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Show HN: Mobile Aviation Weather

metars.mobi

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Re: Show HN: Mobile Aviation Weather

#11

Post by mr1976 »

steven777400 wrote: post #8
verystealthy wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

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.

actually, it's really useful just as just a METAR. Prefer it. quick, simple, solves exactly 1 problem well.

Re: Show HN: Mobile Aviation Weather

#12

Post by verystealthy »

steven777400 wrote: post #8
verystealthy wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

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.

For sure. If you're getting your weather data via METAR/TAF, you should be able to read it :). And one can always resort to this (even though it won't decode everything). http://heras-gilsanz.com/manuel/METAR-Decoder.html

Re: Show HN: Mobile Aviation Weather

#13

Post by presumeaway »

steven777400 wrote: post #10
verystealthy wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

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. :)

Love it, thanks.

And: showing an "as of" time somewhere, expressed in Zulu, would be helpful.

Re: Show HN: Mobile Aviation Weather

#15

Post by leetrout »

presumeaway wrote: post #13
steven777400 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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. :)

Love it, thanks. And: showing an "as of" time somewhere, expressed in Zulu, would be helpful.

It's in the METAR and the TAF.

  KPDK 172053Z
17th day 2053 Zulu

Re: Show HN: Mobile Aviation Weather

#16

Post by presumeaway »

leetrout wrote: post #15
presumeaway wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Love it, thanks. And: showing an "as of" time somewhere, expressed in Zulu, would be helpful.

It's in the METAR and the TAF. KPDK 172053Z 17th day 2053 Zulu

Right, per METAR/TAF, but not in terms of when the data was last pulled.

Unless it's all realtime.

Re: Show HN: Mobile Aviation Weather

#18

Post by steven777400 »

presumeaway wrote: post #13
steven777400 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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. :)

Love it, thanks. And: showing an "as of" time somewhere, expressed in Zulu, would be helpful.

The as-of time is in the METAR. It's the block immediately following the station identifier, e.g. 172054Z means the 17th of the month at 20:54 Zulu. That's the time of observation.

You're right that the TAF doesn't indicate the time the forecast was published (although usually it's assumed to be the first hour of the forecast).

If you meant instead, as-of meaning "when the data was loaded", that's true... Not shown. I have the METAR ages turn red when they hit an hour (normally they are issued every hour) as a "clue" to the user to refresh. But certainly I could be more explicit.

Re: Show HN: Mobile Aviation Weather

#19

Post by leetrout »

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

Re: Show HN: Mobile Aviation Weather

#20

Post by presumeaway »

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.

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