Climb! 2.8 introduces two new features: automatic calculation of night time and automatic entry of qualifying cross country time.

Night Calculation and Entry

Climb! is capable of estimating the amount of Night time in a flight record. This time can be applied as a Night split in one of two ways:

• At the time of entry, if "Auto enter Night split" is selected in the Preferences.
• Across a set of flight records using "Add Night Split…" in the Flights Menu.

Climb! uses the following information to calculate the night portion of a flight, all of which must be present in the target flight record(s): Flight date, Out time, In time, From airport code, To airport code

Note: The correct time zone of the Out and In times must be selected in the Preferences Edit Panel. The latitude and longitude of the airports must be available in the Climb! Airport Database. Night is defined as the time between the end of evening civil twilight and the beginning of morning civil twilight. The calculated Night portion is logged as a Night split.

Cross Country Entry

Climb! can automatically log qualifying Block time as Cross Country. This time can be applied as a Cross Country split in one of two ways:

• At the time of entry if "Auto enter Cross Country split" is selected in the Preferences.
• Across a set of flights records using "Add Cross Country Split…" in the Flights Menu.

Climb! uses the following information to qualify a flight as Cross Country, all of which must be present in the target flight record(s): Block time, From airport code, To airport code

Note: The latitude and longitude of the airports must be available in the Climb! Airport Database. If the From and To airports are more than 50nm distant, the entire Block time is logged as a Cross Country split.

If you would like to connect via WiFi, but find yourself without access to a suitable network, you can create a network on an Airport equipped Mac. This article on TUAW (The Unofficial Apple Weblog) shows you how:

Mac 101: Create a wireless network between Mac and iPhone

Climb! is capable of importing logbook data from a CSV (Comma Separated Value) text file. Fields must be separated by commas. Enclosing quotes are optional, but fields containing commas must be enclosed by quotes. Records (flights, in this case) must be separated by carriage returns. Many logbook, database, and spreadsheet programs are capable of exporting data in this format.

To begin the import process, select "Import Flights…" from the File Menu. The Import Window will be presented. There are two distinct types of imports that can be performed, Keyword and Discrete. A Discrete import places the time information directly into the appropriate column. A Keyword import uses the "AC CAT CLASS", "FLYING", and "FLT CON" field entries to place the block time in the appropriate column or columns during the import process. Select which type of import to perform by clicking the associated radio button.

Select the fields to be imported by checking each in turn. Reorder the fields to match the CSV file by drag and drop. Click OK and select the CSV text file containing the information to be imported. Any errors encountered will be reported following the import process.

• Valid date formats are determined by your System Preferences International settings. Two digit years assume the current century.
• Time fields can be formatted with or without leading zeroes and colons. Decimal times must include a decimal point even if there is no decimal portion ("5." will be interpreted as five hours, but "5" will be interpreted as five minutes).
• Remarks: Remarks and other text fields should not contain carriage returns or quotes (neither single nor double).

Click here to download a sample "keyword" CSV file (with headers).
Click here to download a sample "discrete" CSV file (with headers).

Versions 2.3 and later handle date formatting in a different way than earlier versions: The displayed date format now corresponds with the OS X System Preferences International settings formats. Please be aware of the following:

• Dates typed in the Edit Panel date field must adhere to the System formats.
• Imported text file date formats must match one of the System formats.

Advantages:

• It is now possible to change the date presentation throughout Climb! using the System Preferences.
• Any import or export file date format can be supported by changing the System Preferences.
• Climb!'s date display will now be consistent with the other applications on the host computer.

Want to change the date format?

1. Quit Climb!
2. Open the System Preferences and click "International"
3. Click the "Formats" tab and the Dates Customize button
4. Select "Medium" to customize the date string in the Log View Table or "Short" to customize the date string in the Edit Panel date field or date control
5. Customize the date string and Press OK to confirm
6. Relaunch Climb!

Climb! Version 2.2 and later use AppleScript to control internet access. This enables us to adapt to changes in Safari, Google Earth, or the web sites that Climb! accesses, and it allows you to customize internet access functions. Climb! stores the internet scripts in your Application Support folder (~/Library/Application Support/Climb!/Scripts/). The following scripts have modifiable entries:

• netLinkSat.applescript: modify view distance, tilt, and azimuth in Google Earth
• netLinkWxWeb.applescript: modify content, format, and time window for NOAA weather info
• netLinkArpt.applescript: modify timing for varying connection speeds (Airport Edit Window)

Open the script in any text editor. The modifiable information in "netLinkSat.applescript" looks like this:

• (*User modifiable entries*)
• set distMtrs to 6000 -- View altitude in meters as real; 0 to approximately 60,000,000
• set tiltDegs to 45 -- View tilt angle in degrees with 0 being vertical as real; 0 to 90
• set aziDegs to 0 -- View azimuth in degrees with 0 being North as real; 0 to 360
• (*End user modifiable entries*)

Want to view the airport from directly overhead? Change 45 to 0 and save the script. If you want to revert to the original parameters, drag the script to the trash and the original script will be regenerated the next time Climb! starts.

Have a special request or don't feel comfortable doing this yourself, email us and we'll do our best to help.