AirPlanLite

Hello RAP newsgroup pilots, posters and lurkers,

I posted a message a couple weeks ago about a new product that I put out
called AirPlanLite. I was wondering how many people in RAP have actually
tried it, and if they have any feedback they would like to share.

I know that because I am asking for $5.00 per database update but not
charging for the software, certain individuals who frequent this newsgroup
believe that I am *gasp*, a spammer. I think that those individuals have an
over-inflated sense of self-importance, and don't undersand the egalitarian
nature of the internet or newsgroups. I fully expect a number of flames in
response to this post, so have donned my Nomex undergarments.

The truth is that I am a pilot who has created a piece of software that I
have decided to share in as low a cost way as I can. I have no illusions
about making any significant amount of money from my product. That has not
happened over the past 6 years. I certainly have not made enough money to
compensate all of the time and effort I have invested in writing this
software. I haven't broken even on the booth I had at Oshkosh this year
(first time there). I have had a few years where I have actually had to pay
some taxes on my earnings from AirPlan (side business). Being an engineer,
I'll be the first to admit that I'm not a marketing whiz, but that's OK with
me. I have met too many marketing types who have zero ethics.

The decision to create AirPlanLite in addition to my standard payware
version of AirPlan was to get back to my original intent of putting
something in the hands of pilots to aid their flight planning process in a
very affordable way. This is exactly what I was looking for back in 1997
when I decided to write AirPlan in the first place.

AOPA and the EAA have done pilots a service by putting out their freeware
planners, but the main limitation of both of those options is that they only
work on the internet. If you have a laptop but aren't connected, you can't
use them. AirPlanLite is meant to provide an equivalent level of capability
to what the EAA and AOPA are offering without having to be online.
AirPlanLite is capable of transferring planned routes between the EAA
(Aeroplanner) free planner and itself using the Import/Export functions.
Unfortunately this can't be done with the AOPA planner.

So, back to the original question. Have you tried AirPlanLite? Do you use
it? Do you like it? Am I annoying you with this post?

Sincerely,

Dean Wilkinson
Razor's Edge Software
http://www.razorsedgesoft.com/airplan.htm

If you write it in C, could you compile it for different platforms?
I could run it on my Mac without Virtual Windows.

Dean Wilkinson wrote:
Hello RAP newsgroup pilots, posters and lurkers,

I posted a message a couple weeks ago about a new product that I put out
called AirPlanLite. I was wondering how many people in RAP have actually
tried it, and if they have any feedback they would like to share.

I know that because I am asking for $5.00 per database update but not
charging for the software, certain individuals who frequent this newsgroup
believe that I am *gasp*, a spammer. I think that those individuals have an
over-inflated sense of self-importance, and don't undersand the egalitarian
nature of the internet or newsgroups. I fully expect a number of flames in
response to this post, so have donned my Nomex undergarments.

The truth is that I am a pilot who has created a piece of software that I
have decided to share in as low a cost way as I can. I have no illusions
about making any significant amount of money from my product. That has not
happened over the past 6 years. I certainly have not made enough money to
compensate all of the time and effort I have invested in writing this
software. I haven't broken even on the booth I had at Oshkosh this year
(first time there). I have had a few years where I have actually had to pay
some taxes on my earnings from AirPlan (side business). Being an engineer,
I'll be the first to admit that I'm not a marketing whiz, but that's OK with
me. I have met too many marketing types who have zero ethics.

The decision to create AirPlanLite in addition to my standard payware
version of AirPlan was to get back to my original intent of putting
something in the hands of pilots to aid their flight planning process in a
very affordable way. This is exactly what I was looking for back in 1997
when I decided to write AirPlan in the first place.

AOPA and the EAA have done pilots a service by putting out their freeware
planners, but the main limitation of both of those options is that they only
work on the internet. If you have a laptop but aren't connected, you can't
use them. AirPlanLite is meant to provide an equivalent level of capability
to what the EAA and AOPA are offering without having to be online.
AirPlanLite is capable of transferring planned routes between the EAA
(Aeroplanner) free planner and itself using the Import/Export functions.
Unfortunately this can't be done with the AOPA planner.

So, back to the original question. Have you tried AirPlanLite? Do you use
it? Do you like it? Am I annoying you with this post?

Sincerely,

Dean Wilkinson
Razor's Edge Software
http://www.razorsedgesoft.com/airplan.htm

Hi John,

Sorry, but I wrote it in Pascal, and I can't afford to buy a MacIntosh, the
Apple development tools, and spend all the time it would take to translate
it to the Mac. The only option right now is to run it under Virtual PC.

Dean Wilkinson

"john smith" wrote in message
...
If you write it in C, could you compile it for different platforms?
I could run it on my Mac without Virtual Windows.

Dean Wilkinson wrote:
Hello RAP newsgroup pilots, posters and lurkers,

I posted a message a couple weeks ago about a new product that I put out
called AirPlanLite. I was wondering how many people in RAP have
actually
tried it, and if they have any feedback they would like to share.

I know that because I am asking for $5.00 per database update but not
charging for the software, certain individuals who frequent this
newsgroup
believe that I am *gasp*, a spammer. I think that those individuals
have an
over-inflated sense of self-importance, and don't undersand the
egalitarian
nature of the internet or newsgroups. I fully expect a number of flames
in
response to this post, so have donned my Nomex undergarments.

