considering the recent uptick in fear of flying, this calms me!
So happy to hear that!
Show HN: I'm an airline pilot – I built interactive graphs/globes of my flights
201–210 of 211 posts
Re: Show HN: I'm an airline pilot – I built interactive graphs/globes of my flights
#202Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Depending on your locale and position, you may have it backwards. Check out pilot pay in the United States at www.airlinepilotcentral.com
I think GP meant some girls outside of software engineering.
I would love to switch (back) to teaching but a 10x pay cut is not doable. Maybe close to retirement I will give it a try.
Re: Show HN: I'm an airline pilot – I built interactive graphs/globes of my flights
#203Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm jealous - all that time sitting around to get something productive done, and I can't concentrate at all because I can't relax, the plane suddenly shakes and distracts me, and it feels like I'm lacking oxygen and am not thinking clearly. I remember trying to code some stupid iterator thing in Rust for a few hours and couldn't crack it. On the ground it was solved in like 10 minutes.
Your phone has a "do not disturb" feature
I'm jealous of them being able to be productive _on a plane_.
I can be productive on the ground no problem, but I'm mostly useless when I'm on a plane.
Re: Show HN: I'm an airline pilot – I built interactive graphs/globes of my flights
#204Earlier quoted context omitted.
Great question! It is not an anomaly, it is very geographically specific. Due the the Ukraine war (and my home base being in the UK), we have to fly the long way around to get to far-east destinations like Tokyo and Hong Kong. Flying outbound from London we have to fly down over Turkey (which adds about two hours of flight time). Flying home from Tokyo with the ongoing airspace closure, if the the weather is suitable…
So for London-Tokyo the return route is completely different from the outbound route? Fascinating! I guess that has something to do with the jetstream (which only helps you when travelling eastbound)?
Exactly that! This is the only route that I know of where this is the case.
Looks like today’s flight home is following that route: https://uk.flightaware.com/live/flight/BAW8/history/20250629...
Re: Show HN: I'm an airline pilot – I built interactive graphs/globes of my flights
#205Noticed the last logged flight is KDEN>EGLL. I do that KDEN EGLL route many times per year, sometimes multiple per month. I wonder if I’m ever on a flight with James :) Will have to listen out!
If you ever hear my name on the PA, please come up to say hello! In fact, after the flight when it is not busy, we are always happy to have visitors in the flight deck. Feel free to drop me a message any time too, the A350 is a pretty small fleet, so the chances are higher than one would think! :)
Re: Show HN: I'm an airline pilot – I built interactive graphs/globes of my flights
#206That's a super cool way to visualize your career! Did you use a specific mapping library or build something custom?
Re: Show HN: I'm an airline pilot – I built interactive graphs/globes of my flights
#207Impressive and very cool! You might consider making this into a globe route generator that folks will pay for. See https://anim8map.com/ As an active airline passenger for the past 50 years, I wish I’d kept a log my many hundreds of flights. Some day I’ll sit down and attempt an educated guess.
Cool website! The idea of rendering it to a video is an interesting one. I had thought that a challenge trying to turn something like I have built into a business would be that people would be reluctant to pay for (yet another) subscription for something like this that they probably look at infrequently.
Anim8's business model lets you buy credits that you can then use over whatever time works for you. Essentially a use fee rather than a pay regardless of use.
Re: Show HN: I'm an airline pilot – I built interactive graphs/globes of my flights
#208Impressive and very cool! You might consider making this into a globe route generator that folks will pay for. See https://anim8map.com/ As an active airline passenger for the past 50 years, I wish I’d kept a log my many hundreds of flights. Some day I’ll sit down and attempt an educated guess.
Cool website! The idea of rendering it to a video is an interesting one. I had thought that a challenge trying to turn something like I have built into a business would be that people would be reluctant to pay for (yet another) subscription for something like this that they probably look at infrequently.
here's what the last three months of retirement travel look like:
https://share.icloud.com/photos/0bfsKT8PAv_CxDl4pVRWe9-iQ
Among many cool experiences was taking "Le Shuttle" under the English Channel - it's perhaps the most impressive piece of civil engineering I've seen.
Re: Show HN: I'm an airline pilot – I built interactive graphs/globes of my flights
#209Re: Show HN: I'm an airline pilot – I built interactive graphs/globes of my flights
#210Earlier quoted context omitted.
What happens if you lose it?
You go back to every airline you ever worked for, beg for your flight logs, hope they are willing to provide them, and then over the course of weeks re-enter them into your paper logbook or software. Then you hope that the airline will also be willing to sign-off your logbook. TL;DR: you're screwed.
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