NAVPAK NEWSLETTER

NAVPAK VERSION 14.5 (JULY-DECEMBER 2003) 
-  NEW FEATURES AND ENHANCEMENTS

Date and Time Stamping Added to NAVPAK Printed Schedules - In a typical day busy corporate dispatchers often deal with multiple schedule changes. With so many changes being made it is easy to become confused about which printout represents the latest version of the schedule. Now there is certainty. All pages of a Pilot or Passenger Schedule are now time and date stamped. The header of every page now contains information that should make it easy to transmit the correct version of a Schedule to a client.

Bidder Defaults have been added to Alternative Drive Group - With more dispatchers conducting business in small workgroups it has become desirable to use the same Bidder Default profiles for all who access the same computer drive from different workstations.

The files that can be accessed either on your Base Drive or your Alternate or Server Drive now include Aircraft Performance Files, Personal Airport and FBO Notes, Client Names and Addresses, Passenger Manifest Frequent Flyer Names, High Density Airports, Monthly Planner Crew and Client lists and Flight Files, Last 68 Trip Logs, Rich Text Format Files, User-Named Trip Logs, and Bidder Default Profiles.

Now a Blank Line may be inserted into the Passenger Manifest - Some passenger manifests require additions and deletions in specific rows of the of the data-entry grid. That capability has been implemented in version 14.5 of NAVPAK.

If you would like to add a name to the Passenger Manifest in any position other than the bottom of an already-completed list, you may click on the name on the passenger grid above which you want to insert the new name. Then click on "Add or Delete Rows" in the Menu Bar at the top of the screen and click on "Add one blank row before selected row".

Also new: If you change your mind about saving the data, you can now click on the Cancel & to Prior button, which will delete all information in the Manifest. (Note: if you load a saved file with Passenger Manifest data, access the Manifest and click on the Cancel & to Prior button, the data in the Passenger Manifest will be restored to its state when you first loaded it.)

New Passenger Manifest Headings covering - The Pilot Schedule and Pilot Schedule with leg notes now includes three columns to the right of the Passenger Manifest data which can be used to make row-by-row check marks next to appropriate passenger names.  These headings are TSA No-fly list, Photo ID checked, and overnight parking. The three security columns will not appear on the Passenger Schedule as this might generate unnecessary concern on the part of clients.

More Fine-tune Rows Available in the NAVPAK Bidder - With the addition of three additional rows in the Bidder charter operators will be able to add more specific detail to printed cost estimates or invoices. There are now twelve rows in the Bidder that can be fine tuned to reflect simple charges or calculated charges such as a Fuel Surcharge (e.g. Fuel times .004)

An HTML version of the Pilot Schedule with Leg Notes is now included in NAVPAK -- The Pilot, Passenger, and Pilot with Leg Notes Schedules include an HTML email option that has become useful to companies that use the Blackberry PDA as well as those who post schedules on company internet sites. To place an Html report into Microsoft Outlook or similar programs is easy. Click Insert>Text from file. You can also insert the Html files into the body of an email by pressing Ctrl-V.

The Bidder now has a second Discount line - There are times when the normal discount line has been employed for a Day Minimum or a Trip Minimum. In those cases a Discount may be included by using the row normally used by Wait-time charges. Of course the use of this line for a discount will also change the title to reflect a discount. With the second Discount line it is possible to have a leg-minimum, trip-minimum, day-minimum and Discount operational.

The Bidder Default profiles now do short math equations - A number of flight departments levy surcharges when a certain number of flight minutes have been exceeded. To accommodate this more complex calculation the forth row of the Bidder Default profile will now accept both simple and complex calculations. For example:

• If you select (TotalTime-Min.Hrs) * Lbs.Fuel * Fee/Lb., you will be prompted to enter a Minimum Time in hours and a Fee (rate). The MinTime is the number of hours above which a charge is levied. The Fee is the rate that is applied per pound of fuel.
• If you select (TotalTime-Min.Hrs) * Jet-A * Fee/gal., you will be prompted to enter a Minimum Time in hours and a Fee (rate). The MinTime is the number of hours above which a charge is levied. The Fee is the rate that is applied per gallon of Jet-A fuel.
• If you select (TotalTime-MinHrs) * Avgas * Fee/gal., you will be prompted to enter a Minimum Time in hours and a Fee (rate). The MinTime is the number of hours above which a charge is levied. The Fee is the rate that is applied per gallon of Avgas fuel.

There is a new and easier-to-use Crew Entry Screen - The Monthly Planner and the Scheduler modules allow you to enter Crew Names for Monthly Planner reporting and Scheduler report header information. Both of these screens have been refreshed to make it easier to add or delete crew members. The new screen is also a little smarter. It checks what you have typed to avoid entering the same name twice.

