Custom Aircraft Database

These instructions allow make your existing CoPilot aircraft database available to other pilots. The database that you create can be HotSynced to another user's Palm device, and the aircraft will be added to their existing aircraft database.

Whenever you perform a HotSync, your CoPilot database files are backed up to a special folder on your pc. To start the preparation of your custom aircraft database, first make a copy of the aircraft database that was backed up. Look for a file called "CoPilot_Aircraft.pdb" on your pc. Once you have found it, simply make a copy, and then proceed with the rest of these instructions. Rename the copy to something useful (e.g. "School Fleet.pdb").

You will also need a database editing program called PDB Operations. PDB Operations is available for download at PalmGear.

Launch PDB Operations and then open the copy of the aircraft database that you created. Select the "Open..." menu item in the "File" menu, and then find the database that you created (e.g. "School Fleet.pdb").

Change the name of the database from "CoPilot Aircraft" to something else. The new name can be anything except "CoPilot Aircraft". This will allow HotSync to load the new database without replacing the existing database.

Change the database type from "Airc" to "arcu". This will cause CoPilot to add the aircraft to an existing database rather than replace the existing database. If you want the new database to completely replace the old database, simply leave out this step.

Save the database file. Select the "Save" menu item in the "File" menu.

You are done! When a user HotSyncs this file to their Palm, the HotSync program will transfer this database to the Palm memory. Whenever CoPilot starts, it looks for a database of type "arcu". If it finds one, it moves each aircraft from this database to the existing aircraft database.