NATS prepare to launch free pre-flight planning tool
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NATS prepare to launch free pre-flight planning tool
Some of you will know that NATS having been working for the past months on a project to make planning a VFR flight safer and easier.
We believe that some key functionality is essential in any such pre-flight planning tool and must include the following:
• Simple user interface
• Free at point of use
• Graphical NOTAM depiction
• Generates alerts when a planned route interacts with controlled or restricted airspace
• Generates basic Pilot’s Log
• Comprehensive VFR database
NATS have been looking hard for products that incorporate this functionality and for a way of acknowledging the clear safety benefits that any such product would bring to the GA community.
We are nearly there! Beta testing is well underway of a truly innovative and exciting tool developed by a well known and respected UK company who already specialise in VFR Flight Planning and In-flight GPS.
Watch this space for updates as we approach a launch date in time for the Easter Weekend.
In the meantime, if you feel you would like to be one of a small team of Beta testers to help in the final stages of validating the tool, then please PM me.
We believe that some key functionality is essential in any such pre-flight planning tool and must include the following:
• Simple user interface
• Free at point of use
• Graphical NOTAM depiction
• Generates alerts when a planned route interacts with controlled or restricted airspace
• Generates basic Pilot’s Log
• Comprehensive VFR database
NATS have been looking hard for products that incorporate this functionality and for a way of acknowledging the clear safety benefits that any such product would bring to the GA community.
We are nearly there! Beta testing is well underway of a truly innovative and exciting tool developed by a well known and respected UK company who already specialise in VFR Flight Planning and In-flight GPS.
Watch this space for updates as we approach a launch date in time for the Easter Weekend.
In the meantime, if you feel you would like to be one of a small team of Beta testers to help in the final stages of validating the tool, then please PM me.
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Thank you to the huge number of people who have volunteered to Beta test this exciting tool. We now have more than enough testers and already a huge amount of very positive feedback. So if you have not been asked to test the software, don't worry, you will get your chance to play with the completed product for free in just a few days.
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This sounds like a good step forward. However does the NOTAM part of it get rid of all those admin notams meant for ATC or military that are of no interest to pilots? It has been explained that these have to be issued as Notams rather than through some other admin system. But presumably the filtering of this system should be able to take them out.
The types of thing Im talking about are.
-Some Mil aircraft is allocated squawk code 0251
- police helicopter is callsign heli 2
- phone number for xxx bombing ranges is changed to ...
- trigger notam for some admin change
keep up the good work!
Maybe we will see the £50 mode S transponder yet!!! (I know it was £500 before, but we have less budget to pay for it now the fuel price has gone up!)
The types of thing Im talking about are.
-Some Mil aircraft is allocated squawk code 0251
- police helicopter is callsign heli 2
- phone number for xxx bombing ranges is changed to ...
- trigger notam for some admin change
keep up the good work!
Maybe we will see the £50 mode S transponder yet!!! (I know it was £500 before, but we have less budget to pay for it now the fuel price has gone up!)
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I am delighted to now be able to disclose the company that NATS have been working with to bring the UK General Aviation community a free VFR pre-flight planning tool is SkyDemon.
SkyDemon are already known and respected throughout the community for their SkyDemon Plan software. They have been working incredibly hard in conjunction with NATS to produce a streamlined, on-line version, free at the point of use, which delivers key functionality that we believe is essential to the safe planning and execution of a VFR flight. The name of this exciting tool is SkyDemon Light.
Over the next few days we hope to be able to formally acknowledge and endorse this key safety functionality in SkyDemon's product and jointly declare the tool operational but in the meantime we need your help to continue our programme of Beta testing. We would like to thank our original team of Beta testers for their comments and support and now extend the offer all LAA forum members to try out and evaluate SkyDemon Light.
The link to the prototype is www.SkyDemonLight.com/airspace.html The application will prompt you to install the Microsoft Plug-In, Silverlight on your computer but in practice this is already resident on many peoples systems.
Please post your comments and thoughts back to the thread and Tim Dawson from SkyDemon together with NATS Research & Development Team will monitor your posts to help us complete the Beta test phase and declare SkyDemon Light operational.
SkyDemon are already known and respected throughout the community for their SkyDemon Plan software. They have been working incredibly hard in conjunction with NATS to produce a streamlined, on-line version, free at the point of use, which delivers key functionality that we believe is essential to the safe planning and execution of a VFR flight. The name of this exciting tool is SkyDemon Light.
Over the next few days we hope to be able to formally acknowledge and endorse this key safety functionality in SkyDemon's product and jointly declare the tool operational but in the meantime we need your help to continue our programme of Beta testing. We would like to thank our original team of Beta testers for their comments and support and now extend the offer all LAA forum members to try out and evaluate SkyDemon Light.
The link to the prototype is www.SkyDemonLight.com/airspace.html The application will prompt you to install the Microsoft Plug-In, Silverlight on your computer but in practice this is already resident on many peoples systems.
Please post your comments and thoughts back to the thread and Tim Dawson from SkyDemon together with NATS Research & Development Team will monitor your posts to help us complete the Beta test phase and declare SkyDemon Light operational.
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