Author Archives: Blake Crosby

A Sneak Peek at Version 1.5

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We’ve been working hard on our latest version of the software. In this version we’ve focused on developing new features that our users have requested. We are also working on improving our support for other countries such as Australia and New Zealand. Here are some things you can look forward to in the next version:

Map Improvements
The map code has been rewritten from the ground up. The code is much faster and supports more accurate information. We’ve added two important features to the basemap: the International Date Line and the line dividing Canadian Northern Domestic airspace with the Southern Domestic airspace.

NDA/SDA Line

International Date Line in South Pacific

We’ve expanded our SIGMET coverage to include the following areas:

  • North Atlantic
  • Australia & New Zealand
  • South Pacific

Example of SIGMET Coverage

A major bug with routes crossing the anti-meridian not working properly has been fixed. You can now be rest assured that your route will be displayed properly on the map if your route crosses -180°/180°.

An unusual route that crosses the IDL

Data for PIREPs located in the United States as well as NOTAMS for Canada will be available on the map.

PIREPs are now sorted by type (icing, turbulence, weather)

Canadian NOTAMs with information window

The winds aloft (upper winds) layer is being revamped and the addition of a new temperature aloft layer will be added. This new layer will allow pilots to determine the location of possible warm or cold fronts. A great tool to help you avoid icing conditions.

Temperatures at 3000'

Supported Countries
We’re officially bringing Australia out of Beta and adding initial support for New Zealand. This brings the count for Australian METAR and TAF stations in our system from ~50 to over 250. Airspace data for New Zealand will also make it into this new version.

Route Planning
We hope to have a “quick plan” function available to you. This will allow you to type in a routing directly without having to use a “point and click” interface.

This new input method will support airways as well as latitude and longitude coordinates. Your route will be validated first, then you will be able to generate a navigation log. On the flip side, we’re hoping to get better support for “rubber band” route generation using the map. Point and click where you want to go on the map and a route is generated for you.

Performance Calculations
Tools to allow you to calculate take-off and landing distances, cross wind components and other performance calculations will be made available in version 1.5. We feel that these tools are important in preparing for a safe flight.

Other Enhancements
Bug fixes and small user interface enhancements are also planned for this release. We’re laying the groundwork to support full internationalization and plan on having support for multiple languages in the near future. Our timeline to have 1.5 released is late March of this year. Stay tuned for the official announcement and feature list!

CYTZ Control Zone Changing to Class “C”

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NavCanada will be changing the Control Zone class around CYTZ from class “D” to class “C”. This upgrade in the class means a few things for those of us in/around Toronto, Ontario:

  • Because the control zone extends over the entire downtown core, this will affect pilots who like to do city tours.
  • All flights in the zone must now have a Mode C transponder.
  • The change takes effect October 20, 2011.

Control Zone in Question

This is good news for everyone as it increases the safety of operating in the downtown area. There have been times where I’ve been buzzing around the city with helicopters above and below me, Porter flights departing the airport, and other GA aircraft coming in to the airport to land.

This will ease the burden on the controllers as well.

Updates To The ICAO Flight Plan

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Starting November 15, 2012, ICAO will support an updated ICAO Flight Plan.

The changes to the flight plan allow you to specify items like longer registrations, different types of equipment, and new rules for submitting and amending the plan.

Some highlights:

  • Flight plans are not to be submitted more than 120 hours (5 days) before departure.
  • Updated Equipment codes such as:
    • “A” for GBAS landing system
    • “M1″ for an Inmarsat phone
    • “Y” for a VHF radio with 8.33Khz spacing
  • The letter “S” for equipment code no longer includes the ADF as “standard” equipment. The new list is: VHF Radio, ILS, and VOR capabilities. Previously if you used S, you will need to use “S/F” to indicate that you have the standard equipment plus ADF capabilities.

The rest of the changes are mostly “behind the scenes” that the ATS/FSS unit use as part of the flight plan. The official change document can be found from ICAO directly.

Elevation and MOCA Data Now Available For Australia

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Australian users are now able to use the elevation and generated MOCA (minimum obstacle clearance altitude) values while planning their trip.

A flight from Sydney to Brisbane with the elevation layer turned on.

To take advantage of this new data be sure to turn on the “elevation” layer in the map or press the “calculate MOCA” button on the route page.

Summer Flight Planning

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Southern Ontario (in Canada) has been dealing with record temperatures for over a week now. We are in the middle of one of the hottest summers on record. These high temperatures will affect your flight planning.

