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About Michael Golan and the Olan software
see the Contact
page if you have any comments or questions to Michael. Please note that the Olan
software is distributed by the Aerobatics Association of Israel to which Michael
has transferred all distirbution rights.
Michael Golan was born in Tel-Aviv, Israel, were he currently lives. Michael received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Princeton University in 1993 and is the CEO, founder and a major share holder in the publicly traded (Tel-Aviv exchange) A-online software company.
Michael took up flying ultralights in 1999, and soon got interested in "what happens when you pass 90 degree bank". After taking some aerobatics lessons with Dave Swartz in Florida, Michael bought a Pitts Special S2B which was exported to Israel in 2002. He started flying contests in 2002 and competed in many Advanced-level contests in the USA as well as the world advanced aerobatics contest of 2004 and the European contest of 2005.
Flying Unlimited since 2006, Michael Placed 34 in the 2008 EAC. All contests were flown with an
owned or borrowed Pitts S2B, Pitts S1S, Extra 230, Extra 300S, Extra 300L, Sbach
300 (Xtreme) and Cap-232.
Michael is currently flying an Extra 300L in Tel-Aviv (4X-CXM) and cap-232 in the
US/Europe. Unfortunately for him, there are very few aerobatic pilots in Israel, none of which compete at any level, so he always travel for contests.
The work on the Olan software began in C++ in Feb 2003. The software was then totally re-written to support a complete "draw as you fly" concept in 2004, in the new .NET/C# language. The original idea of matching a single letter to a figure and a single digit to a roll is the result of trying to commit a full unknown sequence to memory. This has led Michael to thinking of "elements" rather than a description of the actual flight. Hence, a half loop up is always an "m" figure, even if it is a push (negative), and a half roll is always "2", no matter if it is on a vertical or a horizontal line. The use of "2 h 1" to indicate a hammer-head with two elements, half roll (2) on the first line (up) and full roll(1) on the 2nd line(down) is then a simple extension of such thinking.
Michael is distributing the Olan software and language free of charge in hope that it will help more people design better "free" programs, as well as make many more "unknown" programs written and distributed. If you want, you can of course
donate money to this project by sending paypal money to mg@mivzak.com. Further, the IAC or CIVA may elect some day to officially describe a sequence using the Olan language. Such a sequence is easy to send or pass around, it can be automatically and fully verified against all applicable rules (for unknowns or free programs), and hopefully will lead to a shorter and faster registration time. In fact, the display of a single figure in front of a judge on a display terminal or PDA can lead to fully electronic contest. The computer may even synthesis the reading of the sequence in the judge's ears. For such a breakdown, a "language" to actually describe each elemet is essential.
A final note: the Aresti Catalog is not part of the Olan software, and reference to the Aresti catalog numbers is not required in order to design and display a sequence. For convinience only, the software provides a reference number to the Aresti Catalog when printing the A form. Note that new figures can be defined in Olan (by changing the figures.txt file) regardless of the Aresti catalog. Some such figures are already included - the hammer-p-loop (hp) and double vertical (vv).
Michael with his lovely wife Liat, with Tel-Aviv in the background
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