User guide

How to use the ADDC SAR App during the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge.

Questions, problems or a forgotten passcode? Email eddcjdavis@gmail.com.

1. Getting the app

Install ADDC SAR App from the App Store on iPhone or Google Play on Android. There's also a web version for viewing and admin work on a computer. Ask the team for the link. The web version can't send notifications or record flights.

When you first open the phone app, it asks for permission to:

• Send notifications, for take-off and landing alerts.
• Use your location, for maps, bearings and recording flights. If you'll be logging flights, choose Allow While Using App. On iPhone, also choose Change to Always Allow when you're asked later, so the route keeps recording with the phone locked.

2. Logging in

Enter your 4-digit passcode on the keypad and tap the tick. You can log in three ways:

The team leads give out passcodes. Don't share them outside the team. After several wrong attempts, the keypad locks for a short time, and each further miss locks it for longer.

To log out, tap Log out at the bottom of the Home screen.

3. The Home screen

Each tile opens one part of the app. Most parts start by asking you to pick a rally day (Day 1 to Day 5). Tap the i button at the top right to see the app version or rate the app.

Lists in the app work the same way everywhere:

• Tap a row to open it.
• Tap the edit button, or press and hold the row, to change it.
• Use the add button to create a new entry.

After a save, a message at the bottom of the screen confirms it.

Rally route overlay

Every map can show a day's rally route as a blue line. Choose the day from the map's route control. The app remembers your choice on this device until you change it.

4. Quick Bearings

Checkpoints grouped by rally day (Day 1 to Day 5). Tap a checkpoint to open it on a map with its distance and bearing from where you are. Anyone logged in can add, edit and delete checkpoints by entering a name, latitude and longitude, or by picking the spot on a map.

• Every-day places: for places used every day, such as hospitals or home base, turn on Misc - every day when adding the checkpoint. It then appears under every day, marked "Every day" with a pin, so it only needs entering once. Turning it off moves the checkpoint to the day you're viewing.
• Alarms: add an alarm as a checkpoint on the day it happens. Helicopters can then log their flights to it from that day's list.

5. Logging flights

Log helicopter take-offs and landings from a Quick Bearings checkpoint map:

1. Open Quick Bearings, choose the day and open any checkpoint.
2. Tap the helicopter button for your callsign. The app checks whether that helicopter is already flying.
3. Confirm Log take-off. Your current position and time become the wheels-up point, and the whole team gets a notification.
4. On landing, tap the same button and confirm Log landing. Your current position and time become the wheels-down point, and the team is notified.

Logging a landing from another phone also works. The take-off phone stops recording the next time it reaches the server.

If the app is closed or the phone restarts mid-flight, recording carries on when the app is opened again.

A helicopter can only have one flight open at a time, so if two phones log the same take-off, the second gets "already flying - log its landing first". The same goes for landings: the second phone gets "has already landed", and the first landing stands.

Flight Log

Pick a day to see each helicopter's flights, with wheels-up and wheels-down times and the distance flown in nautical miles. From there you can:

• open a helicopter to see all its take-offs (green) and landings (red) on one map
• open a flight to see the route actually flown
• delete a flight that was logged by mistake

6. Live Locations

Shows every helicopter on one map:

• Green means flying. It shows the latest position, speed and altitude, and updates every few seconds.
• Red marks where the helicopter last landed.

A flying helicopter that hasn't sent a position for a few minutes is shown as stale. This usually means the phone on board has no signal.

7. Routes

The route for each rally day on a map. Admins can lock a day to hide its route from team members until it's released. A locked day shows greyed out for team members.

8. ATMIST

Patient handover reports. Choose the day, then Add ATMIST and fill in:

You can also add the patient reference, the ETA and any requirements. Reports are grouped by patient reference, newest first, so updates for the same patient stay together.

9. National Ambulance

Where each ambulance is stationed on each day. Choose a day to see the list. Tap one to see it on a map, open it in Google Maps for directions, or Share location to send it to someone else. To add or move an ambulance, pick its checkpoint.

10. Deployments

Each callsign's plan for the day: pilot, co-pilot, SAR crew person, leave-bivi time, wheels-up time, destination ("Going to") and the team on board.

• Each callsign can have one deployment per day.
• The pilot and co-pilot must be different people.
• Wheels up can't be before leaving the bivi.
• Add staff to the team from the people not already on a deployment that day. Someone can only be on one deployment per day.

11. Meet The Team

Profiles with a photo, role and "about me". Tap someone to see their full profile. Photos are saved on your phone the first time they load, so the list opens quickly after that and a photo only downloads again when it changes.

• If you logged in with your own PIN, you can edit your own profile: change your photo, role, about me or PIN.
• Admins can add, edit and delete anyone's profile, and set or generate their PIN.
• A PIN must be 4 digits, can't be the same as another member's, and can't be one of the shared passcodes.

12. Playbook

Reference notes for the team, in a set order. Use Search the playbook to find an entry. Admins can add, edit and reorder entries. Entries with a lower sort order show first.

13. Admin

Admins see an extra section on the Home screen to manage the lists used elsewhere in the app:

Names must be unique in each list. Deleting a staff member also takes them off any deployments they're on.

14. Tips and troubleshooting

Contact

For help, feedback or to report a problem, email eddcjdavis@gmail.com.