Table of Contents

Detailed Change History

4.5.3 Final - Apr 2010

4.5.2 Final - May 2009

4.5.1 Final - May 2009

4.5.0 Final - April 2009

4.0.2 April March 2008

4.0.0 Final February 2008

Changes for 3.4.0 - 02 September 2006

Waypoint Type Colour Palm Black & White Palm
Reachable Waypoints Green Bold
Reachable Landing Places Green + Bold Bold + Uppercase
Reachable Airports Green + Bold + Uppercase Bold + Uppercase

Changes for 3.3.2 - 14 May 2006

Changes for 3.3.1 - 26 April 2006

Changes for 3.3.0 - 18 April 2006

Changes for 3.2.2 - 21 February 2006

  1. Corrected a problem with reading in data from PalmDOC files. It is HIGHLY recommended that if you read your data (waypoints, SUA, tasks, polars) from PalmDOC files that you remove your current data and read it in again to ensure you have the most accurate information in SoarPilot.

Changes for 3.2.1 - 18 February 2006

  1. Corrected a problem where some of the support added for StyleTap was keeping the NMEA/Port Setting screen from being displayed and forcing a reset of the device. This would only occur on old PalmOS devices such as the original Handspring Visor
  2. Corrected a potential screen corruption problem with the FLARM display.

Changes for 3.2.0 - 14 February 2006

  1. Support for Flarm device to show traffic data. See Flarm details.
  2. New Feature to show the estimated amount of logging time available, and to show a warning at start-up of < 5 hours remain
  3. Support for the ILEC SN10 computer
  4. New low battery warnings before the program is forced to exit
  5. StyleTap support for version 0.9.103 and higher of StyleTap
  6. Faster download speeds for flight logs from the C302
  7. Achieved turnpoints in the Active task will be shown with a line through the name
  8. Changed order of sort buttons on waypoint list, putting the Distance sort on the edge of the screen so it is easier to find in flight
  9. Options to highlight or only display SUA with active warnings on the moving map
  10. Fix for task re-start if “No” was selected. This would move the active waypoint back to the start in error
  11. Fix for task distance calculations in AAT tasks
  12. Fix for the C302 MC bug
  13. Fix for corrupt flight log
  14. Fix to stop an SUA alert corrupting the map screen on a T5 device
  15. Fix to overlapping numbers on the moving map screen on hi-res devices
  16. Untested support for reading pressure altitude from Zander SR940/GP941 & SDI PosiGraph

Changes for 3.0.1 - 03 November 2005

  1. Fix for the search button on the waypoint list causing problems with waypoint selection and deletion.

Changes for 3.0.0 - 02 November 2005

Note: This will reset your Flight, Logger, Task databases

  1. New Option - On the task rules screen to start the task on entry to a start cylinder or FAI sector, rather than the normal on exit rule.
  2. There is now a small “Task” button on the Flight Info screen so you can view the task stored in the flight log. This is readonly and cannot be modified. You can however, copy the task (once) to the task database and edit and re-use it there.
  3. On the Task Rules screen you can now also adjust the Start Time with the Calendar/Phone buttons, the Max Start Height with the Page-Up/Page-Down Buttons, and the Min Task Time with the To-Do/Memo buttons.
  4. You will be alerted if any errors occur when loading in SUA data. The SUA list will be sorted to show the items in error at the top of the list. Items in error cannot be activated. To fix the errors the source SUA data file must be fixed, and the data reload.
  5. On the Wind Info screen you can now use the hardware buttons to change the wind speed and direction. Calendar = reduce wind speed, Phone = wind direction left, To Do = wind direction right, Memo = increase wind speed.
  6. Tapping the Calc button (to bring up the waypoint list) twice will set the sort order to nearest airport. This is a shortcut to quickly check the available landing options. Also the waypoint list will default to the first page of the list for Distance and Airport sort orders when a valid GPS position is available.
  7. Fixed a problem with the Colibri flight downloads on the M515 and maybe other slower palms. Thanks Zoltan.
  8. Fixed a problem with the date stamp for the Last Used sorted order on the waypoint list. Leading zeros should have been included. To reset the date stamps, delete and re-load your waypoint data.
  9. All the lists are now consistent in how they implement scrolling.
    • Page-Up / Page-Down move a page up or down and will goto to the start of list if at the end and visa versa
    • Calendar / Phone will move up or down 1 item. Will go over a page (up or down), but not to the start of list if at the end and visa versa

Changes for 3.0.0 Beta 21 September 2005

This will reset your Flight, Logger, Waypoint and Task databases

  1. New feature - You can now download flights from an LX logger in the LXN format. These can be converted to the IGC format using the conv-lxn.exe program, available at http://www.fai.org/gliding/gnss/freeware.asp. Hopefully a later beta will do this translation automatically. Since LXN files are binary files, only card transfer is supported. Many thanks to Zoltan Sinka for this code.
  2. New Feature - On the Task Rules screen there is now a earliest start time field. Starting a task before this time will produce a warning, you can then choose to start the task anyway, or make another start later. The screen layout has changed to accommodate this new field.
  3. New Feature - Added an additional sort order on the waypoint list to sort by recently used waypoints. This is the sort button “Last” in the top right of the screen. The time stamp is set when you goto a waypoint, or activate a task which contains the waypoint. Waypoints without a time stamp i.e. not used yet, are not shown on the list. The last used time stamp for each waypoint can be viewed and edited on the additional waypoint info screen. The time stamps can be reset by deleting and reloading the waypoint data.
  4. Due to above, on the Waypoint List screen the “Find” button is now relocated to the bottom of the screen and renamed “Search”. The “Delete” button has been removed from the waypoint list screen. To delete a waypoint, edit it, then tap the “Delete” button on the edit waypoint screen.
  5. The names of the active, previous and current task waypoints are now displayed on the dialog screen when you attempt to select a waypoint when a task is active.
  6. Added progress dialogs to the transfer functions to show how many records have been received or transmitted. Also the dialogs now say “Receiving...”, “Transmitting...” or “Deleting...” rather than just “Transferring...”.
  7. Fixed a problem with the percentage thermal graph on the flight info screen.
  8. When receiving waypoints in the $GPWPL format, the transfer will now stop as soon as a waypoint name is duplicated.
  9. Fixed a problem that caused your flight log file to be corrupted when you de-activated or cleared an active task.
  10. On the Baro graph on the flight info screen, vertical lines are now drawn to show when each turnpoint was reached in the task, each task leg is labelled, and the time axis has tick marks for every hour.
  11. The waypoint line, distance/bearing information, and course up orientation now all work on the map when using a single goto waypoint from the GPS.
  12. Fixed a problem where all Airway type SUA items were always in error.
  13. Moved the Keep SUA Visible option from the Map Settings screen to the SUA Display setting screen. This is to keep all SUA display related settings together.
  14. Fixed a problem where after loading SUA data, the transmit button stopped working.
  15. Fixed a problem with the communication between a C302 and SoaringPilot that would prevent a two-way exchange of MC values (and technically the bugs and ballast info as well):
    • To ensure everything is setup correctly, the 302 should be turned on prior to starting SP. If SP was running first, you should stop and restart SP so that it can send the correct initialization mode command to the 302.
    • The actual problem is that when the 302 powers up it does so in NMEA mode not PNP mode. You must be in PNP mode before it will accept command inputs. So now, like the GPSNAV, SP will send the command to put it in PNP mode. Once that’s done then it starts accepting the MC value just fine.
    • There’s one other little item as well though. If for instance you have a MC of 2.5 set in the 302 when it is powered off, when you turn it back on it comes back on with 2.5 set. However, even after putting it in PNP more, itdoesn’t output 2.5 it outputs 0. So SP takes the 0 and displays that. However, if you change either SP or the 302’s MC setting it immediatly gets reflected in the other thus syncing them up. I have added additional code to send PNP mode command when you first switch into 302 Comp mode on the NMEA/Port screen as well.
    • Finally, I think the problem of it not outputting the correct value is one of the things fixed the latest firmware version of the 302 that’s available on the webpage. I would highly suggest all 302 users ensure they have the latest firmware version from the Cambridge webpage.

