RW FAA d-TPP & IE11 / Windows 10?

[wmburns]

I have a purchased copies of the real world digital terminal procedures (d-TPP) that I have used for a very long time. I find that having the data on the local PC is much faster. The amount of disk space required is not a big deal for today's PC's. Since I'm a sim only pilot, I don't need to keep up to date. So buying the "one time" option every 12-18 months works well enough. In this way the cost is not so great. My current cycle is 1406. The cycle before that was 18 months old when replaced.

Digital Terminal Procedures (TPP) DVD, One Time $11.95
http://www.mypilotstore.com/mypilotstore/sep/2544

In previous versions I had "issues" getting it work with new versions of IE. I could get around the problem by staying back an IE level and turning on "compatibility mode". For better or worse I updated to Windows 10. Win10 comes with IE11 which of course the 1404 cycle does not work. Worse yet, IE11 has a very different way to enable compatibility and will not take local URl's (or I don't not how to make it).

Here's my question. Is there anybody else out there using d-TPP on later versions of IE? If so, what version of IE and which cycle of d-TPP? What I'm trying to find out is IF a newer version of d-TPP would work with IE11.

Or if there's anybody out there that knows how to enable IE11 compatibility mode for local files, please let me know.

Thanks for any feed back.

Mike Burns

PS. The real world FAA sites "claims" that the d-TPP is compatible only with Windows 2000 and WinXP. Does anybody see the problem here? Your tax dollars working hard at the FAA (not today!).

[Donovan]

While this doesn't answer your queston, its also not a problem on any operating system/browser combination:

Mostly I've used Ken Ullery's http://myflightroute.com/ (very happy with its functionality)

other times I've used the free NFDC Preferred Routes Database, http://www.fly.faa.gov/rmt/nfdc_preferr ... tabase.jsp, for locating the correct TEC route.

Don

[Keith Smith]

With bandwidth being so high and latency being so low, I see little advantage to having procedures stored locally. I pull up charts on skyvector and airnav very quickly.

[stealthbob]

With bandwidth being so high and latency being so low, I see little advantage to having procedures stored locally. I pull up charts on skyvector and airnav very quickly.

...and now for me Foreflight.

When I first started I did not understand the short shelf life of these docs and started to print and file them in a literal binder. Pulling from the updated live source when required is a good way to ensure you have the latest and greatest, especially as a Sim pilot where local storage is not required in any way.

That notwithstanding have you tried other browsers like Chrome/Firefox? For the files themselves maybe Open Office will work as it is greatly backwards compatible.

What are the file types? Maybe try searching by their extension name and see if there is a conversion for them.

[wmburns]

With bandwidth being so high and latency being so low, I see little advantage to having procedures stored locally. I pull up charts on skyvector and airnav very quickly.

Keith, I agree that the benefit can be marginal. However, local access is faster and I have become accustomed to the interface. If I had a Foreflight subscription I would give up d-TPP in a heartbeat!

Some of this is principle. As in how could such a data concentric organization such as the FFA be selling a product that won't run on a modern PC? And darn it! I paid $$ for this and it should work.

I know that some changes have been made as a 3 year old d-TPP wouldn't run on Win7 regardless of the compatibility settings. I also work in the PC industry. At work I'm likely to see more Windows 10 installations. A solution here might also help solve other similar issues.

That notwithstanding have you tried other browsers like Chrome/Firefox? For the files themselves maybe Open Office will work as it is greatly backwards compatible.

What are the file types? Maybe try searching by their extension name and see if there is a conversion for them.

Yes I have tried other browsers. This is an issue because Microsoft way back in the day decided to create their own "standard". Which meant that certain web pages designed for IE would run correctly only on IE. Fast forward to today and some of these key "extensions" are being clawed back and/or modified. Hence the reason some web pages work differently on different versions of IE.

The file types are PDF. The disk literally has 10,000's of PDF's. One for each plate. No conversion needed.

The magic is in the active-X front end. This allows quick searching by several different methods such as airport code, state, name. The front end then pulls together a list of links that go directly to the desired PDF of the plate. Without the front end, locating a specific plate is.....well like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Any other suggestions?

[chrisecklar]

Hello.

