Includes Features Requested By Pilots

Flight Explorer is out now with version 5.0, which the company says has a number of new features.

Flight Explorer is the maker of Flight Explorer Professional, which claims to be the easiest, most robust and reliable aircraft situation display in the industry. With a personal computer and Internet access, commercial users and others providing aviation services can use Flight Explorer to track aircraft anywhere in the world through a variety of methods including IFR in the US, Canada, and UK; more extensively in New Zealand and the Pacific Oceanic region; and any aircraft worldwide via Honeywell GDC datalink, ACARS, or Iridium/GPS. 

"The foundation of Flight Explorer is built on the trust that aviation professionals in the air and on the ground put in its accuracy, reliability, ease of use and hundreds of useful features," said Walt Kross, CEO of Flight Explorer. "Version 5.0 represents the best thinking of the industry working closely with our software engineers to improve and expand what has already become the most used aircraft situation display in the world. We are very proud of this new version."

New features of Flight Explorer version 5.0 include:

• Route checking and display – Allows users to easily load all of their company routes and then display one or more of them graphically on Flight Explorer. This enables users to view several alternative routes in relation to current traffic, TFRs and weather prior to filing a flight plan.
• Map and background image overlays – Complete US and Canadian street-level maps from NAVTEQ, a leading global provider of digital maps for vehicle navigation and location-based solutions, are available for an additional charge. Customers may also overlay any other raster-based, geo-referenced background images they have available such as FAA charts, aviation maps and satellite imagery.
• Airport summary information has been added to include: METARs (Meteorological Actual Reports) and TAFs (Terminal Aerodrome Forecasts), PIREPs (Pilot Reports), sunrise and sunset information, and FAA delay information. The airport delay information shows the current status of all FAA-issued airport delays (ground delay, ground stop, airport closure, arrival delays, and departure delays).
• New weather products such as worldwide infrared satellite coverage are available for an additional charge.
• New alert mechanisms provide the ability to highlight an aircraft of interest by zooming in to it, highlighting it with a change of color and/or a marker. More robust options allow for wireless alerts to Blackberries, PDAs, and other similar portable devices.

  

• Enhanced integration capabilities – Users have the ability to overlay additional data on Flight Explorer, such as trucks, cargo or other assets. In addition, Flight Explorer can be integrated with other desktop applications including flight planning systems.
• An expansion of the event system includes several new events that increase Flight Explorer’s usefulness to helicopter operators. Flight Explorer now allows users to define customized events in addition to the standard events supported by Flight Explorer.
• Aircraft location information has been expanded to include the latitude/longitude position for the last known location of the aircraft and the location of ‘parked’ aircraft.
• Worldwide airport, NAVAID (Navigational Aid), and Fix information is included.
• Numerous other productivity enhancing and time-saving features (such as keyboard shortcuts) have also been added. See the Flight Explorer Web site for a complete listing of all new features.

FMI: www.flightexplorer.com