Changes for 3.0.0 Beta 07 September 2005

This will reset your Configuration database

  1. New Feature - Initial Cambridge GPSNAV support has been added. The following data transfer/information is supported:
    • The GPSNAV output can be used to drive SoaringPilot completely and correctly. I have confirmed this definitively. However, to make this work correctly and make it so that you don’t have change cables to send info to the GPSNAV, SoaringPilot EXPECTS to be connected to the port on the GPSNAV marked “Data Port (DCE)”. It is the one with DB9 plug. You cannot use the port marked “Datacom (NMEA-0183)”. That port ONLY outputs basic NMEA data and allows no two-way interaction.
    • For proper operation, SoaringPilot should be connected to the running GPSNAV BEFORE starting the program. If configured for the GPSNAV as the “Comp” on the NMEA/Port screen, when SoaringPilot starts, it sends the NMEA command to the GPSNAV that makes it start sending NMEA data. The NMEA mode of the GPSNAV sends out the NMEA GGA lines including the GPS altitude. It also outputs the GSA and GLL lines which properly drive the GPS Info screen if you have the latest/version 6.0 of the GPSNAV firmware installed..
    • This version DOES NOT use the pressure altitude value from the GPSNAV yet. It turns out that in order to make the GPSNAV output the Cambridge pressure altitude sentence is to “activated”. I have been working with Chip Garner and he is supposed to send me the code to do this. So I’m hoping to add this soon. However, since it does output GPS altitude the additional pressure altitude may not make that much difference.
    • Waypoint Transfer To the GPSNAV - You can transfer waypoints from the SoaringPilot to the GPSNAV. This can be done from the “Transfers” screen. In addition, when you declare a Task to the GPSNAV, the turnpoints are transferred to the GPSNAV first before the task is declared. Because of the way the GPSNAV task declarations work, this is required. The GPSNAV task declaration is simply the waypoint number for each of the turnpoints. So if the turnpoint numbers in the GPSNAV don’t match those in SP then the declaration will not be correct. There are a couple of additional caveats to the waypoint transfer as well. First, when the transfer is done in either case, the waypoint database is first sorted into Ascending (0-9,A-Z) alphabetical order. Then the waypoints are transferred. Second, the GPSNAV can only hold a maximum of 250 waypoints. Thus, after they are sorted, only a maximum of the first 250 turnpoints are sent if there are more than that in the SP waypoints database. So if you want to ensure that your turnpoints get into the GPSNAV either have less than 250 or put numbers in front of the names to force them to the top of the list.
    • Task Declaration - As with the other Logger types, when you activate a task, you will be asked if you want to declare it to the GPSNAV. If you answer yes, the waypoints will be transferred and then the task will be declare into the GPSNAV.
    • Configuration Transfer to the GPSNAV - From the Transfer screen, you can select either “Glider” or “Pilot” from the drop down list and it actually does the same thing. These items are not separate in the GPSNAV as they are in the 302. They are transferred into the GPSNAV with the same command. The Glider info is the Glider Type and Contest ID. The Pilot Info is the pilot name. In addition, the Units are also transferred along with the other info. On the “Logger Data” screen off of the “Logger Config” screen, in addition to the Arrival and Approach radius values, there is a checkbox. If this is checked, the config info also be sent when a task is Declared. This is an option but is highly recommended.
    • There is one caveat to the units transfer. The GPSNAV supports 4 units setting groups for Distance, Height and Vertical Speed. These groups are Nautical miles, feet, knots or Kilometers, meters, meters/sec or Kilometers, feet, knots or Statute miles, feet, knots. So to accomodate this, the following rules are used for determining what units from SP to transfer into the GPSNAV If distance is set to NM, set the GPSNAV to Nautical miles, feet, knots. If distance is set to KM, check the altitude setting. Based on that set to either Kilometers, meters, meters/sec or Kilometers, feet, knots. If distance is set to SM , set the GPSNAV to Statute miles, feet, knots.
    • There are other miscellaneous functions which can be done through the Transfer’s screen. You can delete all of the flights in the GPSNAV. You can also delete all of the Turnpoints out of the GPSNAV. However, be aware that when you remove the turnpoints, it also deletes any task declaration and the Pilot Name. However, since those get put back in at task declaration time, that’s really not that big of an issue.
    • I hope the above is acceptable to everyone. It’s about the best that can be done with the limitations of the GPSNAV. The only items left that I want to add for the GPSNAV support are being able to activate the GPSNAV so that the pressure altitude is outputted and to be able to download flight logs from the GPSNAV. The flight transfer option is active in this version but it doesn’t really do anything yet.
  2. The GPS Status window now shows the number of satellites being used for the current fix next to the status text at the top of the screen. It’s displayed as “SIU” (Satellites In Use) and the number being used.
  3. New option on the Final Glide Settings screen to make the program default to selecting the home waypoint on startup
  4. New buttons on the Wind Info screen to manually change the wind speed and direction. These will be overwritten when the system calculates the wind again unless you turn the calculate wind option off. This is useful on a long final glide, or when you don’t expect the thermal again for a while and have some better wind reports.
  5. Addition of a new waypoint format GPWPL for direct transfer of waypoints with many GPS units. This format is now an option on the Transfer Waypoint screen. Also there is an option to encode/decode the waypoint altitude in the waypoint name in the format “NNNXXX” where XXX is the waypoint altitude in meters divided by 10. If this option is not used, the waypoint name is 6 characters uppercase. No handling of duplicates is done.
  6. When using the goto waypoint from the GPS (rather than the program’s waypoints) if the waypoint name is in the format “NNNXXX” where XXX is the waypoint altitude in meters divided by 10, the waypoint altitude will be set to the decoded altitude. The decoded alitude is used in all final glide calculations and displayed in the Elev field on the Final Glide screen.

Changes for 3.0.0 Beta 17 July 2005 - 4

  1. Fixed a problem where the QFE could be automatically reset in flight in error.
  2. Fixed a problem with not being able to save modified target points in assigned area tasks.
  3. Fixed a problem with the time on task (TOT) value on the view waypoint sector screen.
  4. Fixed a problem with Memo transfers reading data after the end of the specified filename.
  5. Fixed a problem with controls points guiding you in AAT’s disappearing once inside the last area.
  6. Improvements in the GPS Status screen - Shows position, altitude data and number of satellites locked even if the full signal strength data is not parsed.

Changes for 3.0.0 Beta 17 July 2005 - 3

This will reset your SUA databases

  1. Fixed a problem when loading SUA data that could have caused memory leaks or other corruption.
  2. The SUA list now shows accurate shortest distances to the SUA item rather than distance to the centre of the SUA item. This causes a slight pause before the list is displayed to update the distances. The SUA list also defaults to sorting by distance on starting the program.
  3. Fixed a problem with the Final Glide Over Terrain calculations in situtations where the biggest terrain conflict is at the target waypoint.

Changes for 3.0.0 Beta 17 July 2005 - 2

  1. The selected sort order is indicated by underlining the button on the waypoint and task lists. This is in addition to the text in the title.
  2. The GPS Status screen is now included in the secondary screen chain when pressing the Find silk screen button.

Changes for 3.0.0 Beta 17 July 2005 - 1

  1. Additional comment to the final glide over terrain feature in version 3.0. The terrain grid used for this only has a point recorded every 1km sq, so therfore can be quite different from the actual ground under the glider. To try to allow for this the safety altitude is considered for all terrain calculations. The safety altitude is set in the final glide settings screen.
  2. The finish altitude when task rules were active would be shown for every waypoint ,also this value would be corrupted by re-starts. This has been fixed
  3. Fixed a problem with the ETA displayed in the task section on the Flight Info screen.

