
Show HN: Mobile Aviation Weather - steven777400
http://metars.mobi/
======
steven777400
This isn't a general-audience type of project, but I think we have some pilots
on HN so they might be interested. In general, I haven't made a personal tech
project (outside of work) in years. So I finally got motivated by scratching
my own itch, which is really all that is intended here.

Ever since aviationweather.gov redid their website to be much more feature-
full, I've found it very difficult to use on my very slow Android 2 phone with
a tiny screen. So I decided what I really wanted was a geo-located METAR/TAF
display. "Just the facts", so to speak.

I also added color-coding so that I can easily pick out the bad conditions
from the rest of the data.

I wouldn't ever expect this to have a wide audience since every pilot I know
also has a late-model iPhone with a variety of aviation apps. But it serves a
need for me, and more importantly, it got me back into hobbyist development
(at least for a little while).

~~~
verystealthy
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?

~~~
steven777400
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.

~~~
verystealthy
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](http://heras-gilsanz.com/manuel/METAR-Decoder.html)

------
hightowk
Great start on combining local data. Do you use flight services? They have
made some changes to automatically parse and display this data in an easy to
see format, and it is free. [https://www.1800wxbrief.com/afss/#!/next-
generation-briefing...](https://www.1800wxbrief.com/afss/#!/next-generation-
briefings)

They can also notify you of changes in your briefing, even when you are in the
air. [https://www.1800wxbrief.com/afss/#!/adverse-condition-
alerti...](https://www.1800wxbrief.com/afss/#!/adverse-condition-alerting)

~~~
steven777400
So far I only get data from aviationweather.gov's data service. It doesn't
support CORS so I have to proxy it (and transform it from XML to JSON), but
other than that I don't do anything else server side.

Edit: I might have misinterpreted your comment. I do use flight service and
their email based easyactivate/easyclose flight plans. I don't usually use
them for weather information though.

~~~
hightowk
I believe their API is open, and might be able to give you more info based on
your actual route of flight. I use them for briefings and notifications, life
savers.

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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.

~~~
steven777400
I agree. I've thought about how to implement this and it's definitely on my
radar.

It's also possible to adjust the range (under the options menu), so that far
away stations aren't shown and don't get included in the "worst" calculation.

~~~
presumeaway
Which would work really well in some geography. In mine, not so much. I have
airports 15nm away that are meteorologically less relevant than some that are
50nm away.

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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

~~~
steven777400
To clarify, what you mean is to do a search and have the results add to the
current result list instead of replacing it? Or you could mark individual
stations on a result list as pinned and they would remain regardless of what
searches were performed? That does sound useful. Thanks.

~~~
leetrout
Yea, the second way you described it. I mark a station and it stays in the
list when I do another search. I actually expected this when I "collapsed" my
first search result.

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bulte-rs
Thanks! I actually prefer aviation wx over the 'plebs'-version (;-)).
Bookmarked!

Perhaps include a link to a good reference on reading metars/tafs?

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jjwiseman
How to read METARs:
[http://www.wunderground.com/metarFAQ.asp](http://www.wunderground.com/metarFAQ.asp)

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thelucky41
Thanks! I'll suggest this to the FBO I fly out of as well.

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jzawodn
Nice. Well done.

I'll try it next time I'm flying.

~~~
artmageddon
Same goes for me! It's sometimes annoying when I have to log into DUATS and
I'm in kind of a rush...