World Flight Planner allows you to help mitigate some of the issues with flying in high temperatures with the following tools:
Automatic Calculation of Density Altitude
The density of the air, and thus your aircraft performance, changes with temperature and humidity. We always display the density altitude on our weather pages so you can properly plan your power settings, and take-off & landing performance calculations.
densityaltitude.jpg
Winds and Temperatures Aloft
Once your flight plan has been calculated, you have quick access to view the winds and temperatures aloft. Clicking on the wind value in your navigation log will show you wind direction, speed, and temperature at various altitudes.
windsaloft.jpg
This information is necessary to calculate proper power settings and fuel mixture.
Graphical Weather Charts
At the bottom of every navigation log, you have links to access weather charts from official sources. Use these charts to understand what weather systems (and particularly in Ontario, Thunderstorms) are approaching.
weather.jpg
Pilots cannot make informed decisions without accurate and detailed information. World Flight Planner gives pilots the necessary tools and information to ensure a safe flight.

Version 1.4 Released

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We’ve been working hard for the past 3 months on the latest version of World Flight Planner. Here are some of the key new features included this release:

  • An improved user interface;
  • More detailed data such as runway information and radio frequencies;
  • More airports and navaids;
  • 4 hour METAR history;
  • Added a “graticule” overlay to the map, for better positional information;
  • Speed improvements; and
  • Numerous bug fixes from bugs reported by end users.
One of our favorite new features is the ability to display the upper winds for your flight on the route map. Looks like we’ll ave a head wind on this flight:
upperair.png
Another new feature is the ability to share your routes. This allows you to display and share your intended flights on Facebook or Twitter. 
We’re constantly listening to the feedback of our users. This allows us to continuously improve the product and deliver the features you want.

Take a Sneak Peek Under the Hood at PgCon

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logo_postgres-791620.gifWorld Flight Planner uses quite a few different technologies in order to make your flight planning as accurate and simple as possible.

Just such a technology is based on a database system called PostgreSQL. One of the Co-Founders, Blake Crosby, will be speaking at PgCon 2011 about how this database is being used at World Flight Planner.
You will be able to get a sneak peek at how WFP works under the hood during his talk in May. We encourage you to spend some time in Canada’s capital city and attend PgCon to hear his fascinating presentation.
Details and schedules can be found at the PgCon website. 

Version 1.3 Released

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Version 1.3 of World Flight Planner has been released. Although the focus of this release was enhancing the stability of the application by fixing up the majority of the outstanding bugs, we also managed to include a handful of new features: support for the NOAA Global Forecast System (GFS), METAR decoding, improved mapping, Garmin® FPL export and support for the CoPilot iPhone app.
Details on new/updated features:
METAR decoding – There is now a [decode] link beside METAR when viewing airport weather, including the information displayed on the dashboard for your home or nearest airport. When you click on the link, a pop-up box is displayed in the centre of the screen with the decoded METAR.
NOAA GFS – The NOAA produces a global weather model, predicting wind, pressure and temperature beyond that typically produced by the various aviation authorities. WFP has made available forecasts of up to 72 hours from the present time which can be used in place of other upper wind forecasts.
airports.pngEnhanced Mapping – The map system is faster than ever. And we’ve updated the symbols used with the proper ICAO symbol set, allowing you to easily distinguish the type of airport or navigation aid.
You can now distinguish between airports, heliports, and seaplane bases.
Garmin® FPL Export – If you fly an aircraft equipped with the G1000 (or other GPS capable of importing a route in Garmin’s FPL format), you can now export your routes to a FPL file. Please note this feature is currently in BETA and only available for routes within Canada. The FPL export feature should be available for all supported countries in the next major release.
CoPilot – If you are a user of the CoPilot app for the iPhone (or other iOS devices), you can now use your World Flight Planner account to pull wind data into your routes within CoPilot automatically. Look for other features connecting WFP to CoPilot in the near future.
For the complete list of all changes made to the application this release, check the changelog and please continue to contact us with your feedback.

ICAO Chart Symbols

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The latest addition to the Labs involves a little cartography.

ICAO defines the standard symbology for aeronautical charts in Annex 4. These include symbols for aerodromes, navigation aids, airspace, terrain features, etc..

For the first version, we’ve released 13 sets of symbols:

  • Civil Land Aerodrome
  • Civil Water Aerodrome
  • Heliports
  • Emergency/No facility aerodrome
  • Abandoned or closed aerodrome
  • VOR
  • VOR/DME
  • DME
  • NDB
  • VORTAC
  • TACAN
  • Basic radio navigation aid
  • Compass Rose

We will be adding more in the near future. If you decide to use them, please let us know! We’re curious to see how these will be applied.