UNITED STATES TEMPORARY FLIGHT RESTRICTIONS | |
FLIGHT MASTER DATABASE | |
HELP PAGE | |
I assume if you have arrived at this page the you are already familiar with the Flight Master program for the Palm OS. If you don't know about this excellent in-flight navigation software then you may learn all about it here. The following step by step instructions explain how to transfer a database containing current Temporary Flight Restrictions (TFRs) to your Palm OS device where it will be used by Flight Master to depict TFR's on the moving map screen. SHORT AND SWEET: The file TFRS.FMA needs to be copied to the directory /PALM/FM on the memory expansion card of your PDA. If it doesn't exist then create it. Once that is done, start Flight Master and go to the moving map screen. Press the menu button and select the Map menu, then "Import TFR...". Flight Master will correctly incorporate the new TFR database overwriting any previous TFR database installed. OK, I didn't understand the short version, explain it more in more detail. There are at least two different methods of putting the
TFRS.FMA file on to your expansion card. The first method uses the Palm
Quick Install tool, the same one you already use for installing any program
or database onto your palm OS device. The second method works for Sony
Clie devices that don't support the latest install tool. |
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METHOD 1 - QUICK INSTALL TOOL: The diagram below shows the Palm Quick Install tool. Simply
Save the TFRS.FMA file on your desktop, then drag and drop it into the
"Expansion Card" panel in the bottom left of the window. The
file will be installed correctly next time you do a HotSync. See instructions
for actually importing the TFR file here. |
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METHOD 2 - FOR PALM DEVICES WITHOUT THE QUICK INSTALL TOOL STEP1: Save the file TFRS.FMA on your computer On the main page, clicking on the link for the database will cause the usual "Save As" window to open. Save the file to a place you can easily find it. The desktop is a good place. STEP2: Connect your PDA to your computer Make sure your PDA is physically connected to your computer. This is, make sure the USB cable from either you PDA or its cradle is plugged into the USB socket on the computer. This is just the same as if you were doing a HotSync. On my PDA there is a small icon of a memory card at the bottom of the screen. Pressing it brings up the Memory Card window. Refer to FIGURE 1 below.
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FIGURE 1 Tap 1 to open "Media Info" window, then tap 2 to connect PDA to computer. |
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As soon as you tap the PC Link button (shown as 2 in FIGURE 1 above) you should hear a tone from you computer letting you know that a USB device has connected itself. Shortly afterwards a window like the one shown below in FIGURE 3 will appear on your computer.
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The picture may be different on your computer, but you should still see the option to "Open folder to view files", select it and press OK. STEP3: Copying the TFR Database to the PDA An Explorer window similar to the one shown in FIGURE 3 should quickly appear.
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Following FIGURES 3, 4 and 5. You should have first opened the "Palm"
folder. Look for the FM folder. If you don't see an FM folder, then create
a new one. Go to the file menu and select the command "New Folder".
Then change the name of the new folder to "FM". Lastly, just drag
the TFRS.FMA from whatever place you saved it in STEP1 and drop it onto
the FM folder. This will copy the file from your computer to the PDA. You
can confirm the file has been copied by opening the FM folder. The TFRS.FMA
file is very small - so it transfers in the blink of an eye (really fast
that is). |
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STEP4: Disconnect from the computer and import the database Disconnect the PDA from the computer as shown in FIGURE 6.
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IMPORT TFR DATABASE Start up Flight Master and select the moving map page as
shown in FIGURE 7. Tap the menu select button to access the menu bar.
Tap 5 to select the Map menu and then 6 "Import TFR...". A small
window will briefly appear at the bottom of the screen saying it is updating
the database. Once it is done you are finished and Flight Master now has
a current database of Temporary Flight Restrictions that is valid for
24 hours from the time it was created. |
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FIGURE 7 Open Flight Master and select the Map page. Tap 4 to access the menu. Tap 5 to select the Map menu and then 6 to import the TFR database. |
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NO, Flight Master does not know how long the database is valid for - only you (the Pilot in Command) can know this. Therefore, if you don't update the database it will happily go on displaying old TFR's (and more importantly NOT displaying new ones) until you transfer a new database. Still have questions? You can drop me an email and I'll do my best to answer intelligent questions. |