Changes for 3.0.0 Beta 17 July 2005

This will reset your configuration, flight, logger and task databases

New feature - Final Glide Over Terrain. This is a new checkbox on the Final Glide Settings screen. It replaces the Altitude Reference as this can be set easily from the Final Glide or Moving Map screens.

When this option is active the program checks the terrain map approx every kilometer to see if the predicted glide path will conflict with high terrain thus making your target waypoint un-reachable. The safety altitude is added to the terrain elevations in all cases. If there is a conflict, the A.Alt / R.Alt / D.Alt figures are always adjusted to reflect the extra altitude required to clear the terrain.

Also the point of highest ground will be marked on the moving map with a solid triangle and the label will show how much lower you are predicted to be at that point than the terrain. The Altitude box on the moving map is also marked with a solid triangle (red on colour palms). On the Final Glide screen, a solid triangle (red on colour palms) appears next to each of the speed values if there is a terrain conflict for this speed / MC setting. In addition on the Moving Map screen an “X” (red on colour palms) will mark your predicted landing point on the map.

If you fly off the terrain map or select a waypoint off the terrain map, open triangles (red on colour palms) will be displayed to alert you of this fact. These are shown in the altitude field on the Moving Map screen, and under the altitude label (A.Alt / D.Alt / R.Alt) on the Final Glide screen.

This feature also works for active tasks. The program works out the worst terrain conflict over the legs in the task and adjusts the Final Glide Around (FGA) as required. You may see 2 terrain conflicts as one is on the task, and one on the current leg. A triangle is displayed in the FGA field if the program detects a terrain conflict on the remaining task legs. This feature can produce some surprising results. Let me explain........

At the low MC setting you will be at or close to best glide, therefore you maintain enough height to clear the terrain on you glide to the waypoint. At medium MC values, your glide path is steeper and you do not have then same altitude as you cross the terrain giving you a conflict. At High MC values, your glide path is much steeper, so much so that your waypoint is not in reach anymore. However, there is no terrain conflict show anymore. This is because you will arrive at your waypoint lower (below ground) than when you passed over the terrain high point.

The program does not consider not having enough altitude to reach your waypoint as a terrain conflict. The feature is designed to detect the situations when you will not be able to reach your waypoint at the calculated arrival altitude because of high terrain in your path. I’ll post some diagrams in the files to help explain this.

New feature - There is now a Task Rules screen, accessed by tapping the new “Rules” button on the Task Edit screen. You can decide to active the task rules by checking the “Task Rules Active” box. The rules below will then be activated for that task once it has been activated. The rules are

If either of the finish height rules are used, the finish point elevation will be calculated when you start the task. The original elevation of the finish point will be shown on the Final Glide screen in brackets next to the normal waypoint elevation. The heights can be either MSL or when the “Elev” box selected the heights are relative to the start or finish point elevation.

  1. New feature - On the Task Settings screen a new check box in the Start group is “>1”. When this option is checked, the program allows task restarts. When it is un-checked the task can only be started once.
  2. The tap area around the glider symbol on the moving map screen to activate the thermal marker is now bigger.
  3. Fixed a problem where some items did not appear on the moving map when they should have done.
  4. Fixed a problem with the task stop times not being displayed properly
  5. This version will zoom down further using the task auto zoom feature. This makes it easier to see small turnpoint sectors.
  6. Fixed a problem with the iQue where it would save an invalid position to the track log and track trail if it loses a satellite fix.
  7. Added a new item to the Map Settings screen called “Terrain Box”. When selected, if there is terrain data loaded, a rectangle will be displayed on the moving map showing the coverage area of the loaded terrain data. This is just to help validate that the loaded did will meet your needs. This item defaults to off when the program is run and the setting is not saved when the program exits. However, once selected, the setting will remain in affect until the program exits.
  8. Fixed a problem where any changes made to a task waypoint would be saved when going to the waypoint sector view, even if the “Quit” button was pressed to exit the task waypoint edit.
  9. Tapping on the Start Height field on the Flight Info screen now changes the start height reference from MSL ↔ Height above start point
  10. Fixed a bug that crash the program if you attempted to transfer flight logs after a bluetooth connection.
  11. Added a button on the GPS Status screen to attempt to reconnect the GPS is none is currently connected.
  12. Fixed a problem that might cause the program to crash with very long log files.
  13. There are now 10 thermal waypoint markers available. The oldest is erased first when the 11th thermal is marked. The elevation is not set to the terrain elevation to the altitude you marked the thermal at.
  14. Fixed problem with the Handspring Visor and Magellan GPS Companion. Actually it would have been a problem for many of the slower Palm PDA‘s.

Changes for 2.0.0 Beta 24 June 2005-1

  1. Additional fix for the speed to fly calculations

Changes for 2.0.0 Beta 24 June 2005

This will reset your configuration database

  1. Fixed the problem with the speed to fly calculations in optimize for distance. Error crept in while improving the speed of the code.
  2. New feature - new option on the final glide setting screen to show required ground speed rather than airspeed for the speed to fly values on the final glide and map screen. This value take into account the target waypoint direction and wind speed and direction. It shows the ground speed you shuld fly directly to the target waypoint to achieve the correct speed to fly in the air. This is useful for paragliders that don’t have an airspeed indicator fitted, but have a GPS to tell ground speed.

Changes for 2.0.0 Beta 23 June 2005

This will reset your configuration database!

  1. Added a field on the flight info screen to show your task start height.
  2. The start time and height are now shown on the re-start task dialog.
  3. Improved error detection for SUA data. When you load in new SUA data, or start the program with existing SUA data, the program does a quick check to ensure the SUA data is valid. It checks for “closed” SUA polygons (ie: the first point should be the same as the last point) and for valid Lat/Lon values. If any SUA items are invalid these are changed to type ERROR and made inactive. These can be seen on the SUA list by sorting on Type. You then need to check the original suadata.sua input file and re-load the SUA data. To get the full benefit of this new checking you should delete and re-load your SUA data.
  4. Fixed a problem with the C302 downloading flight logs that crept in in the Jun betas.
  5. Added support for parsing and showing the Magellan GPS Companion’s battery level. It will be displayed in the title of the GPS Status screen showing the approximate number of hours remaining on the battery with one decimal place. This is exactly what is coming from the device.
  6. New Feature - Tapping on the glider symbol in the moving map stores a temporary thermal waypoint with the name as the average thermal lift. This is displayed on the map with a (T) symbol. This can be used later to return to thermal. (Note: the thermal position is not updated for the wind) Tapping a second time on the glider symbol erases the first temporary thermal waypoint and makes another. This temporary thermal waypoint is also deleted on exiting the program. If you want to navigate back to this point just go to the waypoint list and sort by name. The thermal marker should be the first waypoint in the list (assuming you don’t have waypoint names that start with a space anyway).

Changes for 2.0.0 Beta 17 June 2005

This will reset your configuration and polar databases!

  1. New option on the Settings - Task screen to decide if the dashed lines to control turn points are displayed or not.
  2. The option to get the program to calculate the magnetic deviation for the GPS units that do not supply it, has moved from using the flight computer type “NoDev” to a check box in the Settings - NMEA/Port screen called “Calc Dev”. Note, this is not available on iQue units as it is not required, and the screen space is used for other options.
  3. Fixed a problem where some SUA items were not displayed when they should have been. In fixing this bug the speed of drawing SUA items was also increased.

