I have created an excel program that calculates aircraft performance and presents it in a very useful format. This program does more than just calculate takeoff or landing distance, but tells you things such as optimum cruising altitude and power setting and every VOR station frequency. There are about 12 aircraft profiles on it now, but I plan to expand it to hundreds. I am also planning on putting every airport ID, elevation, and location on it.

Before I put that massive amount of work into it, I want to know if there are better platforms for doing this. Ideally I would like to be able to shop this around to some companies to see if they want to market it and I don’t want it to be an add-on for excel.

My long term goal for this is the user selects their aircraft, destination, route, and aircraft type. The program will then download current and forecasted weather and provide a nav log and a performance summary. I would also like to include a crew scheduling and billing software so that a part 91 or 135 operations can simply use one program to accomplish a lot of things.

I am very experienced with excel, but my only experience programming is with the “Hello world” exercise. What type of language and software should I use to create this program?

Doesn't AOPA's flight planner already do some of the same things you're talking about?

A computer science guru friend of mine suggests that you use Java as the programming lanuage, and Netbeans as your programming environment. I personally don't have any idea of what he is talking about, that's why he's the guru and I am not. Here are the reasons that he would recommend going this route, Java is platform independant and can be run on several different operating systems. Java has a well developed library and is threaded at a core level. You can set it up for a stand alone ap or run off a web page.

Netbean is created by Sun who created Java and is built to work with Java specifically. It also has a GUI builder.

Hope this helps a little. If you have any other questions you want asked, PM me and I'll pose the questions for you and try to get answers.

Yes there is a much better application for this than Excel. Microsoft Access!

If you're already a whiz at Excel, then you have a good start on building database tables. The next thing you need to learn is how to relate databases, write queries and reporting. Trust me on this, if you learn and use Access your program will be KILLER!

Furthermore, if you want to market this program, you can easily find a developer who can take your Access database and convert it to a compiled program fairly easily.

Yes, I'm sure AOPA and Sporty's has something that already does what you're putting together, but if you do it yourself what you'll end up with something that works exactly the way you want it. Free.

For instance, for my home based business I use Access to manage my accounting. Sure, I could use QuickBooks or PeachTree, but frankly those programs don't allow me to do any serious bookkeeping shenannigans. My home made accounting works the way I want it.

(are there any IRS agents who fly?)

Just my $0.02

Yes it does, but it is very basic. It assumes you fly at cruise speed from the moment of takeoff to landing. It does not include accelerate stop, tell you how long and how far you can fly with your fuel load, tell you how much more fuel or baggage you can carry and still be within weight and balance, tell you how high you can fly if you lose an engine, give you the option to plan for minimum time or minimum fuel, or tell you what power settings to use.

I have used AOPA's program briefly, and it does not seem to take into account atmospheric conditions. The program I made is much more accurate. The average accuracy on times, airspeeds, and fuel are less than 3%.

If you just want to estimate how much fuel you need or how long it will take to do a flight, use AOPA's flight planner. AOPA’s program also does not have a scheduling and billing system built in. By looking future scheduled flights and comparing them to similar flights in the past, it will calculate the expected income for future dates. If you are operating a business or making a flight at the limit of fuel and payload, you will want much more accurate figures. This program is for 91 and 135 operators and anal pilots like me.

As mentioned by the previous guys a database program might be suitable. I'm not sure I would recommend MS Access simply due to my poor experiences with Microsoft programs on large scale projects.

I would suggest filemaker pro for a better cross-platform database. Complex databases take a fair bit of learning but it is possible. A database is not going to be as flexible as completely custom written software but overall much simpler.

I would also recommend Java if you go the custom written software route, for the same reasons mentioned above. Again, it takes some learning (especially if you're literally at 'hello world' levels) but it gives you complete flexibility with your output. With the wealth of information and tutorials on the web I think it would be possible for you to get into this fairly easily but I suggest you start with some basic Object Oriented Programming principles before you start muddling with actual code.

As with any project, get a Log Book (I use Black'n'Red ones), note down all ideas and use software development tools to plan it as opposed to just jumping in. I would suggest a good class diagram (google it!) as a start. This basically will structure your code and give you a good overview of what you're trying to achieve. Especially with such a multi-faceted program like it looks like you are trying to create.

Ensure you comment any code (database or custom) so that you know what a line or class does without having to hash out the logic again when you haven't looked at that line for a few weeks.

There's plenty of other useful programming ideas and tools I have not mentioned, if you want any more info PM me. Hope it helps....

Yes, MS access. It will provide MUCH more convenient data storage than a spreadsheet, better data handling, better user interfaces, and now it has browser-enabled interfaces.

A lot of stuff can be done in access without actually writing code (GUI mechanisms for basic stuff) but for what you're doing you will probably need to write some code.

I have been convinced to use java. It does not seem to be that different than Excel and it turns out I have been using object-oriented programming without even realizing it.

I took a look at NetBeans and plan on using it. Any other advice on reference material for this new project?

I use RMS Tek's Flightsoft. RMS Technology Inc. Home of Flitesoft and Vista

Includes sectionals/low enroute and wx.

I'd have to second the use of Java and Netbeans.