Missing aviation niche app/tool?

CJones

CJones

Final Approach
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Mar 14, 2005
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uHaveNoIdea
Over the past 6 months or so I have been sucked back into the depths of software dev more than I thought would happen. As such, I've dusted off some old skills and remembered that 'sometimes' this stuff can be fun...

Several years ago, I was working on a flight planning tool/site but that got sketchy with the whole "flight planning map" patent issue and having small kids took away from that effort. Now those kinds of tools are a dime a dozen and not worth the effort of developing something new. Same thing with electronic flight logs.

So - question for the group - what is a tool/site/app/hardware solution that seems to be missing in the market today? Seems like Foreflight (and free variants such as Avare) have a handle on EFB and general flight planning. What do people think is next on the horizon for tech in the cockpit or pre-cockpit flight related activities?
 
Although I understand the desire (and hopeful expected compensation) of creating something new, I think a better approach would be to create something improved. I'm an entrepreneur, and I've been approached many times by young men and women also wanting to become entrepreneurs...I explain that there is a reason why there are so many of one product...such as flight planning map programs or electronic flight logs (because people want them), but no apps that, oh say, help you find dunkin doughnuts from the air.
So on that note, the few Skew-T apps I've seen downright suck. Come up with a better, more reliable, or more user friendly one. I'd pay if it worked after a free trial.
 
Taking the suggestion for a skew-T app further, make it one that breaks it down Barney-style for us troglodytes. Maybe a shaded red/green graph that shows icing probability at various altitudes.

Analog man in a digital world but can’t read a graph,
ateamer
 
I would like a simple GPS app that I can put coordinates in or better yet also access a airport/VOR/Waypoint database and it will display a simulated DME distance (doesn't have to be slant range) and location using a CDI or HSI display. would be mostly a training app. But would be great to go to the park and mark a point for VOR/Waypoint and then walk around it to see how the CDI/HSI changes.

Would also be useful for that guy that has basic C-120 or similar with no vor to practice intercepting and tracking in their own airplane before moving to the expensive Instrument trainer.

Brian
CFIIG/ASEL
 
eman1200 said:
where@jimkcanfly2lunch.com
Click to expand...
I was a little disappointed when the email I sent to this address bounced back undeliverable.

For real though... I'd love a website or app that could consolidate restaurants and courtesy cars. Maybe if it was a phone based a more people would be inclined to update it. The thing I love about fly2lunch was I could pick an area and search within X miles to find a place to stop when planning xc's.
 
Jim K said:
For real though... I'd love a website or app that could consolidate restaurants and courtesy cars. Maybe if it was a phone based a more people would be inclined to update it. The thing I love about fly2lunch was I could pick an area and search within X miles to find a place to stop when planning xc's.
Click to expand...
Add hotels nearby for overnights. Would love to have that to add to gas price when doing longer XC's when I can't leave early or need to change due to WX.
 
Add "what airports can I camp at?"

For us cheapskates who always travel with a tent.
 
brcase said:
I would like a simple GPS app that I can put coordinates in or better yet also access a airport/VOR/Waypoint database and it will display a simulated DME distance (doesn't have to be slant range) and location using a CDI or HSI display. would be mostly a training app. But would be great to go to the park and mark a point for VOR/Waypoint and then walk around it to see how the CDI/HSI changes.

Would also be useful for that guy that has basic C-120 or similar with no vor to practice intercepting and tracking in their own airplane before moving to the expensive Instrument trainer.

Brian
CFIIG/ASEL
Click to expand...
Do you mean like an app with no map that just shows the cdi something like the sporty's handheld radio:
upload_2022-5-9_20-6-30.png

If so, that would be cool. I like simple stuff.
 
Originally I was just going to give a smart a$s suggestions of a POA plug-in that is a Jump to Conclusion app a-la Office Space. You could just hit a randomizer for your posts which would input classics like tail-wheels are better, low wings suck or Trent Palmer is a straight billed hat wearing, law breaking, puppy kicking, like seaker that should be drawn and quartered for questioning the all knowing FAA, etc.

While thinking through that useless idea it did spark an actual thought. What about a “Cross Country Roulette” app. You input your starting point, how far your willing to fly out, and what you’re interested in doing ($100 hamburger at an airport restaurant, nearby hiking trails, visit a national park, professional sporting event, grass runway landing, nearby museum, etc). You could input runway requirements, weather limits from TAFs/METARs or something similar. The idea being push a button and get a suggestion on where to fly to next.
 
There used to be a great website (adventurepilot.com, but now that address goes to ifly gps). You could set checkboxes, what do you want, restaurants. camping, hiking, biking, hotels, etc., choose "on aiport", "walking distance", or drive, flight distance from xxxx,, etc., and it would give you a list of airports with a map display. It would be great to see that resurrected.

I know, there's funplacestofly.com but it's a pale imitation of the adventurepilot site. There's also a courtesy car site whose address escapes me at the moment, and the RAF airport guide, which caters mainly but not exclusively to backcountry flying.
 
