Free Smart Phone App to make initial contact with ATC

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swedeflyer

Filing Flight Plan
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May 28, 2014
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SwedeFlyer
Hi folks,
Just want to make you aware that there is a free Android app that figures out what ATC facility and frequency to dial and then gives you a pre-made sentence to describe where you are. With this Information it should be a breeze to contact the facility and use this info. There is a link at the end fo the post

Private Pilot ATC Help
Description
This app is for VFR Private Pilots, it helps you locate an appropriate Air Traffic Control Facility and Frequency. It will also display the information you need to provide to ATC for the initial contact. It uses your phone's GPS to provide proper location information for Air Traffic Controllers to pin point you on their Radar. You can now toggle between the most 10 probable ATC facilities and frequencies that can offer you flight following. You do this by Swiping to the Left/Right on the display. BTW, The application and Data is for the US Only

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.monroemobile.contactatc
 
Meh. Just look on a sectional and figure out who you want to talk to? It might be useful if you don't know where you are though
 
@swedeflyer you posted this a month ago. Once was informative, but now it's spam. If you want to get word out about your app in a legitimate way, consider making a small forum signature about it and contributing to the forum in ways that have nothing to do with your app.
 
I can see how such an app may be useful. Although this may make the pilot rely on the app, and once the phone stops working he would be screwed.
 
C182P said:
@swedeflyer you posted this a month ago. Once was informative, but now it's spam. If you want to get word out about your app in a legitimate way, consider making a small forum signature about it and contributing to the forum in ways that have nothing to do with your app.
Click to expand...

:yeahthat:
 
jordane93 said:
Meh. Just look on a sectional and figure out who you want to talk to? It might be useful if you don't know where you are though
Click to expand...

Sectionals don't have center frequencies on them. Who you gonna call up when flying near OGM or ISQ?
 
Last edited:
Yeah, you're right I'm sorry, I forgot I posted it (really).

Looking for ideas to make small useful apps for pilots

Hey, how about making an app that could figure out your best glide, e.g.
you would start a wizard at an altitude, power down glide at e.g. 80kts for 10s then at 75kts for 10 seconds etc, then the software would find out the best glide and minimum sink speeds, useful??

Or how about an app that with three turns could figure out your true airspeed within a 1kt accuracy, which could be used to check your air speed indicator (given that you have one that shows true airspeed (slider)).

Peter
 
More technology in the cockpit. People already can't find their a $$ with both hands without an app. Let's not perpetuate this even more.

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk
 
Have you ever figured out what your power off glide ratio is??
If so How did you do it, clipboard, pen, stop watch...
I've done it, pretty tedious, and I realized that it (my L/D) was not as good as I'd hoped for. Anyway I am not just advocating App'izing everything, but to have some useful tools. Anyway I get your drift, you're not interested.
Cheers,
Peter
 
swedeflyer said:
Yeah, you're right I'm sorry, I forgot I posted it (really).

Looking for ideas to make small useful apps for pilots

Peter
Click to expand...

I'd like a DA and takeoff distance application. I have iE6B and Aviation W&B. The latter one takes all of the moment, arm and weight info off of your empty weight and balance (that you have to input - take a little while) and allows you to run different pax/luggage arrangement quickly. I have the limitation for my AC memorized since its all I fly.

In flight, I don't use anything other than Foreflight. If you're looking to make an APP, I'd concentrate on things performed during pre-flight prep and make it EASY.
 
danhagan said:
I'd like a DA and takeoff distance application. I have iE6B and Aviation W&B. The latter one takes all of the moment, arm and weight info off of your empty weight and balance (that you have to input - take a little while) and allows you to run different pax/luggage arrangement quickly. I have the limitation for my AC memorized since its all I fly.
Click to expand...

Check out the Gyronimo series of apps: http://www.gyronimo.com/

It does what you are asking for (W&B, then weather/runway conditions, and calculates TO distance) and much more.

When I am at an unfamiliar field or heavily loaded, it's something I consult and then compare to the POH tables.
 
AggieMike88 said:
Check out the Gyronimo series of apps: http://www.gyronimo.com/

It does what you are asking for (W&B, then weather/runway conditions, and calculates TO distance) and much more.

When I am at an unfamiliar field or heavily loaded, it's something I consult and then compare to the POH tables.
Click to expand...

Thanks Mike, will look into it. I previously typed DA and density altitude and takeoff into the Apple store, but it didn't pull anything up.
 
desertav8r said:
More technology in the cockpit. People already can't find their a $$ with both hands without an app. Let's not perpetuate this even more.

