Announcing WingX for the Pocket PC

Cecil,

Ok, I have looked at it. The price is indeed very steep, compared to,
for example, Aerocalc (http://www.2flyeasy.com/, 20 $), EFISce
(http://www.btinternet.com/~navtech/ - flight planning AND GPS moving
map for about the same price as WingX, 69 $), NavigaCE
(http://members.aol.com/NavigaCE/, 20 $) or PocketFlightplan
(http://www.pocketflightplan.com/, 20 $).

Also, no mention of user waypoints, no mention of a European database
or a database containing more than just airports and VORs (e.g. NDBs or
intersections). No mention of wind being figured into the flight
planning function, either.

BUT: Maybe my view on this is wrong, so I'd be very interested in other
peoples opinions and experiences. I want to buy something for my iPaq
soon, so please let me know what you guys use!

--
Thomas Borchert (EDDH)

Thomas Borchert wrote:
Cecil,

Ok, I have looked at it. The price is indeed very steep, compared to,
for example, Aerocalc (http://www.2flyeasy.com/, 20 $), EFISce
(http://www.btinternet.com/~navtech/ - flight planning AND GPS moving
map for about the same price as WingX, 69 $), NavigaCE
(http://members.aol.com/NavigaCE/, 20 $) or PocketFlightplan
(http://www.pocketflightplan.com/, 20 $).

Thomas,

Thank you for your feedback. WingX features and its usability advantages
resulted from a significant amount of feedback during our Beta testing.
There are extremely useful features such as a list of expirations (for
example, just enter the data of your medical and WingX will calculate the
expiration dates of your 1st, 2nd, and 3rd class). WingX is also primarily
driven by popup menus, so you can calculate a graphical W&B in about 10
seconds. On the route page, a popup will display a list of 'recent'
airports. Popups also simplify the E6B calculations.

WingX supports real-time downloading of databases (via the internet) which
means that you will always have the latest FAA data and a complete database
of aircraft models with which to calculate W&B. For example, attach a
wireless card to your PDA (if required) and download the databases without
using your PC!


Also, no mention of user waypoints, no mention of a European database
or a database containing more than just airports and VORs (e.g. NDBs or
intersections). No mention of wind being figured into the flight
planning function, either.

We plan to include airports, VORs, NDB, and intersections within the next
few days. Since the database may be downloaded wirelessly (or by cradling
your PDA), this update will literally be just 2 clicks away. Wind
calculations in the route page will also be added very shortly. These
updates will be free.

As far as a European database is concerned, we are currently looking for a
good reliable source of information so that we can provide our users with an
uninterrupted source of information. If you can point me to a reliable
source, we should be able to add it expeditiously.


BUT: Maybe my view on this is wrong, so I'd be very interested in other
peoples opinions and experiences. I want to buy something for my iPaq
soon, so please let me know what you guys use!

The features being added to WingX are driven 100% by users, so we appreciate
your feedback.

As a result of your email and other market feedback and customer comments,
Hilton Software is now making WingX available for $39.99. We thank you for
your support.

Hilton
Hilton Software LLC
http://www.hiltonsoftware.com

JerryK wrote:
I just think it will take time to shake out .Net in general, and CF in
particular. I agree that many of the memory issue are the results of
poor
resource management. Unfortunately an environment with a GC tends to let
programmers thing they can forget about explicitly managing resources.

I am still using the older C++ compilers for my PPC work. Still works,
still requires a lot of steps, but the code it tight and runs very fast.
What sort of dev environment are you using?

Jerry,

While this is probably not the best forum in which to discuss the merits of
the Compact Framework, I'd like to add a little to this thread and how it
helped in the development of WingX.

The most obvious advantages a no bad pointers, no leaked memory, no
crashes! These become especially important on handheld devices where leaked
memory and crashes are unacceptable. In addition, we believe our
development time is very much shorter using C# over C++ and this allows us
to get new features to customers in the shortest time. Moreover, since we
ship one EXE for all platforms, we reduce potential bugs on the numerous PDA
platforms; i.e if your PDA has the Compact Framework, WingX will run on it
irrespective of the CPU type - the same cannot be said for C and C++.

The first release of the CF was in pretty good shape, and Microsoft has
since released Service Pack 1 (downloadable from
http://www.hiltonsoftware.com/Download.html) to fix several bugs and improve
performance. In fact, this release will be pre-installed in Pocket PC 2003
so the newer PDAs, phones, and other devices will have the CF pre-installed.

We have found the Compact Framework to be very solid, and we have yet to
discover any leaked resources or other major problems.

