I think they are working on a demo version. There are some sample charts on their site. I would be happy to post a link to a full chart but only with the permission of Dauntless.All the bestPete

Is there a manual with the software?I just got it an can't seen to find any. JeffG

No, no manual. You shouldnt really need it. Its one of the issues I pointed out in my review on the site listed in the previous messages on this thread.It doesnt really detract from the program at all but it would have been nice for a little something in there, even if it was to say "there isnt a manual".All the bestPeteW

>I have seen a couple of posts elsewhere stating that charts>are available on the web. I would hasten to add, not like this>theyre not. Over 18000 charts on the CD's and more to come via>plate paks. There MUST be several man years of surfing>required to get that little lot even if they were all>available.I don't have simplates, so I'm not going to comment on it. I just want to say that if you live and fly mainly in the US, for $39 a year you can get a huge 600+ page airport directory, download any current US instrument approach chart, airport diagrams, a sweet flight planner, and get a magazine by joining AOPA. You don't have to be a pilot to join, I was a member for a few years before I got my pilots license.http://www.pbase.com/image/25803001.jpg

>Adrian:>>I have a previous version. Do I need to uninstall it before>installing the current version?>Hi There,First of all, sorry for taking so long to respond. I thought I had "notify me by email" set up when new replies were posted here and I guess I didn't.To answer your question, no, no need to uninstall SimPlates 2004. SP 2004 is a completely separate progra and the two will work independently of each other.That said, SP2004 does I think everything that SP2000 did better and more, so I don't see to much point of running both.Blue SKies,adriandauntless-soft.com

Hi There,Thanks for the email. Alaska and Hawaii were included on the SimPlates 2000 "World Edition" disc rather than on the SimPlates 2000 "USA" disc, so yes, the coverage was there and I took extra pains to write everywhere that SP2000 was "USA Edition 48 States" and "SP 2000 World Edition + Alaska/Hawaii/PR" SimPlates 2004 contains complete coverage of Alaska and Hawaii.As far as a discount goes, I am somewhat unfortunately limited by my ability to offer this because of my relationship with resellers. However, I am able to help slightly when the "PlatePack" CD-ROMs are purchased at the same time, as I sell those directly only. Please contact me via my email address in the parent message if you are interested.That said, please understand that SP2004 is really a completely new product and much more powerful that SP2000 which, while fine for its day, well, this is a whole new thing.blue skies,Adriandauntless-soft.com

Hi There,The NOAA plates of SimPlates 2004 are the same quality used by real-world pilots to fly as they come from a similar source. One thing to remember is that when you view the plates on screen, you are typically viewing them at > 100% which leads to distortion effects--try printing them (at 100%, of course) as the product is intended and hopefully you'll agree that there is considerable improvement.SP 2004 features both bitmapped and vector plates. The bulk of the non-USA plates are in vector format, and certainly for those the quality is great. For the bitmapped plates, well, many people disagree with your assessment of the quality, but of course you are entitled to your opinion. Incidentally, I am surprised at your assessment of the Am. Flyers plates. I recall looking at them (as a pilot) while ago and the quality was horrible by /any/ standard. Perhaps they've changed.Blue Skies,Adriandauntless-soft.com

Hi Michael,yes, SP2004 is _completely_ different from SP2000.The new SP2004 page is:www.dauntless-soft.com/PRODUCTS/SimPlatesit standas to note that the USA plates in there--wings field, etc.. I chose not because the plates were high quality exemplars--but rather simply because it's my home field and thus I wanted to show a truly random plate.Blue Skies,Adrian

Sorry Jeff,there's no manual. However, if I have questions or people ask stuff, I make changes to both the SimPlates 2004 main pagewww.dauntless-soft.com/PRODUCTS/SimPlatesor the SimPlates 2004 "owner's page" (which is linked to from the above). You are the first person who has asked about a manual--I'm happy to answer any questions you may have either here or there.blue skies,Adriandauntless-soft.com

thanks for your reply, it does sound interesting.One last question please, do you know of any way to display your PDF output while running FS in 3D mode (non-window)? It seems like quite awhile ago somewhere on the forums there was discussion about PDF viewing via the kneedboard in FS.Do you have any thoughts on this?

