I have received confirmation from Navdata Tech Support at Jeppesen that Flitestar was never available in a Mac version. Air Support does not have anything for a Mac. Does anyone know of any other flight planning applications that were ever available in a Mac version? Even an out-of date Mac version would be preferable to none at all.
Web-based applications are useless here. The Internet is too unreliable. It can be out of action for the region or the whole country for hours or occasionally a couple of days at a time. When it does work it is extremely slow. There is no high-speed connection here. Dial-up is far slower than my old 14.4 modem back in the First World. It often stalls and disconnects. Large files and attachments are unobtainable and equally impossible to send. The only people here with good Internet connections are a few large corporations, diplomats and some wealthy missionaries. These have their own satellite earth stations for Internet connections. The rest of us have to get by using the slow dial-up connections or else take our emails to and from an Internet cafe on a floppy disk. No good mentioning CDs – we have to go with floppies because that is the technology level that is available here in Internet cafes. The connection at Internet cafes is usually faster than my old modem but still no more than a good 56 connection and often considerably slower. Of course there is no connection at all at the Internet cafe when the Internet is down. We therefore need flight planning software that sits on our computers so that it can be used when we need to use it.
Another concern that those who have ever lived in countries subject to sanctions will appreciate is the ever-spreading threat of sanctions. We cannot depend on a foreign web-based application that might be suddenly cut off because some First World politician has a snit about our dictator. Of course, it might be our dictator shutting down our whole Internet system or external access to it because he is angry with evil outside influences from countries that do not contribute enough foreign aid towards his offshore bank accounts. Again, we have to have something that is on our computers and will be available whatever the political and economic situation.
Even without the intervention of politicians there are still problems with access being suddenly cut off. An example of this is Pprune email. All users of Pprune email should know that Pprune email does not operate on a worldwide basis. Late last year Pprune email’s sending capability was suddenly cut off in large parts of Africa and presumably in other parts of the Third World. If you travel here and use the email facility at an international hotel frequented by aircrew, let alone an Internet cafe, you will find that you are unable to send emails through Pprune email. It is far worse for a Pprune email customer who is permanently transferred to one of these blacked-out areas. Take a look at the thread “problem with pprune email” in the Computers & Internet Forum. In spite of the above Pprune is still falsely advertising its free email service as being “Globally Accessible”, “Permanent” and “provides you with all the facilities you get elsewhere”! Elsewhere, such as Hotmail and Yahoo, email customers have the facility of being able to send emails from wherever they might be. The cutting off without notice of Pprune email sending capability in large parts of Africa and presumably elsewhere confirms that any web based application or service is unreliable as at any time it can be instantly cut off by a mouse click.