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

anyone else chuckle at the irony of the above post? :D
 
swedeflyer said:
Have you ever figured out what your power off glide ratio is??
If so How did you do it, clipboard, pen, stop watch...
I've done it, pretty tedious, and I realized that it (my L/D) was not as good as I'd hoped for. Anyway I am not just advocating App'izing everything, but to have some useful tools. Anyway I get your drift, you're not interested.
Cheers,
Peter
Click to expand...

I looked it up in the POH.
 
EdFred said:
Sectionals don't have center frequencies on them. Who you gonna call up when flying near OGM or ISQ?
Click to expand...

Low altitude Enroute IFR charts do, and easily maintained on ForeFlight along with sectionals.

OGM looks like 133.55 Minn ARTCC
ISQ looks like 127.65 or 119.1
 
How about a free app that kind of flies the plane for you. You know, holds ur altitude, heading etc... U know kind of like an autopilot, but on ur iPhone or tablet. And free. And can you have that done by next week? Thanks!
 
swedeflyer said:
Hi folks,
Just want to make you aware that there is a free Android app that figures out what ATC facility and frequency to dial and then gives you a pre-made sentence to describe where you are. With this Information it should be a breeze to contact the facility and use this info. There is a link at the end fo the post

Private Pilot ATC Help
Description
This app is for VFR Private Pilots, it helps you locate an appropriate Air Traffic Control Facility and Frequency. It will also display the information you need to provide to ATC for the initial contact. It uses your phone's GPS to provide proper location information for Air Traffic Controllers to pin point you on their Radar. You can now toggle between the most 10 probable ATC facilities and frequencies that can offer you flight following. You do this by Swiping to the Left/Right on the display. BTW, The application and Data is for the US Only

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.monroemobile.contactatc
Click to expand...


Can you have it provide a phone number too? I can already get the frequency rapidly from my iPad and ForeFlight by bringing up the low level IFR chart. If you can also provide a local phone number... Now that could be useful sometimes. Not in the air but on the ground if the airport I'm trying to get out of is IFR. It could be quicker than going through 800 WX BRIEF.
 
eman1200 said:
How about a free app that kind of flies the plane for you. You know, holds ur altitude, heading etc... U know kind of like an autopilot, but on ur iPhone or tablet. And free. And can you have that done by next week? Thanks!
Click to expand...

I'm sure he'd be glad 2, just 4 U.
 
danhagan said:
I'd like a DA and takeoff distance application. I have iE6B and Aviation W&B. The latter one takes all of the moment, arm and weight info off of your empty weight and balance (that you have to input - take a little while) and allows you to run different pax/luggage arrangement quickly. I have the limitation for my AC memorized since its all I fly.

In flight, I don't use anything other than Foreflight. If you're looking to make an APP, I'd concentrate on things performed during pre-flight prep and make it EASY.
Click to expand...
If you use foreflight you own an ipad so you already have the hardware needed to run the Xavion app which does this automatically and learns from previous takeoffs:
http://xavion.com/app/full-description/
Checking your takeoff distance

Each time you take off, Xavion remembers the distance you took to get to 50 feet above the ground. Notice that Xavion does not consult a handbook to see what a test pilot did to take off in a new airplane. Instead, it observes the takeoffs that you execute in your airplane, and memorizes the the altitude (from the GPS) and weight (which you enter for your weight and balance check) for each takeoff.
Then, every time you line up on a runway, Xavion looks at the runway (using its runway database and the iPad’s GPS) and compares the runway length that you have in front of you to the takeoff distance you have actually used in the past. It takes into account your altitude and aircraft weight, and it gives an annunciator indicating what percentage of the runway it thinks you are likely to use!
If the runway in front of you is short compared to what you typically use, the runway distance annunciator will go red, indicating that the runway is just barely long enough (or too short!) for you to take off at your current weight and altitude.
 
swedeflyer said:
Have you ever figured out what your power off glide ratio is??
If so How did you do it, clipboard, pen, stop watch...
I've done it, pretty tedious, and I realized that it (my L/D) was not as good as I'd hoped for. Anyway I am not just advocating App'izing everything, but to have some useful tools. Anyway I get your drift, you're not interested.
Cheers,
Peter
Click to expand...
I think that would be nifty. And it'd be super cool if it could output a glider polar. I don't know how you'd deal with wind, though.
 
