Seattle Avionics Previews New Voyager Version 2.0 at AOPA EXPO 2003

Voyager Flight Planning Software adds wind-optimized autorouting and enhanced weather features. Incorporates the latest hybrid software technology to integrate data for fast flight planning.

Philadelphia, PA ? October 30, 2003 ? Today, at AOPA Expo 2003, Seattle Avionics, Inc (booth 217) announced a major upgrade of Voyager Flight Planning Software Version 2.0. Voyager incorporates the latest hybrid Internet software technology enabling general aviation pilots to more quickly and easily access and manage the vast amount of information required to plan and file safe general aviation flights. The company is giving away free 21-day full product trial CD-ROMs during the show.

Voyager Version 2.0 will be available by the end of November. Current Voyager owners with update subscriptions will receive this upgrade automatically, which includes:
  • Wind-optimized, multi-mode autorouting for faster VFR and IFR planning.
  • Full DUATS weather briefings. User selectable choices of charts and data to display and print. Route and area weather download automatically in the background with auto-selection of standard and forecast briefings.
  • "Aircraft Exchange Wizard" greatly expands aircraft library by allowing users to upload and download new aircraft profiles.
  • New Weight and Balance diagrams in your choice of either Weight x Moment or Weight x Arm to match your aircraft?s POH.
  • Licensed for customer installation on up to three computers for those with a home PC, laptop or tablet for portable use, and a hangar PC.
  • FAA Equipment codes (/X, /U, /G, etc.) are updated and shown automatically as equipment is selected in the Aircraft dialog.
  • Easier to get started with revised and simplified First Time Setup Wizard.
  • Animated product tours demonstrate and explain key and unique features.


    • Unique hybrid program combines the best of multiple technologies.

    Seattle Avionics has combined the best of PC-based and Web-based flight planning systems. Like traditional PC-based flight planning systems, Voyager features the speed, security and portability of having personal information, the application itself, and chart databases on your desktop or laptop PC. Like Web-based flight planning systems, it takes full advantage of the Internet by seamlessly loading, in the background, constantly changing information such as TFRs, weather, airspace data and airport information. Using this technology traveling pilots can plan flights without needing an Internet connection or the broadband speed usually required to keep Web-based systems from being slow and clunky.

    More of what today?s pilots want most.

    Through focus groups and usability testing, Seattle Avionics discovered that whether pilots use PC-based flight planning software, on-line planning websites, or do it the ?old fashioned way,? they are all interested in the same things: easy, fast, accurate and inexpensive flight planning. The power of the latest technology is tremendous, but the typical pilot/user doesn?t want to have to understand how it works. ?Pilots are smart, busy people who should expect smart, responsive software that maximizes their time by intuitively relieving the drudgery of complex calculations while always leaving the final decision up them,? says Steve Podradchik, pilot and CEO of Seattle Avionics. ?When we started thinking about Voyager, we saw older PC-based solutions that recently added a few Internet features and Web-based systems that lacked the responsiveness of traditional PC-based software. We think that Voyager shows what seamlessly combining the two can do.? Voyager?s unique SmartWeather? feature is an example of this combination. Voyager?s graphical weather is automatically downloaded in the background (at no extra charge) so the pilot never has to stop working on the plan or tell the application to ?go download weather.? If the pilot changes route or altitude, Voyager automatically downloads revised weather to match the changes and refreshes the weather information every few minutes to ensure the latest data ? all without the pilot needing to do anything.

    Voyager?s SmartWeather? uses unique graphical tools, called TimeSlider? and AltitudeSlider? to show and animate forecast weather graphically as the flight progresses, taking variables such as altitude and speed into account. Instead of reviewing large winds aloft tables and coded weather reports, Voyager simplifies the pilot?s work by showing only the pertinent weather.

    Founded in 2002, Seattle Avionics, Inc. is a developer of cutting-edge PC and PDA-based aviation software for general aviation pilots. The company is working on a range of avionics software products designed to make general aviation flying easier, safer, more fun and affordable.

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    Voyager and SmartWeather are either registered trademarks, trademarks, or pending trademarks of Seattle Avionics, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries.