Control Vision Announces Pocket Plates™
Pittsburg (KS)-based aerospace engineering company Control
Vision Corp., makers of Anywhere Map, Anywhere WX and Anywhere AI,
just announced PocketPlates™, electronic NOAA approach plates
for the Pocket PC platform. The subscription-based plates include
the lower 48 US states and can be displayed on most Pocket PCs such
as Compaq’s iPAQ, the Dell AXIM, HP Jornada and other widely
used PDA devices.
Ensuring Crowds at the Booth:
The roll-out is scheduled for April 3, 2003 at Sun ‘n Fun.
PocketPlates relieves pilots of carrying large quantities of
printed “Approach Plates,” collections of terminal
procedures issued by NOAA every 56 days. TERPS are issued for all
US airports with published instrument approaches. An entire set of
US approaches consisting of 24 books averaging 450 pages each fits
on a single memory card in PocketPlates. “Instrument pilots
all face the same problem,” said Control Vision president,
Jay Humbard. “We fly with a large box of approach plates
occupying a seat in the airplane. They are aged before they are
even printed, and within 56 days we have to recycle the whole
collection.” PocketPlates is a separately running application
that can be used with or independently of Anywhere Map, although
certain resources made available through Anywhere Map enhance its
function.
GPS Referencing Helps Situational Awareness
PocketPlates’ most unique feature is GPS CALIBRATION. If
two or more known map objects are identified such as a fix and a
VOR, the plate becomes a geo-referenced map displaying the
aircraft’s current position in North-up mode, providing
critical Situational Awareness. This feature works with any
GPS-equipped PocketPC, with or without a Nav program.
Redundancy? All You Want:
Pocket
PCs are extremely reliable and sturdy computer platforms.
Nevertheless, PocketPlates addresses the issue of material
redundancy by providing a PC-based utility called the Plate Manager
that prints hard copies the same size and format as NOAA plates as
a backup for any planned flight. The pilot simply prints out plates
along his route including destination and alternates, allowing him
to fly with both paper and electronic references.
Always Current
A special feature of PocketPlates is the update process. The
Plate Manager utility which resides on the owner’s PC or
laptop computer checks for revisions in the library when online
with PocketPlates.com. It automatically updates any plates that
have been modified. Modifications are available from NOAA every 28
days, providing updates to PocketPlates’ owners well in
advance of the 56-day printed book cycle.
All this, and the price is low, too...
PocketPlates is priced to compete directly with the
most-economical plates available today. The basic subscription is
less than one-third the price of a one-year NOAA subscription, and
Control Vision plans to offer the first six months of upgrades
free.
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