Shareware Game Pak for Windows/Shareware Game Pak for Windows.iso/finalapp/finalapp.doc

Text File | 1992-02-12 | 10.7 KB | 299 lines

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                         Note
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Final Approach is not (yet) shareware or a commercial program
and will probably never be freeware.

I'm making this evaluation version publicly available because
at this stage of development I need some feedback from real FS
enthusiasts (and you probably are one of those). Please give
Final Approach a test run and tell me if it could be of any
concrete use for you while flying FS or ATP.

Depending on the kind of feedback I'll receive, I will continue
working on the project, despite the fact that my leisure time
is getting pretty close to zero point zero at the time being.
If you tell me that these charts are hardly usable for a
"serious" approach and that you do absolutely need the real thing,
Final Approach will still continue to grow, but certainly at a
much slower pace.

So thanks for any comment!

Georges Lorsche, Luxembourg  (CIS: 100041,211)


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                   About Final Approach
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Most modern flight simulators have reached a level of realism
that makes the use of real-world approach charts a necessity.

Unfortunately only few charts are generally included with the
documentation of these programs. While ATP has got a whole
bunch of them, they are as rare as hen's teeth within the docs
of FS4 or the Scenery Disks.

Because buying the original charts is hardly affordable for
most of us, I had the idea of a program, that would replicate
those charts as realistically as possible on screen. If the
data was compressed to a reasonable size, the program could
include virtually hundreds of charts at the prize of a dozen
originals.

For a long time I worked on a DOS program, that would comply
to this specs. But the intended software should also generate
printouts in the best possible quality and this is where I
got stuck. I simply found no way to write printer drivers for
dozens of printers I had no access to.

When Visual Basic was released, I took my old Pascal code and
adapted it to the new language. With Windows taking care of
the print job, I could now concentrate on designing the charts
and came up with a workable program in less than 300 hours.

The data required to display a whole chart (plan view, profile
and missed approach instructions) now takes up as little as
350 byte, so that up to 1000 (!) charts will fit on a single
360K disk.

This evaluation version includes just 20 of them, but that
should be largely enough to give you an idea of what the
final product could be. Above all I need your feedback. I had
to simplify the charts to fit into a given database structure,
did I go too far? Are these charts usable for a "serious"
approach, or do you absolutely need the real thing?? What else
would you like included in such a program?

Thank you for reviewing an unfinished program and for helping
me develop and fine-tune a product, that should, as I hope,
some day meet the needs of many of you.


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               Setting up Final Approach
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A. Minimum configuration

Final Approach requires a 286 or higher processor, 2 Mb of
RAM, an EGA or higher adapter and any printer supported by
Windows.

The Visual Basic runtime library VBRUN100.DLL must be present
in the Windows directory. You can download it from almost any BBS.


B. Installation

Copy the files included in FINALAPPA.ZIP to any directory of your
hard disk. They will take up less than 300K.


C. Running Final Approach

From within the Windows program manager, choose File - Run...,
then type the path and name of FINALAPP.EXE into the dialog
box. Click OK.

To install Final Approach permanently into one of your program
groups, choose File - New - Program Item and then enter a
description and path to FINALAPP.EXE. From that moment on, you
can run the program by double-clicking on the Final Approach
icon.


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             A short guide to Final Approach
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A. Loading a file & selecting a chart

The data for the charts is contained in files with the
extension *.cht. Before selecting an approach chart, you must
tell Final Approach which of these data files to use.

   - Select File/Open...

This evaluation version includes a single chart file
("default.cht"), so your choices are somewhat limited. After
opening the file, a list of all available approaches is
displayed.

   - Select any chart from the list

Final Approach returns you to the main menu. The silhouette of
a landing 747 indicates the presence of a chart in your
computer s memory. Below the graphic the current approach is
identified.


B. Displaying a chart on the screen

Because the resolution of our current generation of monitors
would hardly allow for a complete chart to be displayed and
remain easily readable, I split each chart into its two major
components.

   - Plan View shows the geographic approach course, including
Navaids, intersections, radials and required headings. The
holding can optionally be included.

