                        Su27 Flanker
                     Pilots Log Manager

                        Version 1.2
                     1st December 1997

                            by
                  Michael "Loophole" Barnes
                  michaelb@onthenet.com.au


OVERVIEW

The Pilots Log Manager is a program that can be used to track and
record your Su-27 Flanker missions.  It will record a summary of
each mission that you log, and accumulate statistics from these
missions.

It is designed to work with the concept of 'Careers', where a
career lasts until you log a mission in which you are killed. If
you are killed, then a new career is started.  Statistics such as
kill totals are only accumulated within a career, so in order to
accumulate high kill totals you must stay alive!

Since it is not always possible to interpret the Flanker debriefing
information with 100% accuracy, you are allowed to modify any of the
logged details, including whether you were killed, whether the mission
was a success or failure, and what kills you scored.  The Log
Manager does not provide a tamper-free record!  It is up to you
to keep it truthful!

You can also add and delete mission records and kill records by hand.


INSTALLATION

The only installation needed for the Pilots Log Manager is to inform
it of the location of the Su-27 Flanker program directory.  When you
run the Pilots Log for the first time it will automatically pop up
the Preferences dialog, where you can set the location of the Su-27
Flanker program directory.


PILOTS LOGS

You can keep as many seperate pilots logs as you like.  Each one is
stored in a seperate file, and you can access them using the commands
on the File menu.

When you start the Pilots Log Manager, it will automatically load the
log file you were last working with.

Each log file represents one pilot, but can contain many careers for
that pilot.  Only the last career in the log is considered 'active'.
All of the other careers will have been terminated by the death of
the pilot.  You can access the details of any of the careers, and
cut and paste missions between careers.  However, when you add a new
mission to the log, it will always be added to the last career in
the log.

To start a new log, pick New Log from the File menu, and then fill in
the details for name, callsign, unit and rank.


LOGGING MISSIONS

There are three ways to log a mission:

1. Click on the Log Last Mission button to log the last mission you
   flew in Su-27 Flanker.

2. Click on the Log Mission... button to select a debrief file (STT
   file) to log.  (You create STT files in Flanker by clicking Save
   on the Debriefing dialog).

3. Add a mission by hand by clicking on the Add button above the list
   of missions.

The Pilots Log Manager tries to ensure that you do not log the same
mission twice.  If it thinks you already have logged a particular
mission it will display a warning and give you the chance to change
your mind.

If you log a mission, but your pilot had died in their previous
mission, you will be warned that the pilot is dead and asked if
you want to start a new career.  If you choose not to start a new
career, the mission will be added to the last career in the log, and
your pilot miraculously resurrected.  However, if you died you should
really accept the consequences!

NOTE: If you start a new career you will lose all of your accumulated
      kills!  (They only accumulate within a career - that is the
      price of failure!).  However, if you change your mind once you
      have started a new career, you can go back to the last career
      by doing the following:

        1. Move any logged missions out of the final career into
           the preceeding career, using the Cut and Paste buttons
           and the Career Select control in the Missions section.

        2. Once the last career is empty, chose "Delete Current
           Career" from the Careers menu.

Finally, when logging a mission you may be asked whether you ejected
safely.  This is because it is not always possible to determine from
the Flanker debriefing whether you ejected when your aircraft was
destroyed.  When the Pilots Log Manager encounters such a situation it
simply asks you what happened.

When a mission has been logged, the Mission dialog will be displayed
allowing you to add comments and adjust any of the records.


CHECKING THE MISSION LOG

When you log a new mission and the Mission dialog is displayed,
there are two main things you should do:

1. Indicate whether the mission was a success or a failure.

   The Pilots Log Manager cannot determine whether you achieved
   the mission success conditions, and will assume that the mission
   result was "undecided" unless told otherwise.

2. Check the logged kills and delete anything that is incorrect.

   If you hit a target several times, you might find it logged
   as a kill more than once.  You should delete any 'excess' kills
   so as to not distort your kill results.  You should also delete
   any kills that you score against light poles, civilian cars and
   other harmless objects.  If you want to instruct the Manager to
   ignore all permanent map objects when it comes to logging kills,
   go to the Preferences menu and tick the "Ignore all Unknown Objects"
   box.


PREFERENCES

There are a number of preferences that you can set from the
Preferences dialog:

Flanker Program Directory.
  This is where the Pilots Log Manager will go to look for the
  debrf.tmp file when it is asked to Log Last Mission.  If this
  directory is not set, then the Log Last Mission button will be
  greyed out.

Debrief Analysis
  These settings control how the Pilots Log Manager interprets
  the Su-27 debrief files.

  Ticking "Log Events" will automatically make notes about key
  events in a mission in the Notes section of the mission dialog.
  If you aren't interested in the events, you can save space in
  your log by leaving this unticked.

  Ticking "Don't Count Suspicious Kills" will filter out certain
  kills that are actually just doubling-up.  For example if you
  ripple off two Kh-29's against the same ground target, you will
  get two 'kills' in the debrief.  Since the second 'kill' is just
  a hit on the wreckage of the first, it really should be ignored.
  If you think you are missing out on kills you should be getting,
  try unticking this box and logging the mission again.  In general
  you should leave this box ticked.

  Ticking "Ignore all Unknown Objects" will make the Manager ignore
  any kills against permanent ground objects such as buildings and
  bridges

Flying Time
  You can have the manager accumulate flying time for just your
  current career or for all of your careers.

Date Format
  You can have dates displayed properly, or in that 'other' format!


COMMAND LINE ARGUMENTS

You can use command line arguments when you start the Pilots Log
Manager.  These can be used to integrate the manager into other
Su-27 Flanker utilities.

The supported command-line arguments are:

   /MISSION filename.stt         The mission will be logged
   /LAST                         The last mission flown will be logged

   /SUCCESS                      The logged mission was successful
   /FAILURE                      The logged mission was a failure

   /LOG filename.log             The nominated log will be opened
   
   /HIDE                         Don't display any dialogs, and exit
                                 immediately.  Message and question
                                 dialogs may still be displayed.

So, to log the last mission flown as being a success, into the
log file C:\logs\loophole.log, without displaying any dialogs,
you would use the command line arguments

   /LAST /SUCCESS /LOG C:\logs\loophole.log /HIDE


DEVELOPERS NOTES

This is the second update release.  The two main changes in this
update are:

1. File handling has been rewritten to work around a Win95 'feature'
   that prevented log files from growing past 64Kb in size.  File 
   size is now unlimited.  You will find that Saving is now much
   faster, although reading is not.  I will get around to improving
   the reading performance before the next update.

   Your existing log files should be fully compatible.  Contact me
   if you encounter any problems.

2. Career handling has been improved.  You can now view previous
   careers, delete careers and cut and paste missions between
   careers.

I still have not had the time to implement the statistical analysis
features, but I have made a start on them.  There should be some
in the next update.

NOTE:
  There is a known problem with the "Photograph" function.
  At present it appears to only display properly if you have your screen
  set to 16-bit colour.  If your screen is set to 256-colour, then you
  may experience distortion of the colours in your photo.

Also, you may notice that the program will log twice as many shells
fired by and at you than does the Flanker debrief.  This is because 
the Flanker debrief only logs every second shell (or logs them in pairs)
and the Pilots Log Manager adjusts its records to reflect the true 
number of shells expended.


CONCLUSION

As always, if you have any questions or comments, please email them
to me at michaelb@onthenet.com.au

