I would plot the destination matrix as a jeatap where each row is a departure and each column an arrival and color is the number of trips. Additionally, you could cluster the rows and columns of this heatmap.
Show HN: I'm an airline pilot – I built interactive graphs/globes of my flights
131–140 of 211 posts
Re: Show HN: I'm an airline pilot – I built interactive graphs/globes of my flights
#132Folks like you (expert in multiple domains) are an inspiration for people like me. I always dream to do something other than my day job. Hope I push through my laziness to do it some day !
Sometimes I wish software development didn’t pay so exceptionally well. I’m interested in so many other things, but it’s hard to justify switching to another full-time field, knowing it would mean a significant pay cut.
Re: Show HN: I'm an airline pilot – I built interactive graphs/globes of my flights
#133Nice metrics and visualizations! The kind of graph you used for the destination matrix doesn't always feel very useful, but in this case it worked really well.
One thing I immediately thought to check after seeing your hours graph was what percentage of the year you were in flight (or in a plane, I guess). For your peak year (2024), it worked out to be about 8.7% of the year! It probably even higher if you just count your waking hours, but I don't know your sleep habits or how many of your flights you might have slept during.
Re: Show HN: I'm an airline pilot – I built interactive graphs/globes of my flights
#134Do all your flights start or end in London?
Re: Show HN: I'm an airline pilot – I built interactive graphs/globes of my flights
#135Folks like you (expert in multiple domains) are an inspiration for people like me. I always dream to do something other than my day job. Hope I push through my laziness to do it some day !
Sometimes I wish software development didn’t pay so exceptionally well. I’m interested in so many other things, but it’s hard to justify switching to another full-time field, knowing it would mean a significant pay cut.
My heart bleeds.
Re: Show HN: I'm an airline pilot – I built interactive graphs/globes of my flights
#136Very cool. One nit is because of the graph smoothing, it looks like you have negative hours P2 time 2014-2015 and Heavy time 2021-2022.
I thought the ICAO "Heavy" designation applied to aircraft above a certain MTOW instead of time? Wouldn't the time designation be as acting as relief captain/FO?
In any case, great visualizations.
Re: Show HN: I'm an airline pilot – I built interactive graphs/globes of my flights
#137That is beautiful. Besides the globe and the cool animations I like the dashboard that shows summary stats. This made me think. Either Frauenhofer or Helmholtz in Germany used to have a site where you could enter your specific flights and it would tell you your overall radiation exposure. This was meant mainly for flight personnel and it was not nearly as beautiful. The accumulated exposure would be a useful addition…
Nomadlist had (has?) radiation exposure for all of your trips too, I was shocked when I saw the stats!
Re: Show HN: I'm an airline pilot – I built interactive graphs/globes of my flights
#138This would be pretty cool for Flight Simulator fans too!
Re: Show HN: I'm an airline pilot – I built interactive graphs/globes of my flights
#139Nice metrics and visualizations! The kind of graph you used for the destination matrix doesn't always feel very useful, but in this case it worked really well. One thing I immediately thought to check after seeing your hours graph was what percentage of the year you were in flight (or in a plane, I guess). For your peak year (2024), it worked out to be about 8.7% of the year! It probably even higher if you just count…
You did the math! Thank you :)
It is one of the pecularities of the job, in that I will be "at work" for 4 days, but only actually strapped into an airplane for 8-14 hours at the beginning and end of that - the rest is mandated (and much needed) resting.
Re: Show HN: I'm an airline pilot – I built interactive graphs/globes of my flights
#140Very cool. One nit is because of the graph smoothing, it looks like you have negative hours P2 time 2014-2015 and Heavy time 2021-2022. I thought the ICAO "Heavy" designation applied to aircraft above a certain MTOW instead of time? Wouldn't the time designation be as acting as relief captain/FO? In any case, great visualizations.
The term "Heavy" (for wake separation) in the ICAO context is 100% based on MTOW! In the context of this graph, these are flights where we carry 3 or 4 pilots, and I am not in the seat for takeoff or landing. We still operate at the control during the middle of the flight when the other pilots are on their rest break. Not sure where the name "Heavy" came from here, but is it just the term used at my airline (and probably others? Some use "relief crew")
Good call on the data smoothing - I will look into a fix for this!