DFRESH Posted October 23, 2014 Posted October 23, 2014 My bro created an app that helps reduce the time required to review notams. It's especially helpful for local flying. Check it out and post your feedback here! https://itunes.apple.com/app/id921275153 The trick to the NOTAMs is that once you've scrolled through them, you just swipe away the ones you don't want to see again. Now the same stupid NOTAMabout some tower that has no impact on you doesn't show up every time you look. Obviously, this does not substitute a thorough NOTAM review. It's only available for i-devices right now. I may port it to Android if it has enough interest.
Jaded Posted October 23, 2014 Posted October 23, 2014 Cool idea. If you ever port it to android, I'll check it out.
jcj Posted October 24, 2014 Posted October 24, 2014 Just bought it - quick first impression after a couple of uses on my iPhone 5S is it's quite cool & so far works very well. Also works great on my iPad mini, because it's an iPhone app it doesn't do anything additional on the iPad but it still works great & is easy to read. It correctly picked up several military and civilian airports I tested it on in Maryland (where I'm at this week) and Arkansas (where I live), including some with alphanumeric (4M3, 6M0). If you put in an alphanumeric, the app requires a "K" in front of it which I don't think is technically correct because the alphanumeric identifiers are not ICAO identifiers - but if you know to do it, it's fine. Also, there may be some bugs to be aware of with the database pulls - for example The Dexter Florence Field in Arkadelphia, Arkansas was M89 until Nov, 2012 when it changed to KADF. So if you put KADF into the App you (correctly) get the current wx and NOTAMS for Arkadelphia. If you're an old guy from Arkansas and remember Arkadelphia as 'M89" - it was "M89" for years - you put in "M89" you get nothing (because there's no "K" in front, see paragraph above). The problem is if you then put in "KM89", you get a very official looking METAR that's completely wrong because it's from 23 Nov 2012, the last day METAR's were issued from the identifier "M89". And although this date is on the METAR, you won't see it unless you scroll down past all of the other data to it - it's the very last line of text and it's hidden by the task bar at the bottom of the screen. Ideally, there should have been an error message rather than a very valid looking, almost two year old METAR. On a good note, the App throws an error message when it looks for NOTAM's for "KM89" - but instead of suggesting that "KM89" isn't a valid NOTAM station it suggests that the user needs to upgrade to a newer version of the app (of course there isn't a newer version than the one that came out today). Noneheless, this was my clue that something wasn't right about this app and the Arkadelphia airport, and once I reminded myself that the identifier was KADF and not M99, it was fine. I didn't select KADF to test the app because I thought there would be a problem, it's just an airport I know really well. I'd guess there are a few similar situations in other areas of the U.S. So the user of the app must assume some risk for confirming the accuracy of the information used and filtering out inaccuracies because it looks like old, obsolete information may be coming through into the app as well as current information. The user also needs to know specifically which NOTAM's are in the app and which aren't. For example I didn't see any FDC NOTAMS or Flight Restrictions (maybe I didn't look close enough or I didn't look anywhere where there were any). With that said, I was quite impressed and I'm glad I bought it. I'll post some more detailed feedback in a couple of days. One thing - I searched for it by name "Crosswinds" in the App store on my iPad & couldn't find it. I tried a couple of times, made sure the spelling was correct & thought I was doing it right, yada, yada, yada. I clicked on the link on your post above and it went right to it (although I had to install iTunes because I'm traveling & didn't have it on this laptop) and it pushed right to my phone like it was supposed to. Then I discovered the issue with the iPad. Since it's an iPhone designed app, if you have the iPad App store search engine set to "iPad Only" apps you'll never see it. If you switch it to "iPhone Only" apps it's right there ready to buy (or download if you've already bought it.
