This new Wiki is designed to help you with Bev's great Plane Plotter program.  To answer your first question - yes, you must register to access the shared data!   The Wiki is to help you, and welcomes your input.  Authors are wanted here!  See if some of the other topics further down the page help with your other questions.  If something isn't covered, please ask in the Plane Plotter Yahoo group.  John Locker has kindly provided his Easy guide to PlanePlotter set up which you can download from the group's files area, you can Mike Cogan's Personal PP Getting Started guide.  You need to join the group to get these resources.  Some maps, FAQ, and other resources have kindly been provided by the Manchester TMA group.

Installing Plane Plotter

You can download Plane Plotter here, and just double-click the .exe file you download to install it.  Simple, eh?  Before your trial period expires, be sure to register the program here.

• Do I have to pay twice if I install a second copy of PP on another computer at home?  No, for one individual user just register the extra copy by completing the form here, using same name and e-mail address, and the serial number for your second PC.  But if that copy is for a second person, they must pay for their registration using their own name and e-mail address.
• Do I need to pay again if I upgrade?  No.
• I upgraded my PC and now I need a new key.  Register the new PC by completing the form here, using same name and e-mail address as when you first paid for Plane Plotter, and the serial number for your new PC.
• I paid for the program, but now its says I'm back on the trial!  Why?  Serial numbers and registration.
• Is installation on Windows Vista any different?  There are some hints here
• There is a new version out, do I need to uninstall first ?  No, you can just install the new version on top of the old.

Using Plane Plotter

• Common error messages
• Using Plane Plotter with the SBS-1 and BaseStation software and with the RadarBox
• Using PlanePlotter with ACARS
• Why do some aircraft not show?  As yet, not all aircraft transmit the full ADS-B data, so position is missing, and hence the aircraft is not plotted.  Here is one source of information about ADS-B and the Radio Frequency side (anyone have better links?)
• Using Plane Plotter with Internet sharing
• Using the MLAT feature of PlanePlotter
• Using Plane Plotter with Google Earth
• Using the Save and Load configuration feature
• Databases used by Plane Plotter
• Using Plane Plotter with Windows Vista - some hints are here
• Customising the display.  What do those different colours mean?  Why do aircraft disappear and then re-appear?  How can I display routes?  Why are some aircraft stuck at 33,333 feet?  How can I use flags with Plane Plotter?
• How do I get routes displayed?  Install one of the add-ons listed below - Flight Display or Find Flight.
• Troubleshooting MLAT

Some great Add-ons for Plane Plotter

• AirportAlert from W. Curt Deegan - monitors plane origination/destination routes for any Airport Codes on a user defined list and issues an alert when received, and watches for emergency squawk codes and issue descriptive message - see the Yahoo Group Files area.
• AutoZoom from W. Curt Deegan - automates zoom/pan to planes designated through PP by the user or by FindFlight in its automatic modes - see the Yahoo Group Files area.
• Combi Plotter - provides you with a low-overhead means of displaying the aircraft data known to PlanePlotter on another chart view. It will plot simultaneous data from Ship Plotter, Plane Plotter, Orbcomm Plotter and Sonde Monitor on a single chart.
• Find Flight from W. Curt Deegan - allows look-ups of multiple databases when an aircraft is selected by double-clicking - see the Yahoo Group Files area.
• Flight Display from Allan Bird - automated lookup of routes from flight numbers and display on your Plane Plotter screen- see the Yahoo Group Files area.  Not currently available.
• MyCircles from W. Curt Deegan - a tool for determining PP sharer range circle scale factors.  It steps through the PP aircraft list displaying the sharer range circles for each.  Includes multiple share code support, circle labels, dynamic analysis, scanning for designated planes, sharer Locate function, sharer status display, aircraft selection by share code, sharer info display, and enhanced GPX waypoint support.  Now with experimental positionless tracking. - see the Yahoo Group Files area.
• PP2GM from W. Curt Deegan - shows your PlanePlotter aircraft on a Google-Map display. - see the Yahoo Group Files area.
• PPDataGrid by Keith Tallent - requires .Net Framework 3.5SP1 and PlanePlotter 5.3.3.3 or later. This add-on is an interactive data grid that runs alongside PlanePlotter. Clicking on either the data grid rows or PlanePlotter screen highlights aircraft in both applications. PPDataGrid enables sorting of columns and and filtering of aircraft data. Drag the columns to required position, choose columns to be displayed, double click on an aircraft entry to zoom in on that aircraft in the PlanePlotter view. Also enables additonal Aircraft Images, Operator Logos, Country Flags, Climb and Descent indicators - see the Yahoo Group Files area or use the web based installer here.
• PP Outline Navigator by Keith Tallent - a simple one click navigation toolbox that enables you to pan, zoom save and restore in Outline or Chart View with just one click - see the Yahoo Group Files area.
• PPZoom from W. Curt Deegan - allows defining all ten PP Quick Charts as chart or outline views, and retains zoom and position while switching between the Quick Charts - see the Yahoo Group Files area.

Many thanks to the folk who spend their own free time to write these add-ons and then offer them free-of-charge.  One or other of these add-ons will enhance your enjoyment of the program.

Routine maintenance of Plane Plotter

You may want to purge the log files produced when you are using Plane Plotter with a data source like an SBS-1/BaseStation.  David Taylor has written a free, unsupported program named TrimTree which can do this for you.