WinPilot 3D

    WinPilot 3D is flight analysis and planning software, that lets you zoom in from satellite altitude into any place on Earth, leveraging Landsat satellite imagery and Shuttle Radar Topography Mission elevation data. WinPilot 3D lets you experience Earth terrain in visually rich 3D, just as if you were really there. WinPilot 3D also shows airspace in 3D, and contains world-wide database of airports and runways. It allows preparing a task, transferring it to a Pocket PC, and then analyzing the resulting flight log after the task in finished. 

    WinPilot 3D features:

• High Resolution 3D display terrain of any place on Earth
• World-Wide database of airports, runways, radio frequencies 
• Airspace Database with OpenAir text output
• Database of all flights sorted by Date, Pilot's Name and Soaring Site
• Comprehensive Flight Statistics
• Automated setup - aviation databases keep themselves up to date
• Flight playback
• FAI area for creating FAI triangles
• Free 30 days trial

Installation Notes:
WinPilot 3D requires Microsoft .Net version 2. If Setup asks you to install .NET, select this:

WinPilot 3D requires DirectX version 9. To check your version, run DXDIAG from Start.Run. DirectX 9 can be downloaded here.

Currently you have to go into Control Panel.Add/Remove Programs and uninstall previous version of WinPilot 3D before you can download a new version.
Once you do it, and install version 2.00, from then on, the removal of the older 2.xx versions will be done automatically.

Usage Notes:
To control 3D terrain position use the right mouse button. After installing WinPilot, go to Menu.Help for more information.
When started for the first time, WinPilot 3D will scan your hard drive for igc files. These files will then be available for quick selection via Flights window.
Currently you have to go into Control Panel.Add/Remove Programs and uninstall previous version of WinPilot 3d before you can download a new version.
Enjoy!

Release Notes:

• Fixed Task creation / edit by clicking Airports/Waypoints on the 3D window.

• Added Airspace one-click preview: click on a LABEL of any airspace on screen to see the details of it in the Airspace Browser window. 
• Improved Task browser - now when user clicks on a task in Task Browser, the map is centered to show that task in 3D window.

2.01b: 
   Added an On-Line OpenAir database for several countries (more to come), including Germany (DFS), France (Regis Kunz), UK (Paul Crabb). 
   The new functionality is provided via new window called 'Airspace'. If you don't see it on the right side, you can open it using Menu.View.Airspace. 
   This window has several menu options.  If the width of the window is too small to fit them all, they can be accessed by puling a handle on the right side of the menu strip. 
   For example, you can open any OpenAir file on your computer via 'Read Sua File'. This allows you to edit individual segments and see the changes immediately in 3D by pressing 'Show This Sua'.  You can also type in an airspace identifier and press 'Show this SUA'  button to pull in only this one segment from the on-line database. 
   You can also select a country from the list, and see all segments from that country. You can also save the selected to a file, or send them to a Pocket PC. 

   If your country is not shown in the database, you can submit an OpenAir file to us, and we will include it in the database.

2.00: Added On-Line Thermal and Wave Database:

	The Thermals window can be open via Menu.View.Thermals. This window shows thermals or Wave segments extracted from IGC flight logs that has been uploaded to our web site (see below). To see thermals or Waves in your area, do the following: 1. Navigate the 3-dimensional globe to the area you want to see the thermals for (the Thermals window shows only thermals/waves from the area currently focused on in the 3D Window). 2. If you want to see Waves, select "Wave Flights" from the toolbar (otherwise, because 'Thermal Flights' is the default setting on the toolbar, only the thermals from your area will be shown). 3. Press the 'Refresh Available Files' button. If there are any files uploaded for your region, they will show up in the upper window. 4. Select files you want to download thermals from. Multiple files can be selected by pressing and holding the CTRL button, while clicking a file name with the mouse. 5. Press 'Fetch Thermals'. A list of the extracted thermals or waves will be shown in the lower window. It is possible to select the relative strength of thermals to be downloaded. This can be done using the drop-down list (which shows '>80% in the example on the left). The strongest thermal in a given file is assigned strength of 100%, a thermal half that strength would have relative strength of 50%. This has no effect in 'Wave Flights' are selected. 6. Click on a given thermal/wave to see it exact location in the 3D window. 7. To export the list of Thermals/Waves to your Pocket PC, press the 'Pocket PC' icon. To save the list to your PC, press the 'Floppy Disk' icon.
	Uploading Thermals and IGC files to our web site can be done via Statistics.Thermal window. When a new IGC flight is open on your local computer using Menu.Files.Open, A new Tab should be shown next to the 3D Window tab, showing the IGC file name (see picture on the left). This is the Statistics Tab. By clicking it, and then by clicking Thermals it is possible to see all thermals in the selected file. These can be then uploaded to the web site by pressing the 'Send To Internet' button. It is possible to select which thermals should be uploaded and which not by first selecting a thermal, and then pressing the 'Add/Remove' button. To see the exact location of a given thermal on the 3D map, press the 'Show' button while the 3D window is visible. After the the proper thermals are selected, press the 'Send To Internet' button. The person who submitted the thermals, has then an option to remove them from our web site by pressing the 'Delete From Internet' button.
	Marking and Uploading Wave Spots. In addition to database of thermals, WinPilot also contains an on-line database of wave locations. All registered users can upload their wave flights/locations to that database. This data can then be transferred to WinPilot ADV/PRO on a Pocket PC, and used during a blue wave day, or when a blue segment of terrain needs to be crossed during a cross-country wave flight. Here are the steps: 1. Open a wave flight log using File.Open. 2. On the Toolbar, switch from 'Thermal Flights' to 'Wave Flights'. This enables wave segment selection buttons (see left), and sets them into the 'Select Start of Wave Segment' mode (see left). 3. Touch a portion of a flight log where you want a given wave segment to begin. This will change the color of that spot to blue, and change the default button to 'Select End of Wave Segment'. 4. Touch a portion of a flight log where you want a given wave segment to end. This will change the color of that spot to brown, and draw this wave segment on the screen. 5. If the segment is located properly, click the 'Plus' wave button to add that segment to the local database. If you want to change this segment, press the 'Delete' wave button (red square), and start over, or press 'Start' or 'End' wave, and edit these locations. 6. After all wave segments for that flight log have been added to your satisfaction, you can upload them to our global database using Statistics.Thermals.Send To Internet. Note: If you are preparing for a wave flight, you can also select 'Wave Flights' on the main Toolbar. That will narrow the focus of the On-Line Thermal Browser to only download wave spots, when the 'Fetch Thermals' button is pressed.