Changes for 2.0.0 Beta 16 June 2005

  1. Fixed the Flight Display option on the Flight Info screen so that the various screen selection areas from the turnpoint view mode are not active.
  2. Paul made a couple of optimization changes in the Map display which should increase performance a little. Paul estimates about 3%.
  3. Fixed the GPS Status screen so that it will work properly with PDA‘s running OS versions less than 3.5. Was using some API calls that weren’t supported so the status display wasn’t working.
  4. Changed the altitude and GH (geoidal height) fields on the GPS Status screen so that they always show exactly what is coming from the GPS. So it is possible that the altitude value will not match the altitude on the moving map/final glide screens.
  5. Comment on the Altitude Reference values on the NMEA/Port screen. MSL is the standard setting and is what 95% of the people will use. MSL is what the GPS GGA line is supposed to output for the altitude value. However, some GPS’ (Sirf II-based) do not output MSL but output the height above the WGS84 ellipisoid. Then they output the same correction value. This is what WGS84 option is for. In this case, it uses the correction value being outputted in the GGA line along with the height to correct the altitude value back to MSL. So if you have a Holux 230 Bluetooth GPS, for example, you want to set it to WGS84. If you have it set to MSL and the altitude ALWAYS looks WAY off, check the GPS Status screen and see if the GH value has a value and is approximately the amount that is off. The GH value for your area will not change much as you move around. If there isn’t a value for GH and likely your GPS isn’t outputting a correction value. In that case, you’ll have to use the altitude difference field on the NMEA/Port screen to make the correction manually.

Changes for 2.0.0 Beta 15 June 2005

This will reset your configuration database!

  1. New Feature - On the Flight Info screen you can now view your logged flight on the map screen (as well as the barograph and %thermalling). The centre of the screen will start at the first logged point (if no GPS is connected), and on the scale last set on the normal map screen. The orientation is always north up. You can then zoom in/out and pan around the map (if no GPS is connected)
  2. Support for the USB port on a Tungsten E using a Kirrio cradle/cable GPS to USB interface. To use this select “USB” for the NMEA input type on the NMEA/Port config screen.
  3. Added a thicker waypoint direction line on the moving map for hi-res palms.
  4. New options on the NMEA/Port screen to set if MSL or WGS84 altitude data is being received from your GPS. If you select WGS84, then the Geoidial height adjustment will be applied. In case this is not available from the NMEA data stream, the GPS MSL Adjust field is still available to get the best possible GPS alitutde data.
  5. The GPS Info screen now works for normal NMEA inputs. (assuming the satilite information is included in the NMEA data stream!)
  6. Added the Geoidal Height (GH) value to the GPS Status screen.
  7. Made the GPS Status screen not update when the menu is open.
  8. When using an iQue, the MSL altitude is subtracted from the WGS84 altitude to find the Geoidal Height value for display on the status screen.

Changes for 2.0.0 Beta 16 May 2005

  1. New feature - You can now download flights from the volkslogger. This is accessed from the transfer menu and after you click on the Volks Data button. Click on the Receive button to retrieve a list of flights stored in the logger. Then select the flight you want and click Get Flight. The flight will be downloaded and saved as an IGC file either on the card or in a DOC file. This is a beta version, so don’t rely on it for that badge flight just yet!

Changes for 2.0.0 Beta 06 May 2005

This will reset your configuration, flight and logger databases!

  1. New Feature - Task declaration to the Colibri. (and other LX computers?) Thanks to Zoltán Sinka for providing the code for this.
  2. Fixed a problem that would stop the program correctly receiving data from a certain GPS devices if the altitude was over 999m
  3. New Comp type on the NMEA/Port screen called NoDev. Purpose is to apply a magnetic deviation calculated by the program if the GPS connected does not supply one.
  4. Addition of a new field on the NMEA/Port setting screens to allow you to enter a static correction value to the altitude reported by the GPS.
  5. New field on the IGC info screen called Observer. This allows you to record the ID/name of an official observer to be included in the task declaration and IGC file output.

Changes for 2.0.0 Beta 28 Apr 2005

  1. Modified sequence for the next waypoint information for areas. Enroute to the area the next waypoint information will point to the minimum distance point and display “Min” on the moving map below the distance value. On entry to the area, the next waypoint information will point to your target point in the area and display “Tgt”, until your scoring distance in the area is greater than the target point, then it will point to the maximum distance point and display “Max”.
  2. Fixed a bug that could cause the program to crash when clearing the task declaration on a Volkslogger
  3. Modified the Re-Start Task warning to be confirmed by tapping anywhere in the dialog window. Also, it will auto confirm after the time set for SUA warnings auto dismiss.
  4. Fixed a problem where the Add Waypoint dialog on the moving map screen would stop the logger. This dialog now also times out if not answered, and can be dismissed by tapping anywhere in the window. Only pressing the actual “Yes” button adds a waypoint.
  5. The ICG info (Pilot, Glider etc) is now copied to all flights, not just flights with a task declaration.

Changes for 2.0.0 Beta 24 March 2005

This will reset your configuration, flight and task databases!

  1. New Feature - Support for Volkslogger. Firstly, a thank you to Georg Garrecht for sending me a volkslogger to develop the software with. Task declaration to the volkslogger is now supported, along with clearing the declaration and deleting all the flights in the logger. You must select “Volks” as your computer on the NMEA/Port screen. The Data Speed setting controls the speed of communication to the volkslogger. My Palm Vx can go up to 19200, whereas by Tungsten T can go to 115200. The logger should be connected and in PC transfer mode before you use any of the functions below.
    1. When you activate a task, you will be asked if you want to declare the task to the logger. The logger will re-start after declaration to ensure it is logging. Area waypoints are not supported by the logger, so they will be declared with the normal sector and cylinder settings you specify on the Task Settings screen. Control points are ignored. Takeoff and landing points are ignored. There are also limits on the max size of the cylinder radius (1500m, in steps of 100m) and the sector radius (15km in steps of 1km, 15km = infinate). Line widths are in steps of 1km only. Arc starts are not supported by the volks logger to are converted to lines. The program will round up the sector/cylinder/line/arc sizes declared, to ensure Soarpilot has the smaller sectors.
    2. On the Task List screen or Task Edit screen you can clear the declaration in the logger by activating a blank task.
    3. On the transfer screen, if you tap the “Volks Data” button and you are able to delete all the flights in the logger.
  2. On the SUA list, you can now double tap on the name to goto the view screen, and double tap on the activaton flag to toggle the active status.
  3. On the Polar list, you can now double tap on the name to goto the edit screen.
  4. You can now configure horizontal and vertical lines in the waypoint list, active task, task list, SUA list, polar list and flight lists screens. Once you load the new version, re-load your config settings, then transmit out again. Edit the config.scg file. You will see a line LISTLINES. The first number (1 or 0) controls the verticl lines, the second number the horizontal lines. (0 = no line, 1 = gray line, 2 = solid line). This is not available in a screen as the programming effort does not justify a new screen for an option that will be set very rarely.
  5. Couple of fixes to the view waypoint sector screen to ensure you can only update task distances before you enter the area. Plus fixes to the “rubber banding” of the target point to the glider until the max distance point is reached. You can manually move it further away.
  6. Fixed a problem that would corrupt the SUA data if you loaded it without a home point set in the waypoint database.

Changes for 2.0.0 Beta 14 March 2005-1

  1. Minor changes and bug fixes only

Changes for 2.0.0 Beta 14 March 2005

This will reset your configuration and SUA databases!

  1. You can now dismiss SUA warnings for an SUA item for 5 mins, 1 hour, or 1 day by tapping one of the buttons in the alert window. Using the hardware buttons, or tapping anywhere else in the screen dismisses the warning until it becomes more serious. (normal to urgent warning, or urgent warning to inside)
  2. You can now receive SUA warnings based on a projection of where your glider will be in a set number of seconds. Be aware, this doubles the number of SUA checks the program must make! The look ahead time can be adjusted on the SUA Warnings settings screen.
  3. On the View Waypoint Sector screen, tapping in the centre of the screen resets the target point to the centre of the area.
  4. The View Waypoint Sector screen now retains the map orientation set if viewing the active task.
  5. Various improvements and minor fixes to the view waypoint sector screen.
  6. Added dialogs to the delete data buttons in the transfer screens to show progress and completion.
  7. The program now remembers the map scale as well as the orientation in thermal mode, and reverts to these settings at the next thermal.

