ATP’s Navigator V

Navigator V Aims to Integrate Mx Data

Aircraft Technical Publishers (www.atp.com) released Navigator V, a comprehensive update to its maintenance data access software in May. ATP's Navigator has long been the access point to ATP's software-based regulatory information, and the new version aims to extend that model into a future where a user can access any kind of maintenance data from one software platform. Since the first release, ATP has upgraded to version V.1.

To make it more efficient to grow the Navigator platform, ATP's developers built the Navigator V system around Microsoft's .net architecture. The .net system is more attuned not only to faster development cycles but is more useful for Internet-based features. One of Navigator V's major features, which isn't due until later this year, will be data updates delivered via the Internet instead of on disk. When this is available, users will be able to set their computer to automatically update at a specified time so the data is always fresh.

Installing Navigator V takes some time, more than an hour in my case, because the entire library is installed on the host computer. A full installation of the entire ATP regulatory library takes up about four gigabytes of hard-drive space. Updates are delivered on CDROM disks and contain only the updated material, which will also keep data downloads quick when that service becomes available. A new feature of the networked installation of Navigator V is that only the server needs the CDROM update. Updates are then delivered to each client as the clients log on and check their status.

Navigator V features a clean and utilitarian look, less graphically splashy than older versions of Navigator but pleasantly modern and easy-to-use. Instead of clicking on the desired "book" to search in previous versions, Navigator V simplifies the search process by allowing the user to select from multiple volumes and sub-areas within each volume at the same time. Thus, a user can search in airworthiness directives, advisory circulars, and FARs, or subparts of each of those sections, all at the same time. This makes much more sense and takes advantage of the power of computers to deliver answers that might contain similar information from different sources. The FAA publishes tons of information, and some of it might have a different impact on a maintenance company, depending on whether it is advisory or regulatory in nature. Better for the user to find every source instead of having to search through each volume of material separately.

Navigator V has some excellent new features, including one file for compliance and profile records. In older versions, two separate files had to be maintained. Users can now add their own compliance records, too, and export compliance files to many popular formats such as Microsoft Word and Excel and Adobe pdf. Users can also filter compliance records and can hide or duplicate compliance items such as individual ADs. And, users can now track service bulletins by themselves without having to find the ADs that service bulletins are attached to.

One of the biggest changes is that ATP finally is fully supporting all Microsoft Windows printers, and printing is much more standard. With older versions, users could print only entire documents and many Windows printers could not be used. Now users can use Print Preview to see what the printout will look like and select exactly which pages to print.

In Navigator V, the file standards are similar to the tree structure used in Windows, which most personal computer users are familiar with. This makes it easier to navigate the data. But it also allowed ATP to add a terrific new feature, a User Document folder where users can store documents that they created or any other document to which quick access is needed. Users can set the path to their User Documents folder in Nav V's Preferences menu.

The User Documents folder is a fantastic addition, but there is one glitch in its implementation in this version of Navigator V.

After I created an icon on my computer's desktop for my User Documents folder and added a few of my own documents to see how it worked, I found that I couldn't right-click on the User Documents folder in Navigator V and do anything with the mouse's right-click menu beyond expand and contract the folder. And, you can't drag-and-drop files into the User Document folder within Navigator V, you have to go back to Windows to remove and add folders. This is something that should be fixed, because to a user, a folder is a folder and it should act like a Windows folder in terms of how the user interacts with it, even if it's in another program like Navigator V.

One more drawback with User Documents is that you can't create sub-folders in the User Documents folder. Well, you can create sub-folders, but Navigator V can't see them, so if you place files in sub-folders in User Documents, they aren't accessible in Nav V. This needs fixing because a maintenance operation with many user documents will need a way to organize them instead of placing them all in one messy folder.

The search function, by the way, can't see into User Documents, so don't expect your docs to appear during a search.

You'll notice that one of the choices in the Advisory Publications volume listed on the opening menu Bookshelf is NSTB Accident Reports. You can view what this is by putting a search term in the search box and clicking the check mark next to NTSB Accident Reports. But once you pull up that information, it is just a link to the NTSB's accidents query web page.

One of Navigator V's strengths is the ability to take the user out of his or her local computer into the grand and glorious Internet; eventually, maintenance manuals will be accessible with an easy click of the mouse, with instant access to up-to-the-minute data. But, this is also something that ATP has to be careful about. While Navigator V does take the user to the web, it does so within a hobbled browser window that pops up to bring you to the web page. This web view doesn't have any of the traditional browser controls, so you can't move back and forward, refresh, or do anything beyond clicking on the links on the page. It may make more sense here for Navigator V to simply pop up a regular Internet Explorer window so the user has full access to web material, and ATP's Jeff Seiler said that this was a feature that is being worked on for future releases.

Since releasing Navigator V, ATP has received a lot of feedback from users and has made many changes, thanks to the .net architecture allowing faster upgrades. One such feature is automatic backup, which users can set in the Preferences menu. This automatically saves a copy of the user's files when shutting down Nav V.

Users like the ability to move columns in the data window so they can view data the way they like, but now those moves remain even after shutting down so the same view is there next time they run Nav V. The history records are changed, too, so that historical tracks are kept and don't disappear over time as they used to. Users can set the number of documents to keep in the history; the default is 20.

The date filter on the What's New page is new, now allowing users to check for content changes as of previous dates instead of just for the most recent update.

ATP is taking advantage of all the space on modern hard-drives and adding new content as it becomes available, such as Transportation Security Administration regulations and information.

"We're really interested in improving Navigator from a functionality and capability standpoint," said Seiler. "As we make improvements, we can get them to the field quickly. In an ideal world, Navigator will be as ubiquitous as Internet Explorer on people's machines. They will pull it up as often as any other application."

-- By Matt Thurber