Note Maximum Crew Is Now 60Infdp-Duty, Pilots and Roster Modules

Note Maximum Crew is now 60infdp-duty, pilots and roster modules.

STOP PRESS 0909MGA Update Bulletin September2009

Navigation shortcut to company module installed in all modules

Various operational issues resolved.

New Crew Data edit screen and database.

Version 4.0 Pilot & Aircraft Alerts Interfaced with new pilots database.

Enhanced shortcuts module

This revision increases the system upper limit for crew members from 30 to 60 in the fdp-duty, pilots and roster modules. Sixty is chosen because the industry rule of thumb is that each aircraft in an AOC fleet requires 2½ times its crew complement to operate efficiently. The MGA schedulemodule caters for an AOC fleet of 6 aircraft. If each of these aircraft carries 3 crew (two on the flight deck plus one cabin assistant) that makes a total of 45. Added to this there is the overhead of retaining the historical records of formerly employed crew members for the regulation 15 months plus the records of new crew members coming through training. This is estimated at an additional 33% which brings the total to 60. (Note the same criteria applies to a 9 aircraft fleet of 2 crew aircraft. if the fdp system is used as a stand alone without the schedule module). All modules incorporate speed improvements due to technical rationalistions.

v3.1 incorportaes a new database structure plus expanded and enhanced Crew Data input screen (see Alerts.doc). A new layout provides for 2 extra type-specific items plus added lines for recurrent training items.Passport, Licence and AirportPassare added to the 'Alerts' section.The upper limit for crew members is 60. Status screen: (Housekeeping drop-down) Click ‘Edit Crew Data’ to transfer to the Crew Data screen with data for the crew member in the current cursor column.

SetUp screen:Crew data List (‘pidList’) - All columns past Status, Rank & opType are hidden (this data iscollated for use in FlightDocs)Default Password: Note the pilots module is shipped with the default password ‘mga’

Schedule screenOption added to Housekeeping drop-down:

Orphan Flt NoCheck for orphan flight numbers that are not linked to ATS register or dayRecs, and offer deletion.

ATSregister screen

Improvements to Housekeeping drop-down tools.

Housekeep ATS records(Improved functionality)Check History and change status of previous tasks as required. Check Day Recs(Improved functionality)Refresh dayrecs and linked flight numbers on ATSregisterCheck and report Date/Flight Number/Ac Reg. mismatches ATS Register Tidy(New option)Repair DropDowns in columns C & F with selected options intact and repair data counters in column W.This is an emergency repair tool.

dayRecs screen

Improvements to Management drop-down tools:

Reset Start Date Enhanced functionalityThis automatically chooses the nearest Monday before, if the Start Date entered is other than a Monday.Duplication Check Enhanced functionality This function sorts records to date order and checks for duplicated date-aircraft combinations, presenting any found with the prompt:

Example 1: A match is found on the Schedule screen for one of the duplications.

The option is to delete the other or else click No to move on.

Example 2:No match is found on the Schedule screen. The options are to choose one to delete by clicking Yes or No, or else Cancel.

Schedule data notes.The Schedule module maintains tasking information in 3 separate areas: ATSregister, Schedule and dayRecs.

The dayRecs database carries all sector information for day-aircraft tasks. This data is created or edited from the DayPlan dialog, which also updates the ATSregister and Schedule screens.

The ATSregister screen contains the definitive log of Flight Number – Date – aircraft combinations. In practise the ATSregister screen is often used to quickly create task data which is then linked to the Schedule screen (upon saving). A task record can exist on the Schedule and ATSregister that has no corresponding dayRecdata. Where a DayPlan has several Flight Numbers allocated to it, the first flight Number in the series becomes the parent identifier for that task. To delete a task, change its status to ‘Deleted’ on the ATSregister screen and while the cursor is in the same row, select ‘Save record’ from the |Housekeeping drop-down.

Roster screen:The total crew displayable is increased from 50 to 60.

Fix Roster dialog (accessed by clicking the button at bottom right of the roster screen:

SetUp screenScrollRosterBy parameter is adjustable between 1 and 10, (default = 10). This controls the amount by which the roster screen scrolls vertically when the up/down arrows are used.

Roster Stability screen(with the Refresh process activated)

A bug is corrected whereby the display of stability data by month might not reference the correct months. The logic now presents the last 6 months of fixed data available.

A case came to light where an fdp record was copied (using Windows Explorer), and given a new filename. However, within the file, the previous ident and crew name were still in place and this caused a problem that the software could not resolve: The file would appear to load normally, the only evidence being the name not matching the correct name. A mod is incorporated in fdp-duty38to circumvent this happening. Attempting to load a data file which does not contain a data sheet with matching ident will now produce an error message.

It is possible for a crew data file to be deliberately edited so that the START date is something other than a MONDAY. Be aware that the software cannot initiate this condition and cannot resolve such an issue. The user might be alerted by an 'EndDate error' message on Load. (Matrix end date should always be a SUN)

The Harmonize function has been disabled in fdp-duty38 pending a coding update to interpret pilots v31 data.

(v3.7: Flight Crew screen increased total from 30 to 60. Display scrolls in 2 screens of 30 crew each.)

This new shortcuts module allows the user to choose any Excel file and apply to it a user-friendly desktop shortcut. The previous menu of dedicated MGA programs is dispensed with and this release will work with any Excel file residing in the folder that the (shortcuts) module boots up in.

MGA-stopPress1 / 5September 2009