Comments on: Make a web map of the airports you've visited

By: david

david — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 18:15:29 +0000

Nick:

Thanks for the comment. I think that the GMaps API has an option to use the scrollwheel, so I’ll add that to my TODO list. The little map might be harder, but I agree that it would be very useful. I’ll look into that and see how it would work.

By: Nick

Nick — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 16:45:54 +0000

Ok, after actually using the site for a few days I would say my number one most desireable feature would be for the scroll wheel on my mouse to control the zoom like it does in google maps. Also, the little zoomed out map in the corner would be a great help when panning around. I have no experience with the GMaps API, so this may be either very hard or very difficult to do, but either way it would improve my user experience tremendously.

P.S. Thanks again for developing this! It’s fantastic, my flying friends are also fans, and I totally agree with your philosophy and direction for development. Your work and dedication to this project are admirable.

By: Tony Hunt

Tony Hunt — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 03:41:07 +0000

David – this is great! Don’t ask why I am spending my Saturday night looking back in my logbook and entering data. Is there a way to cross-link to a blogger entry if I have photos of the strip in my blog?

Tim – XM Weather? It works north of the 49th, all the Canadian weather radar, METARs and TAFs is there but you have to have the US XM Radio subscription to get the Canadian data.

By: david

david — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 01:48:04 +0000

Thanks, Chris — I forgot to add type=”submit” to that one (Firefox lets me get away with that, but MSIE doesn’t). It should work in MSIE now. I’m checking all the other button elements, just to be safe.

By: Chris

Chris — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 01:35:11 +0000

David – I love the new site. The search button won’t work for me. If you type in the airport key and hit enter, it’s no problem. If you hit the search button instead, nothing happens. I’m using IE, in case that helps.

It would also be nice to be able to flag an airport as your home airport.

By: david

david — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 11:54:17 +0000

Thank you all for the comments.

Paul: I worked frantically last night pushing out changes, and I think the database is a lot faster now for simultaneous users. I hope the site seemed faster as the evening went on. Right now, I’m hosting on a shared/cluster (Mosso), so I’m also subject to the load on other sites, but I may move to a dedicated server soon, since the cost is about the same. I would like to start integrating our databases — your navaid.com DB is a huge service to the aviation community.

Nick: that’s a good idea about tagging your main airports. I’m also hoping to messages for members (similar to comments on airports), so that you can leave a message for someone who has visited an airport and the person will see the message. Request for bulk entry noted.

Tim: I use AirNav a lot as well, but my other problem with it (aside from the lack of non-U.S. coverage) is that you can comment on specific FBOs and businesses, but not on the airport in general. Where do you leave a comment about the landing fee or the tricky IFR departure at Teterboro, for example, or about clearing U.S. customs at Massena? I do plan to add a “Links” tab for each airport, with links to the relevant pages at AirNav.com, COPA Places to Fly, online airport diagrams, Wikipedia, the airport home page, etc., as appropriate — I want to help visitors learn as much as they can about an airport anywhere on the Web, instead of locking them into a walled garden like FaceBook and similar sites do (even AirNav).

By: Tim

Tim — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 04:46:19 +0000

Hey David,
What a great idea. As I entered all my airports I had a lot of fun recounting my travels of the past 4 years since I got in to flying. I will start backfilling my entries with comments as time permits. I’m a huge fan of Airnav, but with no Canadian info it’s ultility is even more limited than XM Weather north of the 49th! I also use COPA’s “places to fly”, but honestly it’s the most ugly thing imaginable and really sort of an embarrasment. I commend you for getting this off the ground and I will try to contribute as much as possible.
Thanks!
Tim Lewis
Vancouver, BC

By: Nick

Nick — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 01:40:44 +0000

Great idea, something I’ve actually been looking for for a while. One thing that would be great is if each user could tag one or two airports as “I’m really familiar with this airport and I don’t mind if other users contact me with questions or to find out the latest news”. That would make it really useful. My vote for the first feature to implement from your list would be the bulk entry feature.

By: Paul Tomblin

Paul Tomblin — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 20:46:52 +0000

It keeps timing out on me. Plus, it gets into a mode where it asks me to log back in, but refuses to recognize my userid and password (and strangely enough, Firefox’s Password Manager doesn’t pre-fill the userid and password).

It’s a great idea, especially if it could be used as a front end to edit my navaid.com databases (please?).