Changes for 2.0.0 Beta 03 March 2005

This will reset your configuration, flight and logger databases!

  1. New Feature - View Waypoint Sector screen, accessed via tapping the direction arrow box on final glide screen, top left corner on moving map screen, (both only when active task, goes to active waypoint) and view button on task waypoint edit screen.
    1. Pressing the calendar or phone buttons will display the previous or next waypoints. You cannot display a waypoint before the active waypoint.
    2. This screen zooms in on the waypoint sector and gives you information on the total task distance and estimated time on task (TOT) based on your average speed.
    3. If you are flying an active task, this speed and TOT is based on your MC setting and your average speed on the task so far.
    4. Also displayed is the estimated time of arrival (ETA) at the active waypoint.
    5. If you are not viewing the active task, then the screen calculates your task speed using your MC setting for the expected thermal strength.
    6. Note: if your MC setting is zero, N/A will appear in the TOT and ETA/ETE fields as it is not possible to stay airbourne with a thermal strength of zero!
    7. The ETA has changed to an estimated time elapsed (ETE) calculation and gives the expected time elapsed to reach the waypoint following the task.
    8. If an area waypoint is displayed, you can move the target point within the area by tapping the 4 edges of the map area. The map scale and map orientation keys work as per the moving map screen.
    9. You also have a Min and Max button, which will move your target point to the min or max distance in the sector.
    10. Changing the target point changes the task distance and the expected TOT and ETA /ETE. This allows you to do some task planning on a fixed time task and determine how far to fly into each sector.
  2. Waypoint and task lists, along with the task edit screens now have right justified numbers.
  3. You can now double tap on a waypoint name in the waypoint list and go directly to the waypoint edit screen
  4. You can now double tap on a task name in the task list to go directly to the task edit screen
  5. Addition of an “Arc” start option. The arc is drawn from the first turnpoint in the task, and for the width specified in the Radius field.
  6. The setting for Cambridge format or SeeYou format waypoints on the transfer screen is now saved in the config file.
  7. Some label changes and other minor interface improvements.
  8. When the waypoint list is sorted by nearest airports the waypoint name is preceded by a “~” if the waypoint is classed as an landing place only and not an airport
  9. The button assignments on the Task Edit screen for New, Copy, Reverse, Delete have been removed. Since you can now access these from the Task List screen.
  10. The Calendar button now moves back one record and the phone button moves forward one record, in the wayoint list, task edit screen, task list and SUA list.
  11. Tapping on the task speed field in the View Waypoint Sector screen or the Flight Info will cycle through the speed units used. As a result there is only one task speed field on the Flight Info screen as you can now select the units.

Still to come

Changes for 2.0.0 Beta 30 January 2005-1

  1. Fixed memory that could cause program to crash
  2. Fixed problem with uploading some DOC files

Changes for 2.0.0 Beta 30 January 2005

This version will reset your logger, flight, task, waypoint and config databases, make sure you save your data first! Also, you will need to re-enter any details of areas in your main waypoint database.

  1. Support for a minimum radius for assigned areas as well as a maximum radius. When this is used the program guides you to the centre of the sector, not the waypoint itself. For an example of this look at http://www.tasknav.com/Tn2005%20AAT%20Task%20Report.pdf
  2. The task distance is continuously updated based on your max distance position in the areas. This is fed into the calculated ETA and TOT information on the flight info screen. (see below)
  3. The next waypoint display will show details for the min and max distance points for an assigned area. On route to the area, the next waypoint information points to the minimum distance point, while the main waypoint direction points to the target point (center of the area). On entry into the area, the next waypoint information points to the maximum distance point, while the main waypoint direction points to the next waypoint in the task.
  4. In addition on the moving map under the main waypoint distance the program will show Min, Max or Ctl to identify the type of control point being displayed. Nothing is shown for normal waypoints.
  5. New option on the task screen for “AAT Update Task legs”. When selected, on entry to a sector, the task legs will “rubber band” to the current position, until you reach your maximum distance in the area. Then the max distance position will remain fixed.
  6. Fixed various memory leaks that could cause the program to crash.
  7. Some minor button changes to improve readability and consistency.
  8. You can now go to the waypoint edit screen from the task edit screen by double tapping on the name.
  9. The Flight Info screen task times have changed to start time, ETA (estimated time of arrive) or stop time if flight is not active, elapsed time and TOT (time on task). TOT is useful for time limited tasks to judge if you are late or early to the task time. TOT makes an estimate for the final glide phase to give a better calculation than just distance to go divided by average task speed so far.
  10. The program will now ask for confirmation if you try to deactivate a task when you are still in flight and have started the task.
  11. Fixed a problem where some task waypoints were displayed twice on the moving map.

Changes for 2.0.0 Beta 16 January 2005

  1. New feature - You can now delete a single flight from the flight data base by pressing the “Delete” button on the transfer / flights/logs screen.
  2. Fixed a problem with declaring tasks containing control points to an EW logger.
  3. Fixed a problem with commas in text fields causing data to be lost when reloaded. Commas are now replaced with spaces to avoid this problem.

Changes for 2.0.0 Beta 19 December 04

This will reset your configuration and task databases. (Tasks you have saved before can be reloaded)

1. Control points in the task can be set by double tapping in the waypoint type on the Task Edit screen. Only waypoint type “T” for turnpoint can be set to a control point. The takeoff, landing, start and finish points cannot be set as control points. The old way to set control points on the task waypoint edit screen has been removed. 2. The leg distance to the control point is ignored. The task distance is from the turnpoint before the control point(s) to the turnpoint after. 3. Control points are excluded from the task declarations and FGA calculations. 4. Control points will be considered rounded and the program move to the next waypoint when you pass a line perpendicular to the task leg, running thru the control point. Or of course you can go to the next waypoint at any time by pressing the “CSE:” button on the Final Glide screen or moving map. 5. Large amounts of data can now be written and read back using the MEMO transfer. Data is split into several indexed files, and read back from multiple files to re-create to original data. 6. The “Stop” button on the Logger Settings screen is now always available. This can be used to stop the logger in flight briefly to allow another task declaration to be recorded into the log file. The one task declaration per flight restriction was added in the last beta to improve the log security. 7. You will now receive a warning if you try to make a second task declaration in flight. You have the option to continue with the current task declaration, or start a new flight log and declare the new task. 8. The Transfer screen now shows the selected data transfer method in the title bar. 9. The active task can move be accessed directly from the moving map by tapping in the top right corner where the distance to the target waypoint is diplayed.

Changes for 2.0.0 Beta 12 December 04

This will reset your configuration database!

1. Waypoint list reformatted to improve display. If the altitude value is followed by a “!” this means the waypoint elevation is zero, so may not have been set. This could mean the altitude displayed is significantly wrong. 2. New feature - Glide since last thermal (on the Flight Info screen) can be reset by tapping the field, or the “Reset” button above. 3. New option on Final Glide Setup screen to control if the bearing and direction to the next waypoint is shown for ALL waypoints, CTL Control waypoints, or OFF never. If the Use Soarpilot Waypoints option is not checked, this option is set to OFF. This will reset your configuration database. (Control Points will be functional in the next beta) 4. Next Waypoint information now appears on the Final Glide screen bottom right in small font above the Bear/Rng: label, and on the Moving Map at the Top, again in small font. 5. Altitude values are now limited to +/-99999 this is to avoid screen corruptions 6. New Feature - there is now a task list, accessed from the Navigation menu. This lists all the tasks in the database and allows for edit, delete, new, copy and activate actions to be performed. The list can be sorted by name, or distance both ascending and descending. The Active Task is always at the top of this list. 7. SUA list now shows how it is sorted in the title bar 8. Improved sorting of the SUA list when Active or Type selected. Secondary sort on title is also performed 9. Improved logging security. IGC header info is saved at the time of declaration, and only one declaration to the log file can be made per flight.