Arm3 said:
…What about a “Cross Country Roulette” app. You input your starting point, how far your willing to fly out, and what you’re interested in doing …The idea being push a button and get a suggestion on where to fly to next.
Click to expand...
Pivot 1: how long (time) instead of distance.
Pivot 2: shake phone instead of push button to activate.
 
Dana said:
There used to be a great website (adventurepilot.com, but now that address goes to ifly gps). You could set checkboxes, what do you want, restaurants. camping, hiking, biking, hotels, etc., choose "on aiport", "walking distance", or drive, flight distance from xxxx,, etc., and it would give you a list of airports with a map display. It would be great to see that resurrected.

I know, there's funplacestofly.com but it's a pale imitation of the adventurepilot site. There's also a courtesy car site whose address escapes me at the moment, and the RAF airport guide, which caters mainly but not exclusively to backcountry flying.
Click to expand...
Www.airportcourtesycars.com
It's useful, and the owner is good about updates when you send him one.
 
Thanks for the suggestions, folks. Keep 'em coming.

The central theme I'm picking up is less tactical (other than the Skew-T type apps) and more superficial (if that's the right word?). That's perfectly fine - I was wondering where the gaps may be these days and it sounds like a gap that has always existed. The hard part about airport info tools is the data gathering. Short of calling airports individually, the only way to get data comes from crowd-sourcing. I think part of the challenge in the past has been the ease of submitting data and how to keep it active and churning. Ease of data entry can be addressed... Not sure how to keep the data from getting stale, though..

Not looking to get rich off of anything here, though I promise to buy a keg for a PoA Fly In after I make my first million.
 
I’d like an app or desktop program that would let me open a flight plan in Google Earth and view the flight the way it would look out the windscreen on a VFR day.
 
CJones said:
…Not sure how to keep the data from getting stale, though...
Click to expand...
Don’t own the data; parse other data lakes and set a rule for data recency and relevance.

FrEx: parse airnav/google/yelp/Travelocity/expedia/etc. for category “restaurant” within 1 mile of airport location. Bring all that data together as a hybrid rating to bubble up the top 3.

Once a business entity’s reviews/ratings go stale from the sources, then exclude it as a viable business.
 
Lon33 said:
I’d like an app or desktop program that would let me open a flight plan in Google Earth and view the flight the way it would look out the windscreen on a VFR day.
Click to expand...
cloud ahoy does this. Well, not in google earth, but out the windscreen.
 
exncsurfer said:
Do you mean like an app with no map that just shows the cdi something like the sporty's handheld radio:
View attachment 106691

If so, that would be cool. I like simple stuff.
Click to expand...

Correct, No Map. But I would prefer the display look more like an instrument Panel CDI/HSI
something more like this.
Heading could use a Devices compass feature or Track.
upload_2022-5-10_11-10-40.png
 
I tried this a few years ago with rampfee.me, and failed to really make a self-licking icecream cone out of it. You're welcome to take it over if you can do better with it. I paid about 30k to folks to mechanical turk the initial data (25 cents per FBO call), but couldn't get the incentive mix right for it to continually self-update.

I still think the need is there, but someone else will have the insight on how to keep it going without being a financial drain. It seems to not be me :D
 
Salty said:
cloud ahoy does this. Well, not in google earth, but out the windscreen.
Click to expand...
Cloud Ahoy does it after the flight. I'd like to be able to create a flight plan -- on SkyVector, for example -- and then preview it on Google Earth, before I fly. Does Cloud Ahoy now do that as well?
 
Lon33 said:
Cloud Ahoy does it after the flight. I'd like to be able to create a flight plan -- on SkyVector, for example -- and then preview it on Google Earth, before I fly. Does Cloud Ahoy now do that as well?
Click to expand...

you should be able to create your own kml file, point a to point b and view it in google earth.
 
Lon33 said:
Cloud Ahoy does it after the flight. I'd like to be able to create a flight plan -- on SkyVector, for example -- and then preview it on Google Earth, before I fly. Does Cloud Ahoy now do that as well?
Click to expand...
No, I misunderstood you. Foreflight does that though if you pay extra. ;)
 
Google earth already does this, you can create a track and fly through it. I do my flight planning with GE with a sectional chart overlay, then you can turn the chart layer off to see what the terrain looks like, or zoom in to find, say, restaurants near airports.
 
schmookeeg said:
I tried this a few years ago with rampfee.me, and failed to really make a self-licking icecream cone out of it. You're welcome to take it over if you can do better with it. I paid about 30k to folks to mechanical turk the initial data (25 cents per FBO call), but couldn't get the incentive mix right for it to continually self-update.

I still think the need is there, but someone else will have the insight on how to keep it going without being a financial drain. It seems to not be me :D
Click to expand...
That was you? I liked it. I used it several times
 
"self-licking ice cream cone". love it.
 
eman1200 said:
you should be able to create your own kml file, point a to point b and view it in google earth.
Click to expand...
Yes, I've done this. But Google Earth chooses its own point of view. So, when there's a new heading in the plan, Google Earth shows the path from the side instead of straight ahead. I've tried all sorts of techniques trying to get the view to be straight ahead for the entire path, but haven't found a technique that'll do that.
 