Diesel Posted October 25, 2014 Posted October 25, 2014 (edited) Just bought it - quick first impression after a couple of uses on my iPhone 5S is it's quite cool & so far works very well. Thank you! Appreciate all the feedback, and I will try to make it better as time goes on and add features which people ask for. If you put in an alphanumeric, the app requires a "K" in front of it which I don't think is technically correct because the alphanumeric identifiers are not ICAO identifiers - but if you know to do it, it's fine. Yah, so I'm not sure if it's correct to accept a K in front of it, but the site of METAR text files has it.https://weather.noaa.gov/pub/data/observations/metar/decoded/ Thank you for this! I had introduced a bug which removed all IATA from my airfields databases, so when you searched 4M3 it did not show up. I fixed it and will put out a new database soon with the new App. You should be able to search 4M3 or K4M3 and get the same "airfield". Also, there may be some bugs to be aware of with the database pulls - for example The Dexter Florence Field in Arkadelphia, Arkansas was M89 until Nov, 2012 when it changed to KADF. So if you put KADF into the App you (correctly) get the current wx and NOTAMS for Arkadelphia. If you're an old guy from Arkansas and remember Arkadelphia as 'M89" - it was "M89" for years - you put in "M89" you get nothing (because there's no "K" in front, see paragraph above). The problem is if you then put in "KM89", you get a very official looking METAR that's completely wrong because it's from 23 Nov 2012, the last day METAR's were issued from the identifier "M89". And although this date is on the METAR, you won't see it unless you scroll down past all of the other data to it - it's the very last line of text and it's hidden by the task bar at the bottom of the screen. Ideally, there should have been an error message rather than a very valid looking, almost two year old METAR. I tried to create a database that relied only on the FAA NASR 56-day subscription to update US Airfields, but it was missing a lot of small airfields. So I think it will continue to populate with old airfields as well as new. I will add an error if the METAR is not current for the given date. What do you think? One day old? One week old? I will give a pop-up dialog on the METAR page when the airfield is opened, unless you have a better idea. On a good note, the App throws an error message when it looks for NOTAM's for "KM89" - but instead of suggesting that "KM89" isn't a valid NOTAM station it suggests that the user needs to upgrade to a newer version of the app (of course there isn't a newer version than the one that came out today). That is a mistake as well... when coding I threw this error in because of how I used to get NOTAMs, but I changed this so an update would not be needed if the NOTAM server changed something, so this isn't a factor. I forgot to remove the error (Which is produced because the NOTAM site comes back with an error due to the airfield not existing). I think I will either just leave the NOTAM list blank or change the title of the field to NO NOTAMs instead of the time or add one NOTAM field which states that this airfield has no NOTAMs. So the user of the app must assume some risk for confirming the accuracy of the information used and filtering out inaccuracies because it looks like old, obsolete information may be coming through into the app as well as current information. The user also needs to know specifically which NOTAM's are in the app and which aren't. For example I didn't see any FDC NOTAMS or Flight Restrictions (maybe I didn't look close enough or I didn't look anywhere where there were any). I'm pretty sure it does pull FDC. I checked KOMN and got FDC 4/4947 NOTAM. I don't think it does Flight Restrictions though. I would like to add that! With that said, I was quite impressed and I'm glad I bought it. I'll post some more detailed feedback in a couple of days. Thanks! You helped me find 2 bugs by using it in a way which I, and my friends, don't often use it. I'll put out an update in a week or 2 (depending on Apple's approval time) which will at a minimum let you search for IATA (Already fixed) and give you information on the expired METAR (waiting for feedback on that). New App is up to Apple for Review. Should fix your issues! Edited October 27, 2014 by Diesel
DFRESH Posted December 15, 2014 Author Posted December 15, 2014 Recent update to this app. Any new input?
PushItUp Posted January 19, 2015 Posted January 19, 2015 Awesome app, really useful for our formal brief at UPT and getting all the weather info before a sortie. The only thing that I could see fixed/improved is a quicker update of the METAR, it's usually pretty timely but sometimes it's 2 observations behind the current. May be a tough fix, but this app is awesome otherwise...thanks for putting it out there!
Diesel Posted January 24, 2015 Posted January 24, 2015 (edited) I'd love to port it to Android... just no time for that in the foreseeable future. It was just the luck of the draw that the class was iPhone programming and not Android programming. I hear Android is much less code. Awesome app, really useful for our formal brief at UPT and getting all the weather info before a sortie. The only thing that I could see fixed/improved is a quicker update of the METAR, it's usually pretty timely but sometimes it's 2 observations behind the current. May be a tough fix, but this app is awesome otherwise...thanks for putting it out there! The fact that your METARs are out of date is strange. That shouldn't be the case, and I'd really like to fix that if it is. Please message me your airfield and when it is happening. I suspect it's just a bad internet connection and not downloading the METAR and so you just have an old update (And my app doesn't give feedback if this happens, which is bad). I should put a "last updated" time on the METAR in addition to the METAR's effective time so you know if it actually successfully downloaded the METAR. I just simply grab the METAR from this site which I have found to be up to date: https://weather.noaa.gov/pub/data/observations/metar/decoded/ Edited January 24, 2015 by Diesel
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