Changes for 2.0.0 Beta 13 November 04

1. Flight number now appears in the IGC file output 2. Fixed a problem of parsing waypoints with commas in the names or descriptions 3. Fixed a problem caused when you changed the map scale when zoomed in in thermal mode. The cruise map scale was lost before. 4. Fixed a problem that caused the bottom label area on the moving map to be overwritten with bold line on a DIA capable Plam. eg T3 5. Changes to the glide ratios displayed on the flight info screen. The “instant” LD has been removed and replaced with LD since last thermal “L.Th”. This compares how much nearer you are to your target waypoint vs the altitude lost since the last thermal. Note: these glide angles assume arrival at 0 height at your destination 6. Fixed the problem with DOC files over 4096 bytes causing data to be lost when receiving. 7. Task Edit screen reformatted. “Edit” button brings up the menu to Add, Remove or Edit a waypoint. The “Rev” button reverses the task. The “T” and “L” boxes are now the “T/O” and “Land” checkboxes. The last column in the list gives the types of waypoint. S-start, F-finish, T-turnpoint, A-area, C-control. 8. Task Waypoint Edit screen now has a checkbox bottom right to indicate a control point or not. Control points will appear in a future version. 9. New feature - on the SUA display settings you can now fliter the display to only show SUA items within a certain height from your current altitude. This cannot be set lower than the vertical warning distance set. This is a new config option, so will reset your config database.

Changes for 2.0.0 Beta 04 November 04

1. FL not displayed in ft properly on the QFE / QNH and Final Glide screens after the last set of changes. This is now fixed 2. Corrections and improvements to the waypoint list handling 3. Fixed the bug which prevented “All flights” to be transmitted over a serial connection 4. Fixed a problem of 2 HOME waypoints being declared on Cambridge format waypoint file load 5. SP now calculates distance and bearing for all waypoints at program start, first valid GPS data received, new waypoint data load and change of home waypoint 6. Fixed a problem where the wind units were not updated correctly after loading a config file 7. “QNH Not Required” will appear in the QNH portion of the QFE/QNH screen in the case that a pressure altitude data is being received, but the “Use pressure altitude for display/lift” option is OFF. In this case the GPS altitude is used for MSL, AGL, QFE and the pressure altitude is used for FL. Therefore the QNH setting has no effect. The program will say “QNH used for MSL” or “QNH used for FL” to indictate which altitude reference is being calculated using the QNH pressure. 8. “Pressure Alt for Display/Lift” has been renamed to “Use Pressure Alt for Final Glide” to hopefully make it’s purpose a bit clearer. If this option is checked, it requires a QNH value to be entered to be accurate 9. New feature - a button on the SUA list screen that allows the activation / deactivation of a single SUA item or all SUA items

Changes for 2.0.0 Beta 24 October 04

1. New feature - Tapping the Bearing or Range to waypoint fields on the Final Glide screen (bottom left), takes you to the Task Edit screen. 2. New feature - Auto zero QFE option on the Set Final Glide screen. This will set the field elevation to the MSL value when the logger starts. ie: set to airfield level on start. 3. The Pressure Alt for Display/Lift has moved to the NMEA/Port screen, as this is involved in the source of the altitude data. This option is now only visible is a pressure altitude source is selected. 4. New feature - The field elevation on the set QNH / QFE screen can be changed with the “To Do” and “Memo” buttons. Same as the safety altitude on the Set Final Glide screen. 5. When the waypoint list is in SELECT mode the righthand button is labelled “GO”. When the list is in LIST mode, the button is labelled “OK”. ie: When labelled “GO” this will affect your waypoint selection. 6. Minor screen changes to line up fields, and change to the primary screen chain accessed using the “Find” button. New chain is:- Final Glide → Flight Info → QNH/QFE → Final Glide Setup → Wind → Task Edit → Waypt List → Map Many of the screens moved later in the chain can be accessed directly from the Final Glide screen Map → “Home” button Waypt list → Tap “Cse/Spd:” fields Task Edit → Tap “Bear/Rng:” fields Wind → Tap “HW:” field 7. Some fixes to the Seeyou waypoint output routine

Changes for 2.0.0 Beta 10 October 04

1. Glide angles are now shown on the flight info screen in flight. Instant, 30 sec Average and Required to reach the selected waypoint. I am sure how accurate this can be, as a difference of +/- 1 sec on the 30sec average is a 3% difference or +/-1 glide point. This is the best resolution available with GPS input. 2. Changed the QNH screen to show all the altitude references SP uses, and moved the field elevation parameter from the NMEA/Port screen. Allows you to see the effects of the changes. 3. New option to allow track trial lines in bold on the moving map 4. Fixed the up-arrow and RESET showing under the menu on the moving map, and the altitude units disappearing on the final glide screen 5. Fields for Seeyou waypoints are now mapped to SP files differently. Also, SP can now transmit as well as receive Seeyou format files to/from “waypoints.cup” Seeyou SP Title ↔ Remarks (12 chars max) Code ↔ Name (12 chars max) Desc ↔ Geninfo (63 chars max)

Changes for 2.0.0 Beta 23 September 04

1. Fixed problem of new task names not being saved properly 2. Added option to have SUA lines bold on a hi-res screen 3. In Flight Info and Transfer screens the date format used now follows the Palm device setting eg: D/M/Y or M/D/Y. Plus improvements to the dialogs.

Changes for 2.0.0 Beta 20 September 04

This will reset your config database, save your configuration first.

1. Fixed a bug causing the program to crash on startup when a C302 was selected 2. Minor screen changes for consistent button naming etc

Changes for 2.0.0 Beta 19 September 04

1. Improved moving map drawing speed 2. Correctly implemented drawing a circle round the active waypoint when no task is active or a temporary waypoint is selected. Radius is the same as the turnpoint cylinder radius. 3. Turning point sound now played when entering the circle of a single active waypoint as above 4. When the copying tasks, the name is now the original name with a suffix, rather than “CopyTask” 5. Colouring for track trail. Red for sink, blue for lift which is less than the current MC value, and green for lift greater than the current MC value.

Changes for 2.0.0 Beta 18 September 04

1. The C302 settings are now stored in the config file when you transfer it 2. Minor improvements to the settings screen for map colours and lines 3. You can now edit waypoints after they have been added to tasks. This is useful for changing area waypoint settings. Changes made to task waypoints do not affect the main waypoint database. 4. There is now a “Act” / “Deact” button on the detail SUA view screen 5. Fixed the bug that caused the map zoom to freeze.

Changes for 2.0.0 Beta 12 September 04

This will reset your config database, save your configuration first.

1. Fixed a bug with the menu on the moving map not working correctly 2. Page up / down buttons can now be used to change the QNH setting on the Set QNH screen 3. Changed the exit program dialog to prevent this being selected by pressing the select button on the 5-way navigator 4. QNH units now selectable between mb and inches of mercury

Changes for 2.0.0 Beta 25 August 04

This will reset your config database, save your configuration first.

1. Program now always writes the task declaration to the log file. 2. Changes to set QNH screen is a C302 is used. 3. More accurate altitude adjustments for the QNH pressure. 4. New facility to define the colours and bold used for Task, SUA and Sector lines on the moving map. Accessed by tapping the “Set Lines” button at the bottom right on the map settings screen 5. Program now shows “m” not “mt” for meters 6. Palm 5-Way Navigator can now be used to change the screens. Pressing “Left” is the same as the “home” button changing between the final glide and moving map screens. Pressing “Right” is the same as the “Find” button moving through the chain of screens. Pressing “Center” button now brings up the menu from which you can use the navigator to select other screens. 7. Changed some default values when the program resets the config database.

