WingX Makes Flight Planning a Snap!

18
Airport Journals
October 2005
WingX Makes Flight Planning a Snap!
By S. Clayton Moore
When software developer Hilton Goldstein
decided to get into aviation, he jumped in with
both feet. He started flying just nine years ago
and quickly earned a whole flight bag full of
certifications including his private pilot,
instrument, commercial, multi-engine, seaplane, and instructor ratings.
Nearly a decade after Goldstein first took to
the sky, he’s even invented his own flight bag.
Looking ahead to the popularity of the Pocket
PC and its potential for aviation applications,
he developed WingX, a dynamic software
application designed by pilots for pilots. His
goal is to give professional and amateur pilots
alike the best tools available at far less than
the cost of competing flight applications.
“I wanted to develop a tool that would be
really useful for pilots,” Goldstein explained
from his office in San Jose, Calif. “We want
pilots to have the best experience they can
have and have confidence in their WingX
software.”
It has been a long journey for him to reach
San Jose. Goldstein was born in South Africa
and studied at the University Of Natal,
Durban, where he earned his PhD in computer
science. When he came to visit his brother in
California in 1995, he was quickly hired by
Silicon Graphics as a software developer.
“It was the perfect time to arrive at Silicon
Graphics,” Goldstein added. “I just wanted to
create cool software and San Jose was a good
place to do it.”
In June, he released version 1.7 of his own
cool software program. Priced at just $49.95
for a simplified XL edition or $79.95 for the
professional software with all the trimmings,
WingX gives pilots a dynamic series of tools
that is accurate not just when they leave the
house, but that can also be updated on the fly.
It includes a database of useful information
on over 400 aircraft. Weight and balance can
be calculated right at the airport via a graphical, easy-to-use display. A Dynamic Flight
Navigator displays the route and wind information for each leg of a journey while a simple tap on the screen shows information for
airports, navaids and fixes along the route.
E6B calculations, long the bane of flight
instructors everywhere, can be accomplished
in minutes with a highly functional E6B conversion page.
Customers of WingX can lose those heavy
books full of Federal Aviation Regulations.
The software’s document database stores the
full range of FAA regs in an easy-to-navigate
format. Believe it or not, all of these features
come in a software package that takes up just
2.5 megabytes—including the database and
application—on a standard pocket PC, making
up less than three percent of the memory on
most of the handheld computers.
“I kind of looked into the future and figured
out that the Palm Pilot simply was not powerful enough to do what I wanted it to do,”
Goldstein explained. “That’s why I focused on
the Pocket PC. It’s significantly more powerful and lets us carry large databases as well as
to download upgrades off the Web. It’s just a
really good platform to develop software on.”
While Hilton Software is primarily a oneman operation at this point, it also means that
customers get the best service available. Need
the stats for an obscure aircraft from the
1960s? A quick call to Hilton on a toll-free
number gets the aircraft into the database
within 24 hours. He’s even been known to
redesign the interface in a pinch.
“I had a military pilot who flies helicopters
email me,” Goldstein remembered. “He keeps
WingX on board whenever he goes flying and
loves it but when he flies, he wears gloves on
both hands, so he can’t enter data when he’s
in flight. To fix his problem, we added a
thumb control that allows the pilot to simply
tap buttons with his thumb to enter data into
the calculator, something like text messaging.”
That quick turnaround time means a lot to
customers, according to Goldstein.
“When we start to integrate new features,
we really do take that user feedback into
account,” he said. “A lot of the features like
our thumb control are totally based on user
feedback. If someone really needs a new feature, we try to get it integrated within a
month, depending on how big a change it is
and how much testing it needs.”
To simplify matters, WingX is written in a
common Microsoft compiling code and runs
on Microsoft’s .NET Compact Framework.
This significantly decreases development time
and allows Goldstein to concentrate more on
the user experience. By using the Compact
Framework, WingX is compatible with all the
Dell Axims, iPaqs, and other Pocket PCs on
the market.
The response from pilots and computer professionals alike has been positive.
“Great software for a Pocket PC,” said cus-
“My student was going on a long crosscountry flight and I quickly entered all the
route planning information only to find that
the calculations were ten percent off,”
Goldstein remembered. “I just couldn’t figure it out. When I dug a little more into his
calculations, it turned out the student had
used statute miles instead of nautical miles.
It was a real eye-opener for me because it
really justified the use of this software in
the flight instructor community.”
Another customer, Matthew Massey, uses
the software while evaluating more than 180
student pilots at Lewis University in
Romeoville, Ill.
“There is so much in WingX that I really
can’t believe it is all in one program,” Massey
said. “WingX allows me to very quickly and
accurately check a student’s flight planning to
see if it was done properly. It takes me only a
few seconds to enter the data and afterward I
know whether the student actually understands proper flight planning. I look forward
to every new release to see if there’s something else that I can use in there to better evaluate students.”