Hi There,The aiport directory and navaid directory are HTML driven, but really I think few people will need to look at theses while "in flight" as they are really data-rich resources aimed at people who really want to look up something pretty specific.With regards to no VAT: you would not be hit with VAT. As I am currently studying in the UK, these are shipped from me directly in the UK (this also means that the arrival time to UK addresses is very short). where else do you get the programmer to put the stamp on your envelope? :). there may also be other UK retailers selling the product.Blue Skies,AdrianSimPlates 2004 AuthorSimPlates Homepage: www.dauntless-soft.com/PRODUCTS/SimPlates/frame.html

Hi There,Yes, AOPA can be a good reference for some and it is great to be a member for other reasons if you are a USA Pilot especially (I am a longtime AOPA member; AOPA exists in other countries as well, though in general it is nowhere nearly as powerful as it is in the USA).Their online resources are good, but SimPlates 2004 offers something that you won't get there and that's speed, organization, and convenience. As I've said elsewhere and as other users will I hope agree to, sure there are approach plates online in various places, but SimPlates 2004 has more of them (plus thousands of non-USA plates) and better and more well organized than elsewhere. AOPA's 600-page airport directory is not hugely useful. www.airnav.com is better, and better still is buying a Flight Guide (though these are $30 each for 1/3 of the USA). AOPA airport guides are mostly just rehashes of the AFD--useful for some stuff, but not exactly something that you'd keep in your flight bag. It's more like a telephone book.Blue Skies,AdrianSimPlates 2004 Authorwww.dauntless-soft.com/PRODUCTS/simplates

Hi, To be clear--for UK and Europe purchasers, if the product is bought from my website (dauntless-soft.com) it will *generally* ship from the UK. For USA customers, it will nearly always ship from the USA. For other countries, it will vary, but it will generally will be from wherever's least expensive. As some of you may know, I also make FAA written test prep software and the teenage son of one of my coauthors on that project does the actual shipping from San Antonio Texas for USA authors. Despite being a teenager, he does an excellent job (with his Lear 60 captain father and my good friend just an email away if he does not (grin). This has proven to be a great afterschool job for him as we've kept him to a standard of accountability and responsibility insofar as handling envelopes, inventory, etc goes.Cheers,Adriandauntless-soft.com

>Incidentally, I am surprised at your assessment of the Am.>Flyers plates. I recall looking at them (as a pilot) while>ago and the quality was horrible by /any/ standard. Perhaps>they've changed.No, yours changed. ;-)My assessement was based on your FS2000 product and at that time AM.Flyers charts indeed looked better than yours.Michael J.

Hi Adrian, Thank you for establishing a presence here. Commendable! I have some feedback, or perhaps it turns into a question that I just don't have an answer for right now. I am a rated pilot and have had an instrument rating (not current). I've lived for years with printed plates, which are, give or take a fraction, approx. 5 inches by 8 inches. I am having difficulty getting an efficient printing method established for my plates from SP2004. I can easily print onto 8 1/2 by 11 inch paper. The printed plates, from Acrobat, border to border, measure about 6 by 8 inches. However that in in the middle of the larger sheet of paper, with a lot of white space on all (4) sides of the image. To whittle it down to 6 X 8 requires trimming off all (4) margins with a paper cutter. That's not very efficient. A more efficient method would be to take the 8 1/2 by 11 inch paper. Cut it in half to two 5 1/2 by 8 1/2 sheets. I can easily feed such a size through my ink jet printer. However, when I attempt to print to this size, the white space margins in the PDF files cause the image to shrink into the middle of the sheet. The image becomes too small to read. What I'd like to be able to do is print a plate on 5 1/2 by 8 1/2, and have it fill the paper. It seems to be the white margins that are causing the problem, and I can't find a way to set smaller margins in Acrobat Reader. Can you give me any suggestions to help me solve this problem?Sincerely,Frank Patton