center which is activated with a
click on the right mouse button as I have shown in the first picture
as the UK with airports and fixes selected. Then using the tab menus
on the left of the main screen you have to select a departure and
arrival airport. If you are using one of the airports supported by
full EFIS progamming you will also have to select SIDs (standard
instrument departures) and STARs (standard approach routes) in order
to be true to life. You will then get the display in the first
picture with a straight line between departure and arrival which you
can use if you like.
Being as we are all mainly obsessed with realism we now have to
select our airways. EFIS 98 really does have a huge database of
airways. Someone e-mailed me after my first article saying he thought
the position of NAVAIDS was incorrect but having checked my UK
military Flight Information Publication the European database is
certainly accurate to within 10 decimal minutes of a degree. All this
info unfortunately leads to the second picture when you have selected
your airways.
A complex picture with little to guide the user on which airway is which unless you have access to actual airways charts (which luckily I do).
It is then necessary to select your airway using a right click at
each fix whereupon you are presented with a menu as shown in picture
3. This again is a little confusing because if you do not have a
chart and don't have a mind full of airways fixes you end up choosing
the wrong way to go down an airway.
Once this is complete you have made your flight plan and can then
save it for use in a subsequent session of FS & EFIS where you call
it up.
Although there are a few problems with this software as I have indicated it has a truly enormous database and a relatively easy interface. I am sure that the designer will cure these in due course as I would like this style of software for my real-life aviation planning. Don't forget there is an author Chris Brett's web site at www.flight-nav.com
Simon Sparkes
ruth.sparkes@lineone.net