Changes for 2.0.0 Beta 03 August 04

1. Some changes to how SP reads the QNH pressure from the C302.

Changes for 2.0.0 Beta 28 July 04

1. Fixed a bug that prevented the find button working after using the Cse: field to change waypoints when a task was active. 2. SP now reads the QNH setting directly from the C302 when a C302 computer is selected.

Changes for 2.0.0 Beta 28 July 04

1. Minor code changes to improve speed a little 2. Found a bug in reading the MC value from a B50 or C302. This was linked in error to the calculate headwind setting. 3. Maybe? fixed a bug with the D.Alt arrows on the moving map screen not working properly. I could not replicate the error, so I can’t test if fixed. If someone can replicate this error I can check further. 4. Fixed a bug that would prevent circular SUA items from getting an urgent warning.

Changes for 2.0.0 Beta 10 July 04

1. Changed the position of the down arrow on the moving map screen when there is no locked GPS data. Removes the conflict between the down arrow and Altitude field. 2. Minor display improvements to avoid fields overlapping. 3. Removed optimized North Up map mode as this caused problems with map drawing and magnetic deviation. This will need a much bigger rewrite to implement.

Changes for 2.0.0 Beta 04 July 04

1. Fixed a bug in the task restarting code that could sometimes cause the next waypoint to be claimed immediately as well. 2. Fixed a bug in viewing the waypoint list, selected from the menu that could cause corruption of the waypoint in use. 3. The title in the waypoint lists now shows if you are selecting a waypoint or jst listing them, what order they are sorted, and what altitude mode is selected. 4. Some minor screen formatting improvements, and displaying of numbers. 5. the “QNH” altitude is now correctly named “QFE”. ie: zero at ground level.

Changes for 2.0.0 Beta 03 July 04

1. Fixed the corrupt waypoint select screen when tapping the CSE: label on the moving map on hi res devices. 2. Fixed a problem where invalid polar data would cause SP to crash when viewing the polar. Now if invalid data is entered, SP refuses to save it. 3. Minor change to the wording to REMOVE a waypoint not DELETE it from a task.

Changes for 2.0.0 Beta 01 July 04

1. Added button to access the waypoint select list from the task screen. Tap on the “W” at the bottom left corner of the screen. This makes accessing the waypoint list easier on Palms without a Calc button. Is there any place else you need it? 2. Fixed some minor display bugs in the set QNH screen

Changes for 2.0.0 Beta 30 June 04

1. Fixed the major bug in 29 June 04 Beta whiched caused corruption on high resolution screens. Sorry about that one! Change 4 in 29 June 04 Beta has changed to tapping the CSE: field in the bottom left of the final glide screen. This now brings up the waypoint select or task options screen. Better since it’s consistent with the moving map screen. 2. Implemented an “OK” button on the waypoint list that should allow complete “Calc” button free operation 3. Fixed minor corruption if you deactivated a task and did not select another waypoint. Reverts to the last active task waypoint.

Changes for 2.0.0 Beta 29 June 04

1. Optimised north up map drawing, improves speed by about 25%. 2. Put a check in the program to ensure the pressure altitude always has a valid value. Based on the GPS altitude and QNH setting if no press altitude data received, but a source is defined. 3. The display of the MC or Tlft value on the moving map is now always visible when the bottom labels are enabled. Previously it required a waypoint to be selected. 4. Tapping in the waypoint direction arrow box (now the CSE: field) on the final glide screen now brings up the select waypoint list or list of options is a task is active. This is the same functionality as the calc button. Also, tapping on the Cse: box on the moving map has the same effect. For those palms that do not have a calc button directly. (Please confirm this works, I do not have a hi-res palm to check this on)

Changes for 2.0.0 Beta 28 June 04

1. Task Re-Start Feature: Tasks will start automatically as before. If you then cross the start line or leave the start sector again, you will be prompted if you wish to re-start the task. If you are thermalling on the edge of the line or sector, leaving the re-start task dialog open will stop repeated alerts. The re-start task dialog will not auto dismiss, you must choose “Yes” or “No”. Either by tapping the button, or pressing one of the hardware buttons. Calendar or Address Book is YES, To Do List or Notepad is NO. 2. Due to an internal timer change you will need to reset your SUA Auto Dismiss parameter 3. On the moving map screen in cruise mode the MC value is displayed in the bottom left corner, in thermal mode the thermal average lift (Tlft) value is displayed. 4. New moving map parameter “Keep SUA visible” this forces the SUA data to be displayed even in thermal mode. This parameter has no effect on a Palm OS 5 device as SUA is always drawn due to the extra speed available NOTE: this change will reset the config database, so save your configuration to load back in later This can than be used to generate a thermal mode with no zoom, north up map, and SUA displayed. 5. Fixed a bug that caused the T3 to continuously play the GPS disconnected sound. (Please confirm as I don’t have a T3 unit to test it on)

Changes for 2.0.0 Beta 22 June 04

1. Fixed a small bug in the polar display screen that was using the lift/sink units for the minsink speed. 2. Fixed a bug that would cause a crash if you attempted to display the additional info on a waypoint in an active task, that does not exist in the waypoint database anymore. 3. Added colour to the moving map screens for tasks. Task legs are blue, sectors are pink. Some feeback on the colour choice would be good as I do not have a colour palm to test this on in flight conditions. 4. Added a feature to allow searching in the waypoint list. The button on the top right labelled “S” will open up a text field at the bottom of the screen. Type in the partial name of the waypoint you want to find and tap find. The program will locate the nearest waypoint by name. The find is does not take account of case.

Changes for 2.0.0 Beta 21 June 04

1. Made the parsing of SUA data a little more robust. 2. On the final glide screen “WPT:” is now just a label. Tapping on the Waypoint name, or the add.info button brings up the additional information about that waypoint. 3. New map declutter feature. There is a new setting on the Map Settings screen named “Declut” this allows you to set a map scale at and over which only the waypoint symbol is drawn and not all the names. The active waypoint / task are always named and drawn. This will reset your configuration database. So save your settings before running this version, and read them back in afterwards. You will now get a popup message to inform you a database has been reset.

Changes for 2.0.0 Beta 18 June 04

1. Fixed a bug generating an event queue full error, plus a couple of other minor corrections and formatting bugs. 2. Tapping the waypoint name will now also bring up the additional waypoint information. I felt the Add.Info button was too small to hit in flight. Tapping the bearing or range numbers, or the calc button still bring up the waypoint list as normal

Changes for 2.0.0 Beta 15 June 04

1. Fixed a bug (hopefully) with the waypoint viewing / editing screens. This would sometimes cause the Palm to crash, select the wrong additional info, or not save some data. 2. Added a feature to be able to select the next or previous waypoint in an active task. Accessed by pressing the “calculator” button from the final glider or moving map screens, with a task active. This will effect your distance achieved and average task speed!!

Changes for 2.0.0 Beta 13 June 04

1. Fixed a bug in the SUA detection where some shapes of SUA were not detected correctly. This was due to a change made in Beta 5th June to eliminate a crash. Thanks to Russell for this one.

Changes for 2.0.0 Beta 11 June 04

1. Removed the confirmation when deleting waypoints from a task. 2. Waypoints with the attribute AIRPORT are plotted on the map with a large circle. Waypoints with the attribute LAND are plotted with a smaller circle. If both a large circle is plotted. 3. Flight level on the final glide screen and moving map is always shown in ft regardless of the altitude units set. 4. Waypoint elevation is now shown on the main final glide screen. The remarks and other additional information can now be accessed with the use “Add.Info” button The waypoint additional info screen has been reformatted to include the remarks fields, and some other basic info about the waypoint. Only the underlined fields can be changed from the add.info screen.