WinPilot 3D 2.00s: Fixed a bug in loading Thermal Databases prepared from On-Line thermals.

WinPilot 3D 2.00r:

 Added a new way to add user waypoints to a task:

1. Make sure the Tasks window is visible. Select one of the tasks (for example, Task 0).

2.  Make sure the Settings window is visible (use Menu.View.Settings if it is not). Select Files.User Waypoint Files. If you see a plus sign leading to your file, click on it. Otherwise, right click on node "Files.User Waypoint Files" select "Add FIle" and add your user waypoint file.

3. Navigate to the waypoint you want to add to the selected task, select it, and right click on it.

4. Select "Add Waypoint to Selected Task". Repeat this step for all other waypoints you want to add. Done!

5. After you are done editing the Task, you can press the Statistics button (located under the tak list in the Task window) to refresh statistics attached to open igc flight logs.

Added a way to open Thermal/Wave databases:

1. Go into File.Open

2. Change the default file type in the dialog box from IGC file to Thermal/Database file *.wt2.

• Fixed a bug preventing 3D airspace to be displayed properly. Improved UI for creating tasks: now to finish creating a task, the user can also press the Escape button on the keyboard (in addition to just left-clicking away from any airport/turnpoint).

WinPilot 3D 1.11 new features:

• Improved playback smoothness, fixed minor bugs. Fixed computation of Start Time for OLC.

WinPilot 3D 1.10 new features:

• Implemented the easiest OLC Classic and OLC FAI flight optimization on the planet!. After opening a flight log, OLC optimization runs automatically in the background, and when completed, it shows submittal button on the OLC form. Press the button to submit your OLC claim. That's all! However, before submitting a claim for the first time, set your name, birth date, glider type and other relevant info on the OLC claim form.  Also, when run for the first time, you might need to restart WinPilot 3D after the OLC databases are downloaded. Automatic OLC flight optimization can be enabled/disabled via Settings.General.Misc.
• Added option to enter Task Start and Finish Gates, as well as Waypoint sector size in Statute Miles (in addition to meters).
• Further improved camera control during flight playback: now when playback is paused, it is possible to scroll the terrain to any place. Resuming playback refocuses camera on the glider.

    WinPilot 3D 1.07 new features:

• Improved Camera control during flight playback - the glider now always stays centered, it is possible to move the camera around the glider during playback using either a mouse, or the following keyboard keys: A-D - camera left or right, W-S - camera up or down, Plus-Minus, camera closer, further away.
• Improved startup time.

    1.06:

• Added a new and exclusive feature: Task Fly-By! Now, after creating a task, just press the Play button, and it is as though you would be sitting in a glider flying around the task, looking left and right at the realistic 3D terrain moving underneath! Try it once, and you will LOVE IT! You can set the altitude of the task line individually for each task by selecting task name in Task window, and then setting TaskAGL value.
• Added option to color flight log according to Speed, Altitude, Vario, Engine Noise Level (ENL), Segments, Time, etc.
• Added display of flight parameters, like altitude, speed, vario, and also data about climbs (average thermal speed) and straight flight (distance done, L/D achieved, time and altitude lost/gain).
• Multiple flights - WinPilot 3D can now show unlimited number of flights at the same time. It is possible to control playback of each flight individually
• Wind speed and direction shown during playback (this can be turned on/off using Settings.General.Glider.Show Wind)
• Projection of glider to the ground (this can be turned on/off using Settings.General.Glider.Draw Ground Trace))
• New Statistics: added calculation of  wind speed and direction at different altitudes, added speed diagram:

• Added option to playback multiple flights:
  

• 

With multiple flights, it is possible to control playback of each flight individually. To select a flight for individual control, the user can use flight toolbar (see below), or just click on the glider that the playback control should be applied to:

Real-time wind calculation during playback (note the blue arrow symbolizing the wind), projection of current glider position to the ground (gray line), and flight coloring (in this case set to Vario):

1.03: Made flight playback smoother. Fixed issue with missing glider on some systems.

1.02: Added Flight Playback speed control (animation speed). It is available through the clock icon on the toolbar (see below):

Improved camera following during playback.
Added check for current version of DirectX files.

French Help file and info is available here.