Here is an indirect answer...figure out what people are still using utility apps (spreadsheet, word processor, etc) for, and that is your next custom app. Flight planning, W&B, and logbooks all started as spreadsheets. Nowadays, the only things I do aviation-related that are not in my EFB are my checklist (word processor) and our airplane partnership finances (spreadsheet). My EFB has a c/l capability, but I prefer paper. I used to use Quickbooks and Quicken for the finances, but it was way overkill for our little operation.

Direct answer ... one thing I would pay some money for now is a phone/tablet GI 275 simulator/trainer. All rights reserved; if you develop this based on my idea I want a cut!
 
@CJones - I always thought it would be cool to have a dedicated app that is periodically scanning pre-entered flight plans and indicating what days they would be doable based on VFR/IFR, equipment types and a few other factors. For example:

1.) User enters: KMSP -> KRAP -> KCOD -> KJAC (Minneapolis to Jackson,WY via Rapid City and Cody).
2.) User enters preferences (TAS, maximum leg time, hours allowed outside of daylight, estimated stop time, max crosswind component, VFR, etc).

...then the app in the background periodically checks various wx sources. Ideally it would continuously shows a 7day (max) window with each day indicating the chance of the flight be ing doable. If not it shows the top reason (eg. Ceilings, icing, cross winds, etc). Obviously the data gets better at T-2 days and T-1 days but a lot of us look at sources like NOAA, Windy, etc several days out and start to get serious well before a TAF is ever issued. If I could have about 5 flight plans entered at any one time it would awesome. I would have one to Jackson, one to Rapid City, one to my sisters in Michigan, one to visit a friend way up north by the border and a few others. There have been way too many times that I noticed, on the day of, that I could have made that flight but just wasn't even giving it any thought.

The past data could also be of use. Basically on each day it would log whether it was actually doable (verified by TAFs, metars, etc). So it would provide some good history on the likelihood of the various flight plans.

I guess it could also have a community level of shared events: pancake breakfasts, popular airport restaurants, airshows, etc. You enter you location and radius and those also pop up which would provide the fly in, or event reminder about 1 week out and then allow tracking it for possibility of making it.

I would have it running all the time via a phone app or use it website based if it had notifications.
 
how about a random response generator app that spits out random responses to questions (kind of like a magic 8 ball), but all of the responses are "Bo" or "Bonanza".
 
It isn’t an aviation tool, but I always wish there was a way to require a password to call certain phone numbers.

I have a ton of coworkers and bosses numbers in my personal phone. Id love to not have to worry about butt-dialing any of those.
 
CJones said:
Thanks for the suggestions, folks. Keep 'em coming.

The central theme I'm picking up is less tactical (other than the Skew-T type apps) and more superficial (if that's the right word?). That's perfectly fine - I was wondering where the gaps may be these days and it sounds like a gap that has always existed. The hard part about airport info tools is the data gathering. Short of calling airports individually, the only way to get data comes from crowd-sourcing. I think part of the challenge in the past has been the ease of submitting data and how to keep it active and churning. Ease of data entry can be addressed... Not sure how to keep the data from getting stale, though..

Not looking to get rich off of anything here, though I promise to buy a keg for a PoA Fly In after I make my first million.
Click to expand...

I think the word you're looking for is "strategic"; planning what to do/where to go amongst a plethora of choices.

Some of the route planning tools are good, but you can only do one at a time. If I could present several choices and I could look them over to decide which works best. Maybe even enter in what I prefer (winds below 20 kts, visibility > 5 mi, etc.) and have it rank the choices.
 
CJones said:
So - question for the group - what is a tool/site/app/hardware solution that seems to be missing in the market today? Seems like Foreflight (and free variants such as Avare) have a handle on EFB and general flight planning. What do people think is next on the horizon for tech in the cockpit or pre-cockpit flight related activities?
Click to expand...
One feature missing in today's EFB's is the emergency view that was present in Anywhere maps pro version years ago. If Anywhere map was still supported I would still be using their pro version for this one feature alone. In the emergency view screen, they had an arc on the screen in front of the aircraft. That arc represented the point of impact with the ground based on forward speed, rate of descent, and surrounding elevation. It was like magic. I could cut the power to idle at 10 miles out and as long as I kept the arc on the beginning of the runway (by adding/removing drag, S turns vs direct, etc), that is where I would touchdown. I have also heard of a similar arc in Boeings called the Boeing banana.
 
Both garmin pilot and foreflight have glide rings. Same functionality but 360 degrees. They take glide range, wind, and terrain into account.
 
Salty said:
Both garmin pilot and foreflight have glide rings. Same functionality but 360 degrees. They take glide range, wind, and terrain into account.
Click to expand...
This wasn't a glide ring. Even Avare has a glide ring, but it sucks in comparison to the AWM version. I haven't tried the GP version, and until FF supports android, I won't be trying theirs.
 
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