Readme for Spine V3.7
- Why Spine?
- Who's it for?
- What's it for?
- Summary of features
- Minimum requirements
- Installation and removal
- Version history
- Acknowledgements
- Small print
Why Spine? Top
Spine stands for "Soaring Pilot's Intelligent NOTAMs Editor".
Who's it for? Top
While, as its name suggests, Spine is mainly aimed at glider pilots, it can
also be used by private GA pilots. Settings can be changed to filter NOTAMs for Gliding,
GA VFR or GA IFR.
Currently, due to the availability of source information,
the program can only be used in the United Kingdom.
What's it for? Top
NOTAMs as downloaded from the Internet contain a lot of information that is not
relevant, especially to glider pilots. Neither are they usually sorted into
a convenient order.
Spine helps you to edit NOTAMs and discard the irrelevant ones, and also sorts the
output into a usable form. You can also restrict the output to a specific area,
for example by setting a maximum distance from your home airfield.
Summary of features Top
- Automatic download of PIBs (NOTAMs) from NATS web site.
- Automatic removal of non-relevant items.
(but user has ultimate responsibility to check results).
- Option to set range, such as distance from a specified location.
(The location can selected from a list of BGA turning points or ICAO airports.)
- Many sorting options, including by position and date, or by distance and bearing from
a specified location.
- Browse feature for quick review and selection of NOTAMs to be included.
- Plotting of airspace and NOTAMs in a graphic window.
- Formatted output to printer, HTML file, OpenAir format file
(for XCSoar or Winpilot), or Tim Newport-Peace format file (for Glide Navigator II
and SoaringPilot).
- Quick checklist for ease of use.
- Built-in coordinate lookup for any 5-letter name code (such as HAZEL, REXAM etc.).
- Automatic program and database updates when connected to the Internet.
Minimum requirements Top
System with Pentium-compatible processor running MS Windows 98 or later. A minimum
screen resolution of 1024x768 is recommended, due to the size of the main dialog.