I've had the same issue. You can get the dTPP to work in IE11 by following these steps:

• 1. Launch the dTPP app in IE11.
  2. Press F12. This launches Developer Tools.
  3. Click the Emulation Tab.
  4. Set Document Mode to 7.
  5. Set User agent string to Internet Explorer 7.
  6. Don't close the Developer Tools window. You'll need to leave it open while you're using dTPP.

You'll need to repeat the above procedure each time you launch dTPP.

[Keith Smith]

*whispers* orjustuseskyvector.

[Caesar]

The magic is in the active-X front end. This allows quick searching by several different methods such as airport code, state, name. The front end then pulls together a list of links that go directly to the desired PDF of the plate. Without the front end, locating a specific plate is.....well like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Any other suggestions?

https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/flight_ ... /advanced/

Once you find the chart you want you can right-click on it and choose "Save link as..." (can't remember the exact wording for IE11 but it's something along those lines) and save it to your hard drive. Makes much more sense than storing tens of thousands of files on your hard drive, only a fraction of a percent of which you are ever going to use.

If you're trying to view PDF files I don't know why you'd want to do that in IE11 and not Adobe's free PDF viewer (did I misread your post?). Also unclear is why are you using IE11 at all when the Windows 10 default browser is Edge.

[wmburns]

The magic is in the active-X front end. This allows quick searching by several different methods such as airport code, state, name. The front end then pulls together a list of links that go directly to the desired PDF of the plate. Without the front end, locating a specific plate is.....well like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Any other suggestions?

https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/flight_ ... /advanced/

Once you find the chart you want you can right-click on it and choose "Save link as..." (can't remember the exact wording for IE11 but it's something along those lines) and save it to your hard drive. Makes much more sense than storing tens of thousands of files on your hard drive, only a fraction of a percent of which you are ever going to use.

If you're trying to view PDF files I don't know why you'd want to do that in IE11 and not Adobe's free PDF viewer (did I misread your post?). Also unclear is why are you using IE11 at all when the Windows 10 default browser is Edge.

Let me see if I can explain. The URL from above is basically an online version of the d-TPP. Once you go through the front end search function it then directs to the PDF. It's the same PDF (even down to the file name) as what is on the DVD.

The difference is one is on the internet and the other is on the local PC.

As to why it's not possible to run the DVD version of d-TPP on the Edge browser. The legacy front end search function of the the d-TPP was written using ActiveX and browser elements that do NOT work above IE8. So if d-TPP is opened with Edge, the search front end controls do not work. Hence the reason to use IE11 but set the compatibility mode back to IE8. The Edge browser does not have a compatibility mode.

As for saving the PDF to the local PC. The idea works in theory but IMO the default file name isn't something that makes any sense if trying to find it later. There are ten of thousands of these PDF's on the DVD. A huge daunting task. The file name is even different for EACH data cycle. Hence the reason why a front end search function was created.

Yes I know there are online sites available to download the information for free. However, I have found that once set up, the d-TPP search function is easier to see ALL of the procedure for a given airport. I have found this helps when trying to find the best departure or arrival procedure to use. And it is very slightly faster pulling from a local PC than via the Internet.

Bottom line. The d-TPP is a valid product made available for sale by the FAA. As such it should be supported by the FAA. The right answer is for the FAA to re-write the search front end to work with modern browser.

[Caesar]

Yes I know there are online sites available to download the information for free. However, I have found that once set up, the d-TPP search function is easier to see ALL of the procedure for a given airport.

https://skyvector.com/airports

It shows all of the procedures for a given airport all neatly sorted according to category. Plus everything else you'd want to know about the given airport.

Bottom line. The d-TPP is a valid product made available for sale by the FAA. As such it should be supported by the FAA. The right answer is for the FAA to re-write the search front end to work with modern browser.

As far as I know it's not for sale by the FAA, it's free from the FAA. It is for sale from third parties who download it from the FAA website, put it on a disc, and charge you for the privilege. I would wager that the number of real-world pilots that obtain their charts this way in the year 2016 is near zero. Certainly the FAA has better ways to allocate its resources, so don't plan on this being fixed ever.

And it is very slightly faster pulling from a local PC than via the Internet.

How much time have you spent trying to get your antiquated program working?