C182P said:
@swedeflyer you posted this a month ago. Once was informative, but now it's spam. If you want to get word out about your app in a legitimate way, consider making a small forum signature about it and contributing to the forum in ways that have nothing to do with your app.
Click to expand...

I just downloaded it and like it. When I'm traveling a lot of times the ATC that drops me off isn't the one to call when I leave. This takes care of that.
What are you - a forum cop?
 
BillTIZ said:
Low altitude Enroute IFR charts do, and easily maintained on ForeFlight along with sectionals.

OGM looks like 133.55 Minn ARTCC
ISQ looks like 127.65 or 119.1
Click to expand...

I don't use foreflight. And how many vfr pilots are going to have low en routes?
 
flyingriki said:
I just downloaded it and like it. When I'm traveling a lot of times the ATC that drops me off isn't the one to call when I leave. This takes care of that.
What are you - a forum cop?
Click to expand...
I'm someone that hates spam. I'm not a forum cop and would have no desire to be one. Are _you_ a forum cop, implying I'm not allowed to express my opinion?

I'm glad you like the app. If he had an iPhone version I would be interested in checking it out myself. Neither of those things make spam acceptable. I do, however, accept his response - not that it would matter if I did not, of course.
 
Cavorter said:
Can you have it provide a phone number too? I can already get the frequency rapidly from my iPad and ForeFlight by bringing up the low level IFR chart. If you can also provide a local phone number... Now that could be useful sometimes. Not in the air but on the ground if the airport I'm trying to get out of is IFR. It could be quicker than going through 800 WX BRIEF.
Click to expand...

Great idea let me look into it, I'd probably add it as a 'ATC Info' Button, not to clutter the in Air usage.
 
danhagan said:
If you're looking to make an APP, I'd concentrate on things performed during pre-flight prep and make it EASY.
Click to expand...
Isn't there a lot of apps that covers that?? If not what are you looking for?
My experince is that in cockpit while you're flying most people use pretty sophisticated apps ForeFlight WingX Garmin stuff etc. However many times the obvious information isn't easily had. For example a while ago I was departing Wings airport north of Philly, I flew due north i believe, before I knew it I was close to sky divers, I had missed the symbol (Pennridge), and certainly in the air I did not pick it up. A simple app could easily have warned me of it and provide the appropriate Unicom frequency. Those are the kinds of ideas I am interested in and to create that functionality not create another ForeFlight. Then eventually all these 'useful' tools could be be all put in one app enhancing safety, by alerting the pilot to potential issues, so to alleviate load and have the pilot do what they should, watch outside, fly the plane.

Peter
 
FORANE said:
Would that require the phones GPS be turned on before providing a solution like this does?
Click to expand...
It might require facial recognition software to get the names right!
 
Cavorter said:
Can you have it provide a phone number too? I can already get the frequency rapidly from my iPad and ForeFlight by bringing up the low level IFR chart. If you can also provide a local phone number... Now that could be useful sometimes. Not in the air but on the ground if the airport I'm trying to get out of is IFR. It could be quicker than going through 800 WX BRIEF.
Click to expand...

:yeahthat:

Tower phone numbers would be very useful too.
 
swedeflyer said:
Have you ever figured out what your power off glide ratio is??
If so How did you do it, clipboard, pen, stop watch...
I've done it, pretty tedious, and I realized that it (my L/D) was not as good as I'd hoped for. Anyway I am not just advocating App'izing everything, but to have some useful tools. Anyway I get your drift, you're not interested.
Cheers,
Peter
Click to expand...

I think the best glide app would be very worthwhile. I bet people would be surprised by reality.
 
swedeflyer said:
Isn't there a lot of apps that covers that?? If not what are you looking for?
My experince is that in cockpit while you're flying most people use pretty sophisticated apps ForeFlight WingX Garmin stuff etc. However many times the obvious information isn't easily had. For example a while ago I was departing Wings airport north of Philly, I flew due north i believe, before I knew it I was close to sky divers, I had missed the symbol (Pennridge), and certainly in the air I did not pick it up. A simple app could easily have warned me of it and provide the appropriate Unicom frequency. Those are the kinds of ideas I am interested in and to create that functionality not create another ForeFlight. Then eventually all these 'useful' tools could be be all put in one app enhancing safety, by alerting the pilot to potential issues, so to alleviate load and have the pilot do what they should, watch outside, fly the plane.

Peter
Click to expand...


I'm surprised FF hasn't incorporated their checklist app into FF. I don't think their existing product has even been optimized for the iPad. But I'd like to see a good checklist built in.
 
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