New advances in technology, such as the
supplementary phone features now standard
on many Pocket PC computers, are adding to the
benefits.
“The advantage is that
you can be at the airport
and update your new
database right there,”
Goldstein said. “You can
literally be hundreds of
miles away from your
home, update the databases, and do the calculations at the hangar. There
are some companies that
provide similar software
but that information is
only right once—as you
leave your house. We
know things change a lot
when you go flying so
we focus on having all
these resources right
there in your flight bag
and being able to dynamically update your data
on the fly.”
The databases are also
updated every 56 days in
Through WingX, Hilton Goldstein, shown in the left seat
accordance with FAA
of a Boeing 737, has capitalized on the doctorate in computer
updates, just like
Jeppesen charts. Unlike
sciences he earned in South Africa to give general
its competitors, however,
aviators a handy flight planning tool.
the software company’s
updates have remained free of charge. Even
pilots that bought the original Version 1.1
can now download and install the latest
Version 1.7 for free.
The expansion of the WingX software capabilities is adding to its popularity as well,
according to its creator.
“Primarily, our customers come from general aviation, but what I am finding with this
new version is that we’re seeing pilots who
are flying aircraft with much higher rates of
performance, meaning Citations and even military aircraft,” Goldstein said. “As we’ve been
adding new features, we’re starting to creep
into the commercial side of things as well. As
this new market of people flying very light
jets expands, we’ll be adding those aircraft to
our database.”
The developer will also be launching two
new products by the end of the year. The first
will be a new weather service that will not
The WingX document database allows
only be folded into the WingX software, but
quick and reliable access to all the Federal
will also be available as a separate, free
Aviation Regulations. A quick download
download called the WingX Browser for all
Pocket PC and Pocket PC Phone Edition
gives pilots updated information
users. Users with an Internet connection will
and the latest documents.
have the added advantage of being able to get
the latest weather while traveling by using
Another feature that is unique to WingX is
their cell phone connection or WiFi connecthe software’s tracking system for expiration
tion. The service will be free, no subscription
dates. Pilots can simply enter the date of a
or registration.
medical or other recency requirement and
A second product remains in the patent
WingX will automatically calculate the expistage, but Goldstein expects to announce it at
ration date.
this year’s AOPA Expo to be held in
“It was just something I had to have and the
November in Tampa, Fla. In the meantime,
feedback has been that pilots really like it,”
this “Flightbag Powerhouse,” as Goldstein has
Goldstein said. “You have to go up and get
named it, remains one of the best deals in gencurrent to take passengers. You have to fly at
eral aviation. Get it while it’s hot.
night to be current. Your medical, flight
review and instrument rating all have to be
For more information on WingX, contact
current. The list just goes on and on. We
Hilton Software LLC at
pulled about 40 different expirations that are
1-866-42-WINGX, email support@hiltonvery common for pilots to deal with. With
software.com, or visit
WingX, which sorts the list chronologically,
www.hiltonsoftware.com.
you can take one quick look and see when
your currency expires.”
Goldstein, who moonlights as a flight
Reprint from October 2005
instructor, recently had the calculation portion
Airportjournals.com
of his software put to the test as he was
preparing a student for a lesson.
tomer Armando Vilches on Palmflying.com.
“Hilton Software was very responsive to my
questions and even gave me some unsolicited
tips. The software is easy to use and it appears
that Hilton is serious about listening to their
customers in order to design additional useful
features.”
Another pilot, Cecil Chapman, gives the software a ringing endorsement.
“It is a well-crafted product with a most
crisp and intuitive interface,” Chapman said.
“You can start using it from the ‘get-go’ and
you won’t have to hunt for a manual to use it.
The addition of the FARs adds not only the
‘icing’ to the cake but adds the ‘cherry on top’
to make WingX a generously featured Pocket
PC application.”
Goldstein finds his own Dynamic Flight
Navigator particularly useful at night.
“It will actually walk you through your
entire flight from your point of departure to
your destination,” Goldstein said. “If an airport is towered, it will tell you. We have every
airport navaid and intersection in the United
States included. As far as the VORs are concerned, it will give you the frequencies and
the Morse code, which is almost impossible to
find at night in a sectional.”
WingX users can calculate weight and
balance in minutes by simply selecting
their aircraft and entering their
current information.
Tapping on the Dynamic Flight
Navigator brings up a color-coded
screen that takes pilots step-by-step
through their flight.
The E6B page can quickly convert temperatures, distances, weights, volumes and
pressures. Required IFR climb rate and
climb angle are also available.
Hilton Software designed this easy-to-use
thumb pad for a helicopter pilot who
wears gloves while flying.