The truth is that I am a pilot who has created a piece of software that
I
have decided to share in as low a cost way as I can. I have no
illusions
about making any significant amount of money from my product. That has
not
happened over the past 6 years. I certainly have not made enough money
to
compensate all of the time and effort I have invested in writing this
software. I haven't broken even on the booth I had at Oshkosh this year
(first time there). I have had a few years where I have actually had to
pay
some taxes on my earnings from AirPlan (side business). Being an
engineer,
I'll be the first to admit that I'm not a marketing whiz, but that's OK
with
me. I have met too many marketing types who have zero ethics.

The decision to create AirPlanLite in addition to my standard payware
version of AirPlan was to get back to my original intent of putting
something in the hands of pilots to aid their flight planning process in
a
very affordable way. This is exactly what I was looking for back in
1997
when I decided to write AirPlan in the first place.

AOPA and the EAA have done pilots a service by putting out their
freeware
planners, but the main limitation of both of those options is that they
only
work on the internet. If you have a laptop but aren't connected, you
can't
use them. AirPlanLite is meant to provide an equivalent level of
capability
to what the EAA and AOPA are offering without having to be online.
AirPlanLite is capable of transferring planned routes between the EAA
(Aeroplanner) free planner and itself using the Import/Export functions.
Unfortunately this can't be done with the AOPA planner.

So, back to the original question. Have you tried AirPlanLite? Do you
use
it? Do you like it? Am I annoying you with this post?

Sincerely,

Dean Wilkinson
Razor's Edge Software
http://www.razorsedgesoft.com/airplan.htm

On Fri, 1 Oct 2004 09:15:36 -0600, "Dean Wilkinson"
wrote:

I think that those individuals have an
over-inflated sense of self-importance, and don't undersand the egalitarian
nature of the internet or newsgroups.

I do understand that their are literally thousands of aviation
products available and if each vendor did what you did these news
groups would be unusable because it would be impossible to separate
the advertisements from any real content. Your single post is not a
problem as long as you are the only one doing it, but if you can do it
what stops the flood of others with products to advertise. A single
SPAM is not a problem, it is the thousands that follow.

In article , "Dean Wilkinson"
wrote:

"nospam" eh?

*plonk*

--
Bob Noel
Seen on Kerry's campaign airplane: "the real deal"
oh yeah baby.

As I recall, the Aeroplanner.com guys posted to this newsgroup
regularly back in the days when they offered their service for free,
and no one had a problem with that. Of course, there was much
complaining when they started charging for their service. I am kind
of doing the opposite. I am taking something that I have been
charging money for and making a basic version that is free to download
and use. I cannot provide database updates for free, that just isn't
realistic or feasible. However, I am making them quite inexpensive
compared to the big boys. If I am going to provide something for
free, how am I going to advertise it to pilots if I can't pay for
advertising? Posting on usenet seems to be a reasonable means of
getting the word out. If Jeppesen posted messages here advertising
Flite Star for a low low prices of $199 then I would expect the kind
of response that I got with my previous post. Where do you draw the
line?


ArtP wrote in message . ..
On Fri, 1 Oct 2004 09:15:36 -0600, "Dean Wilkinson"
wrote:

I think that those individuals have an
over-inflated sense of self-importance, and don't undersand the egalitarian
nature of the internet or newsgroups.

I do understand that their are literally thousands of aviation
products available and if each vendor did what you did these news
groups would be unusable because it would be impossible to separate
the advertisements from any real content. Your single post is not a
problem as long as you are the only one doing it, but if you can do it
what stops the flood of others with products to advertise. A single
SPAM is not a problem, it is the thousands that follow.

On 1 Oct 2004 16:58:03 -0700, (Dean
Wilkinson) wrote:

Posting on usenet seems to be a reasonable means of
getting the word out. If Jeppesen posted messages here advertising
Flite Star for a low low prices of $199 then I would expect the kind
of response that I got with my previous post. Where do you draw the
line?

Post on Rec.Aviation.Products. I draw the line anytime any money is
required to use a product or whenever the product is only a gateway to
a premium service. I am bombarded daily by "free" offers (just pay
S&H). Dell is now offering "free" Dell branded printers when you by a
computer (the Dell branded ink cartridge for the printer is $50).

The Co-Pilot program for my PDA is free and so are the database
updates (although you are encouraged to contribute, you are not
required to). That is free, and as much as I like the program, I would
not like to see it being advertised in this news group.

Dean Wilkinson wrote:

Sorry, but I wrote it in Pascal,

Hey Dean...being a software guy, I'm curious as to why the decision to
write it in Pascal? Thinking of Pascal takes me back to my college days.

"Dean Wilkinson" writes:


Sorry, but I wrote it in Pascal, and I can't afford to buy a MacIntosh, the
Apple development tools, and spend all the time it would take to translate
it to the Mac. The only option right now is to run it under Virtual PC.

Hm, I think the development tools are free. But your point is valid,
no doubt, the computer and your time definitely have a price tag.

If you ever decide to port your software to Mac OS X, I'll be happy to
loan you a Mac of recent vintage. No compensation expected, and I will
even pay for my copy of AirPlan for OS X.

Consider that there are no flight planning software native to OS X, and
not everyone owns Virtual PC (if I wanted a PC, I'd get one...) so there
may be a market out there.

Best,

-jav

Hi Jack, (not to be said near a TSA agent)

A couple of reasons.

1. I like Pascal better than C. Its easier to work with, and is less
prone to having bugs slip past the compiler.

2. Delphi is a very well designed development tool, and I like
Borland tools better than Microsoft's.

Dean

Jack Allison wrote in message nk.net...
Dean Wilkinson wrote:

Sorry, but I wrote it in Pascal,

Hey Dean...being a software guy, I'm curious as to why the decision to
write it in Pascal? Thinking of Pascal takes me back to my college days.