Local Airport Chat

saha

saha

Filing Flight Plan
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Dec 5, 2016
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25
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Oakland, CA
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Display name:
saha
I'm building an aviation app with some friends and we just added local airport pages so pilots can chat with other pilots coming in and out of their local airport. We got the idea partially from feedback from PoA members, so I'd love to hear what you all think of the new airport pages?!

You can see what it looks like below. Try it out by downloading the app - http://airfoilapp.com - and clicking any Airport tag (e.g. KOAK).

https://www.pilotsofamerica.com/community/http:airfoilapp.com/
Airfoil-Airport.jpg


Also, Happy New Year!
 
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Doesn't Facebook already do this?
 
As a member of POA and New England pilots,also Ct flyers,and several other blogs,seems like a duplication of other sites.
 
I do it the ol fashion way.....mill around and make small talk to see If we seem to be on the same page. Some pilots are gruff. Others inviting.
 
MichiPilot said:
Doesn't Facebook already do this?
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Can you look up an Airport on Facebook? Some local pilot groups have Facebook Groups, yes, but this sets up a page for every airport in the world. Plus, you don't have to join a group, you can just fly in and see what the locals are talking about, then fly out.
 
frfly172 said:
As a member of POA and New England pilots,also Ct flyers,and several other blogs,seems like a duplication of other sites.
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Yeah, some POAs have websites and blogs, and that's great. This is a little different in the sense that it basically creates a forum for every airport, so you don't have to go looking for a blog and join a different forum for every airport/group, you can just open the app and see what local pilots are talking about. Sort like how you don't have to go follow a bunch of different pilot photo blogs anymore, you just see them all on Instagram. Plus, it has a location feature, so if you fly somewhere new it'll automatically show you the local discussions.

If you try it out I'd love to hear what you think.
 
saha said:
I'm building an aviation app
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Hey Sahadeva, good luck with your app. Be cautioned you may see some negative unhelpful posts here; sadly, that is the standard first response on POA. I would harvest any constructive ideas, then carry on with your project and not be dissuaded!

Edit; oops did not see all the negativity before I posted. So, it is true. And, I stand by my advice to you.

Oh, and Happy New Year back to you!
 
I think you are on to something..

What you seem to have in mind would be much better than posting on this forum.. On this forum if you post a question or comment about an airport or local area you might get 5-10% valid and helpful replies, the rest will be off topic answers or comments from people who live on the other side of the country and have no local knowledge..

In your app it should restrict responses to people that seek out that specific airport rather than random replies.

With this in mind I would not have a function that displays all new posts without specifying the airports that that person is searching.. This might keep the posts on topic and aimed at the correct audience.

Good luck and don't let the naysayers on this board slow you down..
 
saha said:
I'm building an aviation app with some friends and we just added local airport pages so pilots can chat with other pilots coming in and out of their local airport. We got the idea partially from feedback from PoA members, so I'd love to hear what you all think of the new airport pages?!

You can see what it looks like below. Try it out by downloading the app - http://airfoilapp.com - and clicking any Airport tag (e.g. KOAK).

https://www.pilotsofamerica.com/community/http:airfoilapp.com/
Airfoil-Airport.jpg


Also, Happy New Year!
Click to expand...

I like the idea of being able to share airport specific information with folks at the airport. I can see how this would be of benefit. I recently moved to a new airport and if something like this had been in existence I could have learned a lot about the airport, the folks, mechanics, airport procedures not published, etc., etc. I'm slowly getting to know folks and asking questions but this would be a way to accelerate the process significantly.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
Good luck with the app.

With many metro areas all of the local airports are inextricably linked, you may want to keep that in mind as you build.

Around here the inevitable has even occurred and one business entity owns three of the largest flight clubs and schools at the three major local airports. Fly at one, you're good to fly at the other two.
 
I have to admit, I do feel local interest.
 
iflyatiger said:
I think you are on to something..

What you seem to have in mind would be much better than posting on this forum.. On this forum if you post a question or comment about an airport or local area you might get 5-10% valid and helpful replies, the rest will be off topic answers or comments from people who live on the other side of the country and have no local knowledge..

In your app it should restrict responses to people that seek out that specific airport rather than random replies.

With this in mind I would not have a function that displays all new posts without specifying the airports that that person is searching.. This might keep the posts on topic and aimed at the correct audience.

Good luck and don't let the naysayers on this board slow you down..
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Thanks for the note! Yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking. Keeping it airport-specific rather than posting in a big forum should increase the quality of interaction on local issues :)

At the moment you can either view an airport-specific discussion on Airfoil or you can go to a global discussion where anything goes. I wonder if making everything location-specific would add some clarity to the app though - interesting idea! If you download the app and post to your local airport let me know how it goes!
 
denverpilot said:
Good luck with the app.

With many metro areas all of the local airports are inextricably linked, you may want to keep that in mind as you build.

Around here the inevitable has even occurred and one business entity owns three of the largest flight clubs and schools at the three major local airports. Fly at one, you're good to fly at the other two.
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Yeah, I was thinking about that. Don't know if there's an easy solution to this, but we also built a "nearby" section of the app where you can see discussions at all airports that are close to you in addition to being able to see discussions at a specific airport. Think that would work in this case?
 
saha said:
Yeah, I was thinking about that. Don't know if there's an easy solution to this, but we also built a "nearby" section of the app where you can see discussions at all airports that are close to you in addition to being able to see discussions at a specific airport. Think that would work in this case?
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Could. It all depends on how it's implemented.

This is of course, assuming the site is filling a real problem people go looking to fix. I talk to a number of Colorado aviators right here. I don't see them jumping over there to fix anything.

We're also a tiny percentage of all Colorado aviators. Most of them probably talk at the airports.

Internet is fun, but there's no particular force that drives all the pilots at any particular location to any website. The only built in requirement to mingle, happens at the airports.

Here's the hard question for any website: Why do I *need* to go there? What will make it *the* please everyone *needs* to go? What's the "killer app" there?
 
denverpilot said:
Could. It all depends on how it's implemented.

This is of course, assuming the site is filling a real problem people go looking to fix. I talk to a number of Colorado aviators right here. I don't see them jumping over there to fix anything.

We're also a tiny percentage of all Colorado aviators. Most of them probably talk at the airports.

Internet is fun, but there's no particular force that drives all the pilots at any particular location to any website. The only built in requirement to mingle, happens at the airports.

Here's the hard question for any website: Why do I *need* to go there? What will make it *the* please everyone *needs* to go? What's the "killer app" there?
Click to expand...

Sorry for the late reply, been hard at work on some app updates!

Yes, you're right, we haven't nailed the killer feature yet, or the killer aviation app. But some of these killer features are hard to appreciate until they're out there. In other words it might be the case most pilots don't know they have a local chat problem until the solution appears.

Regardless, we're trying to an aviation utility on the same scale as ForeFlight. The social part of the flying equation to match their in-flight utility. Getting feedback from pilots like you while we build it is super important. I wonder if you think POA members would be interested in hearing about what we're thinking as we're building Airfoil and giving their input? Maybe I'll start a "watch us build the next big aviation app" thread? What do you think? :)
 
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