Show HN: Mobile Aviation Weather

by steven777400 • 12 years ago

17 29 12 years ago

This isn't a general-audience type of project, but I think we have some pilots on HN so they might be interested. In general, I haven't made a personal tech project (outside of work) in years. So I finally got motivated by scratching my own itch, which is really all that is intended here.

Ever since aviationweather.gov redid their website to be much more feature-full, I've found it very difficult to use on my very slow Android 2 phone with a tiny screen. So I decided what I really wanted was a geo-located METAR/TAF display. "Just the facts", so to speak.

I also added color-coding so that I can easily pick out the bad conditions from the rest of the data.

I wouldn't ever expect this to have a wide audience since every pilot I know also has a late-model iPhone with a variety of aviation apps. But it serves a need for me, and more importantly, it got me back into hobbyist development (at least for a little while).

verystealthy2• 12 years ago

Well done. I can see this working well for aviation enthusiasts (i.e. X-Plane folks) who like to use real world data. However, METAR/TAF are not the friendliest of formats. Have you considered including a METAR/TAF decoder?

steven7774008• 12 years ago

The data that I get from the web service does include a breakdown of the specific conditions (not a human readable translation, but enough to generate one). So far I haven't implemented that since I can read METARs myself. I'd want to be careful not to consume too much screen real estate. Something to think about for sure.

steven7774008• 12 years ago

Addendum: I did put the "about x minutes/hours" old thing on the data because of all the parts, the Zulu time is the one I consistently do have trouble with. :)

univacky2• 12 years ago

Nice. The color coding seems a bit off (BTW, LOVE the color coding on winds! I fly a tailwheel, so the winds are of great significance to me).

e.g. KGAI 181535Z 29014G20KT 240V310 10SM CLR 18/08 A2974 RMK AO1

shows red, highlighting "0 10SM"

Same for KDAA 181458Z AUTO 31015G24KT 290V360 10SM CLR 20/08 A2970 RMK AO2 SLP060 T02030076 51012

KRSP 181504Z AUTO 32007KT 290V360 10SM BKN026 OVC033 12/07 RMK AO2 $

jzawodn• 12 years ago

Nice. Well done.

I'll try it next time I'm flying.

steven7774008• 12 years ago

Thanks

artmageddon• 12 years ago

Same goes for me! It's sometimes annoying when I have to log into DUATS and I'm in kind of a rush...

hightowk2• 12 years ago

Great start on combining local data. Do you use flight services? They have made some changes to automatically parse and display this data in an easy to see format, and it is free. https://www.1800wxbrief.com/afss/#!/next-generation-briefing...

They can also notify you of changes in your briefing, even when you are in the air. https://www.1800wxbrief.com/afss/#!/adverse-condition-alerti...

steven7774008• 12 years ago

So far I only get data from aviationweather.gov's data service. It doesn't support CORS so I have to proxy it (and transform it from XML to JSON), but other than that I don't do anything else server side.

Edit: I might have misinterpreted your comment. I do use flight service and their email based easyactivate/easyclose flight plans. I don't usually use them for weather information though.

hightowk2• 12 years ago

I believe their API is open, and might be able to give you more info based on your actual route of flight. I use them for briefings and notifications, life savers.

jjwiseman• 12 years ago

How to read METARs: http://www.wunderground.com/metarFAQ.asp

bulte-rs• 12 years ago

Thanks! I actually prefer aviation wx over the 'plebs'-version (;-)). Bookmarked!

Perhaps include a link to a good reference on reading metars/tafs?

leetrout3• 12 years ago

It would be awesome to be able to pin a location and search for another one. I'm always comparing between a few locations to get an idea on pressures and clouds around the area and being able to quickly look at those without a refresh would be really nice to have :D

aosmith• 12 years ago

This is especially relevant for flight where you probably need weather for your departure, destination, and a few places in the middle.

steven7774008• 12 years ago

To clarify, what you mean is to do a search and have the results add to the current result list instead of replacing it? Or you could mark individual stations on a result list as pinned and they would remain regardless of what searches were performed? That does sound useful. Thanks.

leetrout3• 12 years ago

Yea, the second way you described it. I mark a station and it stays in the list when I do another search. I actually expected this when I "collapsed" my first search result.

presumeaway5• 12 years ago

It might overcomplicate it, but the Worst thing, while quite useful, would be more quickly useful if you could see the location of each element.

E.g., show the low ceiling and then the ICAO code for that airport parenthetically, then high winds and another airport code. Quick way to inform intuition about where things are happening.

In my region, I saw several items under Worst, but after scrolling down and looking it over, I realized it was all happening on the other side of a mountain range–nothing to really be concerned about unless I'm going over there, since that stuff is usually well contained.

steven7774008• 12 years ago

I agree. I've thought about how to implement this and it's definitely on my radar.

It's also possible to adjust the range (under the options menu), so that far away stations aren't shown and don't get included in the "worst" calculation.

presumeaway5• 12 years ago

Which would work really well in some geography. In mine, not so much. I have airports 15nm away that are meteorologically less relevant than some that are 50nm away.

univacky2• 12 years ago

Agree completely. I was a bit confused by worst, and then frustrated that I couldn't find location.

thelucky41• 12 years ago

Thanks! I'll suggest this to the FBO I fly out of as well.

Show HN: Mobile Aviation Weather

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