Changes for 2.0.0 Beta 10 June 04

1. Address book button now toggles between the normal and thermal map zoom and orientation settings when in thermal mode. 2. Fixed a bug with lift units of fpm not working correctly on the final glide screen. 3. Fixed a bug where changes made on the main waypoint edit screen were lost if you selected the additional info before saving.

Changes for 2.0.0 Beta 7th June 04

1. Corrected bug for using flight levels and metric units 2. Additional message on the set QNH screen. When a pressure source has been selected, but no data has been received yet, the message “No Pressure Data!” is displayed.

Changes for 2.0.0 Beta 5th June 04

1. Fixed a bug that would cause a crash with a “chuck under locked error” Thanks for the detailed information from Russell Fletcher and Robert Huber 2. Fixed a couple of comestic issues with drop down menus being over written, and the MC / Sink units changing to the altitude units Thanks to Graham Lambert 3. User parameters now available for the auto dismiss time on the main SUA config screen, as well as a global option to switch warnings on or off This required a change to the config database, so you will need to save your config data to a file, delete your config database using FileZ or similar and re load your saved config data. You will also need to delete and reload your SUA data.

Changes for 2.0.0 Beta 30th May 04

1. Moved the airspace warning windows up to the top of the screen, and corrected the titles to say “Airspace” 2. Airspace warnings now automatically dismiss after 2 mins. 3. New QNH pressure setting screen Access this screen to set the local QNH pressure at any time during or before the flight. This is used to calculate the flight level on GPS only systems, and to allow the final glide calculations to be correct for systems using the pressure altitude for display and lift. The new screen as accessed under the Flight menu, or after the final glide setup screen using the find button. The QNH pressure setting is set to 1013mb on program start up and should be set to the correct sea level pressure to ensure accurate SUA detection / warning and final glide. The value can be changed using the plus and minus buttons. The altitude or the flight level that is calculated is shown at the top of the screen to check the value entered. Pressing the “Reset QNH” button resets the value to 1013mb, and pressing the “Exit” button exits to the final glide screen. If you have a pressure altitude source selected in the NMEA / Port Config screen, and are not using pressure altitude for display and lift in the final glide setup screen, then “Not Required!” will be displayed. The QNH pressure setting is not required with this combination and will have no effect. 4. New altitude mode “FL” This isused to display the pressure altitude. It is shown on the final glide screen and moving map. Tapping these fields now cycles through the altitude modes “MSL”, “AGL”, “QNH” ,”FL”. Note: Only the “QNH” mode is affected by the field elevation mode on the NMEA / Port config screen. The new QNH pressure screen as no effect.

Due to some data structure changes, this version WILL reset your configuration information. So please back up your configuration (Memo, PalmDOC or Flash Card) prior installing and running this version the first time.

In addition, you MUST!!!! delete your current SUA data (from the Transfers screen is fine) and re-read the data in again. I did not make the program do it automatically since the actual underlying data structure did not change. However, a good portion of the major work that Paul did was in the actual parsing of the SUA data. Thus you MUST re-parse the data from the original data for these changes to take effect. You will get VERY strange results otherwise. The final version may have the program reset the SUA data automatically however, I didn’t want to do it at this point.

New things in 2.0.0

  1. SUA Warnings
    1. Through some wonderful work by Paul Gleeson, SoaringPilot now supports both visual and audible SUA Warnings. This was all done with little or no actual/additional slow down of the processing of the program even on slower PalmOS PDA‘s. He has done an outstanding job and you should commend him for his fine work. Here’s additional information on the capability from Paul.
    2. Disclaimer! If you are travelling fast, you may enter airspace without being warned, particularly if you are using an older, slower palm PDA with extensive/complex SUA data as not all the SUA items maybe checked in time!!! It is the pilot’s responsibility to be aware of airspace at all times, and not rely totally on SP to provide warnings.
    3. Version 2.0.0 includes SUA warnings based on horizontal and vertical separation from SUA items. When you go to the SUA Configuration page, you wil now see two large buttons for selection. The previous info that was on that page has been moved to page displayed by the “Display Configuration” button. The new SUA Warning configuration is on the screen displayed by the “Warning Configuration” button. The top part of the two screens look similar but the bottoms contain different configuration items. Also, the title of each screen denotes it’s function.
    4. SUA Warning Configuraton Screen - The horizontal distance and vertical height are set on the Settings / SUA / Warning Configuration page. The horizontal distance units will use the distance units setting on the Units configuration page. The vertical height units will either be feet or meters and are also dependant on the distance units setting. If you have Statute or Nautical miles selected, the units will be in feet. If you have kilometers selected, it will be in meters. In addition, there is an Urgent parameter. This parameter controls at what percentage of the original warning distance / height you will receive an urgent reminder. If you set this to 0% you will normally only receive one warning before entering airspace. (see above)
    5. General Warning Order and Display - If you are within the horizontal distance and/or vertical height set from an SUA item you will receive an NON-URGENT warning informing you that you are near an SUA item. A single tone will sound and a popup box will be displayed with the SUA details. You can dismiss this warning by tapping “Dismiss” on the screen or pressing either of the two hardware buttons to the left of the PageUp/PageDown buttons/5-Way pad (depending on your PDA). These are normally the Calendar and Address Book buttons. Either one will work. I wanted to make it as easy as possible for your to find the buttons and dismiss the window while flying.
    6. If you are within the Urgent % parameter of the horizontal distance and/or vertical height from an SUA item you will receive an URGENT warning again informing you of your proximity to an SUA item. A three tone warning will sound, and a popup box will be displayed with the SUA details. As before, you can dismiss this warning by tapping “Dismiss” on the screen or pressing either of the two hardware buttons to the left of the PageUp/PageDown buttons/5-Way pad (depending on your PDA). These are normally the Calendar and Address Book buttons.
    7. If you actually enter the SUA item you will receive an URGENT warning informing you that you are now Inside the SUA item. A three tone warning will sound, and a popup box will be displayed with the SUA details. As before, you can dismiss this warning by tapping “Dismiss” on the screen or pressing either of the two hardware buttons to the left of the PageUp/PageDown buttons/5-Way pad (depending on your PDA). These are normally the Calendar and Address Book buttons.
    8. Unlike other warning/error dialogs in the SoaringPilot, the SUA Warning does not stop all other processing in the program. So, if you do not dismiss a warning and leave it displayed, the program continues to log data, and do other calculations. In addition, if a more urgent warning occurs, the Warning window will be updated with the more urgent information. In addition, you will always get the warning tones for all warnings. Finally, you will receive warnings as you approach and enter the airspace, but not as you fly away from the SUA item.
  2. SUA List Window - This window allows for several functions:
    1. You can see what SUA data is loaded.
    2. You can individually deactivate SUA items.
    3. You can select an individual item and select the “VIEW” button to see details about the SUA item. It does NOT allow you to change the actual contents of the SUA data. I am VERY wary of allowing you to edit this info within SoaringPilot. I would prefer that you do it in the original SUA data and then read the data in again.
    4. There is a Distance column on the SUA list. This shows a rough distance from the SUA item to your current position. This is to a single reference point used for processing and displaying the SUA item. It is NOT the distance to the closest edge/point of the SUA item. Please keep that in mind.
    5. The SUA List can be sorted by ANY of the columns. Simply touch the column headings and the data will be worted by that columns information. Selecting the same column heading again will sort the items in the opposite direction.
  3. Renamed Top Menu Items - The far left item that used to be called “NAV” is not “Flight” however all of the items are the same. The Center Top Menu item has been renamed from “Waypt/Task” to “Navigation”.
  4. Separate Wind Units - In previous versions, the wind speed units were the same as the normal speed units setting on the Units Configuration screen. There is now a separate configuration item for Wind and it includes an additional option of meters per second (m/s).

Preliminary Docs for Changes/Additions in SP1.8.0 - 1.9.9.1

Preliminary Docs for Changes/Additions in SP1.8.0 - 1.9.9.1