   - Profile View displays the vertical flight path from
initial altitude to the missed approach point. It includes
glidepath and timing information, rates of descent and the
describing text for the missed approach procedure.

While both views cannot be displayed together on the screen,
they can be printed out combined into a single approach plate.


C. Switching to another chart

You can easily switch to another chart from within the same
chart file.

   - Select File/Other Chart


D. Printing charts

There are several ways to print a chart. From within the Print
menu, Plan View and Profile View may be printed separately or
combined into a single chart. Try the latter:

   - Select Print/Both

Depending on your installed memory and type of printer, the
printout will take more or less time. While this will give you
some leisure time (typically 1.5 to 3 minutes), the resulting
vector quality should be worth the wait.

An alternate way to print a chart is available while the chart
is displayed on the screen. You might have noticed the related
buttons to the right of each chart.

   - Print Fine prints the current view in vector quality

   - Print Screen generates a hardcopy directly from the
screen s contents (limited to the map items of course).

While the latter is generally faster, the quality depends on
the resolution of your graphics adapter. Consider this option
only if the vector printout does not work on your hardware for
some reason or another (with Windows you never really know!).


E. Wind Correction Angles


Before you have a look at the simple navigation calculator,
you should enter some wind data:

   - Select Wind/Enter data

Change the wind settings by typing into the appropriate boxes
or by moving the horizontal scroll bars with the mouse.

Click Save to make those data the default settings or click OK
to keep them in use for the current session only.

   - Select Display/Correction Angles

The appearing table shows you exactly, how the current wind is
going to act on the selected approach and what to do about it.

Column 1 lists all headings you might be required to fly
within this approach (course, backcourse, procedure turn,
holding).
Column 2 gives you the wind correction angle for each course.
Column 3 shows the corrected heading, i.e. the direction where
the nose of your aircraft should point to. This heading will
assure proper compensation for undesirable wind drift.
Column 4 computes the wind influence on your ground speed and
indicates the real speed above ground for each segment. This
information is crucial for a well timed approach.

The graph illustrates the situation for the final segment of
the approach.

The blue arrow symbolizes the required approach course, the
red arrow corresponds to the wind direction.

On top of the blue arrow, a smaller, black arrow gives you a
visual cue as to how much you will have to turn your aircraft
towards the wind to remain on the horizontal approach course.


F. Selecting another aircraft

If you want to switch to a different aircraft, you can do so
from the main menu.

   - Select Aircraft then click on any aircraft in the list

If you reopen the wind correction chart, Final Approach will
have adapted the correction angles and ground speeds to match
the default speeds of the new aircraft.


G. Options

   - Select Options/Settings

Several features can be activated/deactivated from here. Just
check or uncheck the approapriate box.

<Maximize Maps> automatically enlarges the selected approach
charts to full display size.

<Display Holding> and <Print Holdding> include the holding
into the displayed or printed chart. Not using this feature
makes the chart somewhat easier to read and will speed-up the
printout.

<Ask: Printer ready?> makes Final Approach display a dialog
box asking the user to turn the printer online before
beginning a print job. This feature makes sense in case you
don t use the Windows Print Manager.

The combo boxes on the right side allow setting the type of
font Final Approach should use for displaying and printing the
charts. The default values will probably be your best choice,
but if you installed a Type Manager like ATM or FaceLift you
might want to experiment a bit to find the best-suited
combination of screen and printer fonts for your system.

If you select a font that does not seem appropriate, Final
Approach will warn you, but of course you may go ahead and see
for yourself. If the font does not work for you, just go back
and select another one.

When you are done with the settings, you may save them to make
them automatically current on the next startup.

   - Now select Options/Aircraft

Final Approach will manage 10 aircraft for you. You decide
about their names and default speeds.

Enter a name and the desired speeds into the dialog boxes and
click Save or OK. Your new aircraft will immediately appear in
the aircraft menu and can then be selected for use in the wind
correction module.

If you want to return to the default options, you may of
course retype them into the option menus (if you remember
them that is!). An easier way will be to erase the file
FINALAPP.CFG from your disk. Final Approach will then
automatically reset all options to their default settings.


Have fun!! (And don't be shy on giving some feedback!)


Georges Lorsche, CIS: 100041,211