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Show HN: I'm an airline pilot – I built interactive graphs/globes of my flights

jameshard.ing

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Re: Show HN: I'm an airline pilot – I built interactive graphs/globes of my flights

#31

Post by jamesharding »

mkoubaa wrote: post #22

Are you allowed to code while sitting in the cockpit but not actively flying?

On the long flights where we carry more than two pilots, we have allocated break time away from the cockpit. During those breaks, you can do whatever you like (sleep, watch a film, read a book, etc). I tend to try to sleep on the plane, but I always bring my laptop on trips to work on projects while downroute. Especially on west-coast trips with the 8 hours timezone change, I am usually awake at 2am which is great for being productive!

Re: Show HN: I'm an airline pilot – I built interactive graphs/globes of my flights

#33

Post by walthamstow »

jamesharding wrote: post #31
mkoubaa wrote: post #22

Are you allowed to code while sitting in the cockpit but not actively flying?

On the long flights where we carry more than two pilots, we have allocated break time away from the cockpit. During those breaks, you can do whatever you like (sleep, watch a film, read a book, etc). I tend to try to sleep on the plane, but I always bring my laptop on trips to work on projects while downroute. Especially on west-coast trips with the 8 hours timezone change, I am usually awake at 2am which is great fo…

I am insanely productive when programming on flights without wifi, provided I've cached what I needed to beforehand. Something about it just works

Re: Show HN: I'm an airline pilot – I built interactive graphs/globes of my flights

#34

Post by NKosmatos »

jasonthorsness wrote: post #28

I love the sequential globe especially! For an idea - anything you could do with altitude? Your average height above sea level per day? I dunno :p

I’ll second this idea. Keeping track of your hours on high altitude is important sine you get more radiation than us on the ground. I’ve read various articles about pilots & flight attendants health affected by higher exposure to radiation.

Re: Show HN: I'm an airline pilot – I built interactive graphs/globes of my flights

#35

Post by rob74 »

jamesharding wrote: post #7
jonlucc wrote: post #3

This is great data visualization of interesting data! I'm curious about the last graph; there seems to be something making some of the longest flights take more time/nm. Is that real or an artifact, and is there an explanation for the tail?

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)?

Re: Show HN: I'm an airline pilot – I built interactive graphs/globes of my flights

#36

Post by willsmith72 »

NKosmatos wrote: post #34
jasonthorsness wrote: post #28

I love the sequential globe especially! For an idea - anything you could do with altitude? Your average height above sea level per day? I dunno :p

I’ll second this idea. Keeping track of your hours on high altitude is important sine you get more radiation than us on the ground. I’ve read various articles about pilots & flight attendants health affected by higher exposure to radiation.

True, but is it counterbalanced by their ageing at least a few microseconds more slowly thanks to spending so much time closer to the speed of light?

Re: Show HN: I'm an airline pilot – I built interactive graphs/globes of my flights

#37

Post by wetoastfood »

ok_computer wrote: post #18

Cool visualization for your personal logbook. How is the raw or display data stored? The globe map reminds me of this hexagonal grid article from my bookmarks I’d found on here or reddit. https://www.redblobgames.com/grids/hexagons/ As an airline pilot, I am curious, have you watched the season 2 of Nathan Fielder’s Rehearsal on HBO, that comically addresses the topic of pilot-copilot communication? If so what are yo…

> How is the raw or display data stored?

He answered in the post that he uses LogTen Pro[1] which enables querying with SQL[2]. In the SQL post he says the app has an export for CSV but the app stores it in SQLite which you can access and query from directly.

[1] https://logten.com/ [2] https://jameshard.ing/posts/querying-logten-pilot-logbook-sq...

Re: Show HN: I'm an airline pilot – I built interactive graphs/globes of my flights

#38

Post by jamesharding »

ok_computer wrote: post #18

Cool visualization for your personal logbook. How is the raw or display data stored? The globe map reminds me of this hexagonal grid article from my bookmarks I’d found on here or reddit. https://www.redblobgames.com/grids/hexagons/ As an airline pilot, I am curious, have you watched the season 2 of Nathan Fielder’s Rehearsal on HBO, that comically addresses the topic of pilot-copilot communication? If so what are yo…

The data is all in a sqlite file from my logbook software! I wrote a little post about extracting the data here: https://jameshard.ing/posts/querying-logten-pilot-logbook-sq...

I have only seen a few clips from The Rehersal (the bit with Sully listening to Evanescence), so I don't have much to go on. Pilot communication is definitely something that we spend a lot of time talking about and training (under the larger banner of CRM - crew resource management), and in my experience the industry is making real efforts to be better in this area!

Re: Show HN: I'm an airline pilot – I built interactive graphs/globes of my flights

#39

Post by lbotos »

andreygrehov wrote: post #16

This is great work! I have a somewhat off-topic question. How are your ears? Do pilots have any tricks to save their ears from getting clogged due to the constant pressure changes? Second question. Would it be possible to predict flight delays based on the number of inbound and outbound flights?

Not a pilot but fly frequently -- A lot of the modern larger planes 787 Dreamliner or an A330/350 have something that helps with the ear clogging.

I travel NY/LON a lot, and I rarely have any ear popping. If I travel on a smaller plane say NY -> Miami, I easily get the clogged feeling.

Re: Show HN: I'm an airline pilot – I built interactive graphs/globes of my flights

#40

Post by bombcar »

ok_computer wrote: post #18

Cool visualization for your personal logbook. How is the raw or display data stored? The globe map reminds me of this hexagonal grid article from my bookmarks I’d found on here or reddit. https://www.redblobgames.com/grids/hexagons/ As an airline pilot, I am curious, have you watched the season 2 of Nathan Fielder’s Rehearsal on HBO, that comically addresses the topic of pilot-copilot communication? If so what are yo…

Reminds me of https://youtu.be/1SKDvQzcasg which is quite old.
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