Thanks,

Hilton
Hilton Software
http://www.hiltonsoftware.com

Hilton,

wow, you guys sure are quick! Ok, here are some thoughts:

- Price: Much more attractive now. As you have hinted at (and I
understand you can't say it outright, but I can), some other offerings
look much more cobbled together by hobbyists. Hmm, we should all
complain some more and see what you do to the price then ;-)

- User waypoints: A big thing for me. Let's say I want to cut a close
corner around some airspace next to my home drome. I need to plan with
a waypoint I'll put right there. Also, this brings me to...

- European waypoints: Many other programs realize that it's difficult
to get a reliable source for that (Jeppesen has them, of course). So
they let users compile them and put them up for download. There's a
risk of error (really higher than Jepp?), but everybody is made aware
of that risk. At least, they have them. Some European authorities have
their airport and nav aid info on the web for free, e.g. the UK and
France.

And two more questions:

- Is there a way to factor wind into the flight planning feature?
That's pretty much a deal breaker for me. One other software I
mentioned has an option to input winds aloft for all relevant altitudes
- and the flight planning will use that accordingly. As I mentioned,
Davies' (sp?) Copilot for the Palm is one of the gold standards for PDA
flight planning, IMHO.

- How do I get the Socata TB-10 Tobago POH data to you? I could e-mail
you our POH as a PDF, but it would be in German.

--
Thomas Borchert (EDDH)

In a previous article, said:
- European waypoints: Many other programs realize that it's difficult
to get a reliable source for that (Jeppesen has them, of course). So
they let users compile them and put them up for download. There's a
risk of error (really higher than Jepp?), but everybody is made aware
of that risk. At least, they have them. Some European authorities have
their airport and nav aid info on the web for free, e.g. the UK and
France.

For the CoPilot/GPSPilot/GPX waypoint generators, I use a combination of
DAFIF data and user contributed data. I've never been able to find UK
data as anything other than a PDF file per airport, which sucks.

- and the flight planning will use that accordingly. As I mentioned,
Davies' (sp?) Copilot for the Palm is one of the gold standards for PDA

Laurie Davis

flight planning, IMHO.

BTW: If the WingX developers want, we could arrange for me to provide the
data I have in whatever format they need.

--
Paul Tomblin , not speaking for anybody
"This was, apparently, beyond her ken. So far beyond her ken that she was
well into barbie territory." - J.D. Baldwin

Paul,

There we go, the magic of Internet! I hope they get in touch with you.
Wonderful work you are doing!

Thanks for correcting me on Laurie's name. I wish the software was
available for the PocketPC.

The PDF format is indeed what I found - and yes, for this purpose, it
sucks.

--
Thomas Borchert (EDDH)

In a previous article, said:
Thanks for correcting me on Laurie's name. I wish the software was
available for the PocketPC.

You're not the only one. A guy in my flying club carries both a Palm (for
CoPilot) and an iPaq (for Anywhere Map).


--
Paul Tomblin , not speaking for anybody
Pascal - A programming language named after a man who would turn over in his
grave if he knew about it.

Paul,

So do you know if there's a way to convince Laurie? Or even an easy
technical way to port stuff like that?

--
Thomas Borchert (EDDH)

In a previous article, said:
Paul,

So do you know if there's a way to convince Laurie? Or even an easy
technical way to port stuff like that?

Laurie is a Mac programmer. It's unlikely that he would be able to port
to wince^WPocketPC, since there is no SDK for any platform other than
Windows.


--
Paul Tomblin , not speaking for anybody
"The Americans have said ``Ni'' and they want their shrubbery"
- Harry Teasley predicts a Bush victory, 8Mar2000

Thomas Borchert wrote:

Hilton,

wow, you guys sure are quick! Ok, here are some thoughts:

- Price: Much more attractive now. As you have hinted at (and I
understand you can't say it outright, but I can), some other offerings
look much more cobbled together by hobbyists. Hmm, we should all
complain some more and see what you do to the price then ;-)

- User waypoints: A big thing for me. Let's say I want to cut a close
corner around some airspace next to my home drome. I need to plan with
a waypoint I'll put right there.

Since we are in the design phase of user waypoints for WingX, I'd like to
solicit information on how you would like to create a waypoint. We're
looking at lat-long, bearing and distance from a fix, etc. How would you
like to define your 'close corner'?


And two more questions:

- Is there a way to factor wind into the flight planning feature?

No, but there will be within a few days. If you want, I can notify you via
email once the feature has been added, QAed, and shipped.


- How do I get the Socata TB-10 Tobago POH data to you? I could e-mail
you our POH as a PDF, but it would be in German.

Please email the POH (or the URL). No-one here speaks German, but we'll see
what we can do using the POH and other sources.

BTW: I mis-spoke earlier and the current database *does* currently contain
NDBs.

Thank you for your very constructive posts.

Hilton
Hilton Software LLC
http://www.hiltonsoftware.com