WinPilot 8 AAT Bug - MTP's jump outside area

At the Seniors in Florida this year, I found out the hard way that
WinPilot V8 AAT (Turn Area) mobile turnpoints will happily jump
outside their respective area circles if you select 'Turn Here' while
you are outside the active circle, EVEN IF YOU HAVE THE 'KEEP MTPS
INSIDE CIRCLE' OPTION CHECKED!

The task had three overlapping (the first and 3rd overlapped but
adjacent ones didn't, so it was still legal) circles, so it was very
difficult to tell just from the moving map which circle was which, and
when several gliders in front of me all turned at the same place, I
selected 'Turn Here', verified that the MTP symbol jumped to my
current location (silly me - I thought that confirmed that I was in
the active circle!), and turned with the group. Zero for the day :-(

There are some cases, of course, where the pilot needs the ability to
'Turn Here' OUTSIDE the active turn area (pilot just nicks a turn
area, but forgets to 'Turn Here' while still inside). However, even
in this case, the MTP should NEVER go outside the active turn area
circle, and the pilot should receive a 'Are you sure you want to do
this?' warning. Also, it would be really useful if WinPilot were to
issue a warning (in addition to the above 'Are you sure' warning) if
the pilot has not logged any points inside the active turn area.

I would love to post this issue on the WinPilot 'developer forum' but
I've never been able to join it and the developer hasn't responded to
my other bug reports/issues. Since he doesn't (at least not to me), I
felt I should at least warn other WinPilot 8 users of the problem.

Frank (TA)

Frank,

Good catch! I used the WP since its "day one ", never had a problem with
AAT, but it is easy to see how one can get in trouble.

Warning function is implemented in WP version 9.02. Just as you suggested,
if one tries to sellect "go next" outside the active area a "popup" window
"you are outside"pops up and asks if you want to proceed to next waypoint
regardless. If you say "yes", MTP moves to your current position and "locks"
there. I think it would be impractical to have it restricted to the inside
of declared area (it's pos is used for statistics only at this moment).

Active area and MTP are sightly different in color (blue vs. black) to make
an overlaping easier to see.

"Keep MTP inside" is a pilot function, so one can move that wp anywhere in
the area (for time/distance what ifs) and not to have to be too precise with
whatever you use to touch the pda's screen.

As for a warning if no fixes recorded, that's up to your logger, not
WinPilot. WP gets position every 1s (or 2s if older loggers are a source of
NMEA data), but you have to know how often your logger logs position. True,
in regular speed task WP advances automaticaly (if so selected) to next
waypoint after receiving a "recorded" fix info, but that function is also
impractical in AAT, you make a decision to turn and to activate "go next"
manualy.
I use a 302 with a log interval of 1s, so any single fix is enough.

Andy

"Frank" wrote in message
...
At the Seniors in Florida this year, I found out the hard way that
WinPilot V8 AAT (Turn Area) mobile turnpoints will happily jump
outside their respective area circles if you select 'Turn Here' while
you are outside the active circle, EVEN IF YOU HAVE THE 'KEEP MTPS
INSIDE CIRCLE' OPTION CHECKED!

The task had three overlapping (the first and 3rd overlapped but
adjacent ones didn't, so it was still legal) circles, so it was very
difficult to tell just from the moving map which circle was which, and
when several gliders in front of me all turned at the same place, I
selected 'Turn Here', verified that the MTP symbol jumped to my
current location (silly me - I thought that confirmed that I was in
the active circle!), and turned with the group. Zero for the day :-(

There are some cases, of course, where the pilot needs the ability to
'Turn Here' OUTSIDE the active turn area (pilot just nicks a turn
area, but forgets to 'Turn Here' while still inside). However, even
in this case, the MTP should NEVER go outside the active turn area
circle, and the pilot should receive a 'Are you sure you want to do
this?' warning. Also, it would be really useful if WinPilot were to
issue a warning (in addition to the above 'Are you sure' warning) if
the pilot has not logged any points inside the active turn area.

I would love to post this issue on the WinPilot 'developer forum' but
I've never been able to join it and the developer hasn't responded to
my other bug reports/issues. Since he doesn't (at least not to me), I
felt I should at least warn other WinPilot 8 users of the problem.

Frank (TA)