There is a new Hotel Search module in NAVPAK - The new Hotel Search module now has completely new screens and enhanced capability. When an airport has been selected and the hotels for that airport are listed, you can click on a specific hotel of interest and see Details for that hotel in an overlay which can be scrolled to reveal all available information on that Hotel. If you would like to see Details on another hotel at the same airport, you simply click on that hotel's listing on the grid. You can also preview and print hotel information from the Details screen.

If you have accessed Hotel Search for the purpose of pasting the hotel name and telephone number into a Schedule report, clicking on the specific Hotel and then clicking on the Send Current Row to Scheduler button will place the information into a memory buffer which the Scheduler will then access and paste automatically.

A preset Default Airport is now available when Airport Search first opens - Some flight departments prefer to have Airport Search boot up with a specific airport. Sometimes they need information about various airport services at an airport and sometimes a certain airport for them is a frequent destination. For whatever reason, a default 3-letter or 4-letter ID can be set so that this specific airport is loaded on boot up. Once in Airport Search any other airport ID may be entered in the usual manner.

Airport Search now provides Runway Numbers - The Runway field in Airport Search now includes the Runway number of the longest Runway at the airport, if that information is available. This is now required by some flight departments and brokers. Details provided for a given airport ID also include latitude/longitude, variation, approaches, runway, elevation, lighting, available fuel, frequencies, and tower and customs telephone numbers, as well as whether Daylight Savings Time is observed in the airport's area, and whether the airport provides Customs service. Airports can be located by airport ID, state / province / country, or by city name.

Easier Access to FAA Noise and Weight restrictions in Airport Search - If an airport has Noise Restriction information available, the Airport Search screen will display a yellow text line at the bottom of the screen saying ALERT.This airport has noise-weight-curfew limits.  If you click on Click Here, the Noise Restrictions for that airport will display. The text has also been updated to include current FAA advisories concerning noise, weight, traffic, curfew, and obstacles. The obsolete NBAA text has been removed.

Last-68 Triplogs Screen includes a Departure Date column - Thanks to a customer request we have included this new column to make it easier to locate a saved trip log. Your last 68 trips are saved in Date Saved order, with the most recent trip at the top of the grid. The other fields on the Last-68 grid now include Time saved, Aircraft Saved As, Schedule Number, Itinerary, and Departure Date.

The Personally Named Triplogs Screen now retains your Sorting Preference - Sorting Trip Logs alphabetically is not always optimal. That is why it is now easy to retain a preferred method of presenting Personally Named Trip Logs. When you click on Display/Sorting Options on the Menu Bar you will see six sorting alternatives. Whatever choice you make, it will be remembered as the preferred method of presentation. The next time you visit this screen, the Trip Logs will be displayed by your preferred method.

The Crew Timekeeper module has been synchronized with NAVPAK's drive - In the Crew Timekeeper you can select an alternate drive from the Locate an Existing Crew-time File or Create a New One screen, but the next time you access the Timekeeper, the drive letter accessed will be the same as that accessed by the rest of your NAVPAK installation. If you change the NAVPAK drive on the Alternate Drives-Folders screen, that drive will be accessed when you access the Locate an Existing Crew-time File or Create a New One screen.

Maximum Fuel Burn per Leg has been implemented in the Performance File Builder - To avoid running fuel tanks dry when flying west, you can now assign maximum fuel consumption per leg that will trigger an advisory when a designated leg is beyond IFR reserves or some preset number. Do not forget to subtract for IFR fuel reserves when setting a maximum fuel per flight leg.

Combined Trip Legs Screen can now be resized - When you enter your trip on NAVPAK's Waypoint Entry screen and click on Display Flight Details, you will be taken to the Combined Trip Legs screen. For screens that can handle a larger display, the Combined Trip Legs screen will expand to display flight details that previously could only be accessed by scrolling the data grid to the right. Before screen expansion, the waypoint pairs are displayed, along with the distance, flying time, speed, flight charges, charge rate and aircraft used for each leg. New information now visible on the screen includes Pounds of Fuel, Outbound Heading, Departure Waypoint ID, Departure City, and Departure State. It is still necessary to scroll to the right to see the other fields, which include Departure Airport Name, Departure Latitude and Longitude, Departure Variation., Departure Time Zone, and corresponding information for Arrival waypoints.

Greater Control of Calendar Months and Years - The small arrow heads that move months and years forward and backward have often been hyperactive. They jump two months or two years instead of one. To provide greater control a Drop-Down list of months and years is now located on the Menu Bar directly above the calendar.

Super Search has been updated and significantly expanded in Europe - When you access NAVPAK's optional Super Search module and click on Western Europe & Atlantic Islands, you will find that several countries in Western Europe have been made available for the first time. New countries include Austria, Czech Republic, Liechtenstein, Malta, Norway, and Sweden. Existing coverage has also been deepened in Belgium, Denmark, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, and Switzerland. It is our long term goal to have all of the EEC countries included in Super Search even those that are waiting to be accepted.

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