SkyDemon Plan Documentation: Getting Started
Installation
To install the software, run the .msi file you have downloaded. Windows will guide you through the installation process and install SkyDemon on to your computer. A group is created in your Start Menu with shortcuts to start SkyDemon, to run the Chart Manager and to install SkyDemon Mobile on to a mobile device, if required.
Starting the Software
To start the software, locate the shortcut to SkyDemon in your start menu and activate it.
SkyDemon User Interface
SkyDemon offers a great deal of features and exposes most of them through mini-windows spread around the main map, which is of course the focal point.
At the bottom is the Enroute Features window, which shows you a side-on view of your planned route including terrain, airspace, obstructions and other features of interest. There are also buttons to switch between this window and others also attached to the bottom of the screen: Route Plan, which presents your route textually; METAR Information, which presents a decoded view of METARs; and TAF Information, which presents a decoded view of TAFs.
On the right you will see the NOTAM and Flight Details windows, plus a button to switch to the Weight and Balance window. There are still more windows, which are not displayed by default; these can be accessed via the Window menu. You can close any of the windows and bring them back again, also via the Window menu. Windows can additionally be resized and moved to other locations on the screen by dragging on their edges, buttons or title bars. Feel free to move them around in order to optimise for your own preferred usage of space.
There are two toolbars at the top of the screen. The upper controls your planned route as a whole, allowing you to quickly specify inputs like the TAS and Level you plan to fly. Don't worry if your route has multiple legs with different speeds, winds and levels for each leg; there are other places to specify those. The lower toolbar controls which features are visible on the main map.
Using the Chart Manager
The first time you run SkyDemon there will not be any charts installed, so the Chart Manager will be shown. The Chart Manager lets you choose which charts you want and automates the process of downloading, installing and updating them as required. Just place a check mark next to the charts you want to use and press Apply Changes. You can observe progress as the charts are downloaded and installed. When finished, the Chart Manager disappears leaving you with the map.
The Chart Manager can be accessed at any time by pressing the Charts button on the toolbar. From time to time, SkyDemon will notify you that the charts you have installed are out of date. When this happens simply open the Chart Manager and press Apply Changes to update them.
You can also change the visual style of your charts. At the bottom of the screen is a dropdown allowing you to switch between a few different styles which are loosely designed to be similar in appearance to popular paper charts. In this way a pilot who is comfortable with the UK CAA charts can view all their charts in this style, which lowers the possibility of error introduced by adjusting to many different chart styles.
Exploring the Map
The main map is the most powerful asset in SkyDemon. It renders fast and presents one of the most intuitive dynamically-generated views of terrain and airspace today. To move the map around, click on an empty area (i.e. not a waypoint) and drag the mouse. The map will move with the mouse pointer. You can explore the whole world this way, though air data and detailed land data will only appear where relevant charts are installed.
Zooming in and out of the map can be done by scrolling the mouse wheel. Because we use vector mapping technology there are no fixed zoom increments; zooming is totally smooth. You can zoom out to view the whole planet or in so far that about a mile fills the whole screen. There are also zoom buttons on the toolbar which zoom in fixed, standard increments, or you can use the + and - buttons on your keyboard. Some things appear clearer or reveal more information when you are zoomed in: when you zoom right in on an airfield, all its runways will appear in their exact locations.
Most mapped features can be turned on and off with the mapping toolbar. You will see there are buttons representing most types of airspace and point features. Most of these buttons are checked by default, but can be turned off. If a type of feature is turned on but you don't see any on the map, you may not be zoomed in enough. Some of the buttons, such as for airways and airfields, bring up options windows so you can more specifically define which objects are shown on the map. For example, you can hide all airfields whose longest runway is less than a certain length.
Towards the right of the map toolbar there is a button showing flight levels. Clicking on this brings up the Adjust Clipping window, where you can turn off airspace above a certain level. Don't worry about missing any important airspace if you set it too low: when you've plotted your route all airspace at the levels you have plotted is shown regardless of the clipping level set. In this window you can also set Weekend View, which hides any airspace not active at weekends. Don't forget that a NOTAM might activate a piece of airspace not normally active at weekends.
Hovering your mouse pointer above objects in the map allows you to inspect their properties. If there are multiple objects under the cursor, which there often are, properties for all objects are shown. This enables you to instantly determine the vertical boundaries of a piece of airspace. Furthermore, you can right-click on any part of the map for more options, including a command that will open Google Maps at your chosen location for satellite imagery.
Locating Features
Instead of dragging the map around to try and find a feature, you can use the Find tool. There are two ways of using it. First, you can just type into the box in the top toolbar labelled Find. When you hit enter, the first search result is shown on the map. Pressing enter again goes to the second result, and so on. You can see how many results there are on the status bar when searching like this.
Alternatively, you can press Ctrl-F or select Find from the Edit menu to open the waypoint finder window. Typing in this window brings up a list of all results, with icons differentiating the different feature types, so you can choose the one you want. When you press OK the map jumps to its location.
