Live Flight Tracking

Hopefully not overlooking anything, so I take it the following features are still forthcoming? (hopefully, like real soon!)

- Mapped routings (with NEXRAD weather)
- Real-time predictive routing based on current ATC data
- METARs, TAFs, national, local, and en route weather

I noticed http://flightaware.com/flightplan/file today.

7 clicks of a mouse, 7 fields for completion and let 'er rip. Sure cannot make filing a flight plan any simpler!

Takes me less time to do the above then for me to convert to the silly Z time when it's 10 p.m. CDT!

Haven't even file a "legitimate" flight plan yet and having fun!

Can't get away without a question / suggestion now

Would you be able to interface the above flight plan page with the FAA and some how enable a flight briefing (standard or abbreviated) with the FAA computers so I don't have to log on DUAT to get my "formal briefing"?

It will be real nice if I would be able to get it from here via my DUAT account.

Converting to Zulu is real easy if you use the 24 hour clock. Just add the times together and subtract 24 if the number is larger than 24. Takes less time to do it then it does to describe it.

Examples:
10:30 p.m. = 22:30
Zulu is 8 hours ahead
22:30 + 8 = 30:30
30:30 is larger than 24 so subtract 24
30:30 - 24 - 6:30

No counting the time on the fingers.

I learned this trick when I was a flight dispatcher in the National Guard 20+ years ago.

22:30 + 8:00 = 06:30

Even faster.

Heh heh, even faster is the FA flight planner!

No longer am I wasting my limited brain cells in converting time zones to military to zulu AND figuring out how much to add based on time zone and whether it's standard or daylight time. Just click a button and rock on.

Which brings another question, does the website read the time of where the webpage is being accessed?

If I have my profile set for central time and I want to file from the eastern time zone, will FA be sophisticated enough to recognize that I am indeed proposing a different time then what my profile may want me to leave when I click three hours from now?

I know. But for something like 10 hours added to 15:30, many people will count out on the fingers 16:30 17:30 18:30 etc. Just trying to show that if you just add the numbers and subtract 24 then you get your answer faster.

It's a process that I don't even think about when I do it.

The same concept works for months. In the time it takes someone to figure out 7 months from October by counting out on their fingers, I already have the answer by just adding 10 (October) and 7, getting 17, and subtracting 12 to get May.

Isn't this what's called modular arithmetic?

Currently, the default time zone is based on the time zone you have selected in your profile. Perhaps it could be changed to be based on origin airport. Either way, "in three hours" is relative so it is accurate either way.

It is supposed to offer that, but there's a slight glitch preventing it. You can expect that very soon.

I believe so and both your time and month calculators are good tools to keep in a personal arsenal.

While three hours in advanced is plenty of time, what about one hour? I haven't tried this, but thinking out loud, would the potential an edit be created for filing a time in the past or a past time seen as a time for tomorrow?

Another thought would be availability of the clearance for the "jet setters" (I'm too slow for this to happen) where they may run into availibilty of their clearance if the clearance could be only picked up 1/2 hour before to 1 hour after proposed departure should they select 1 hour from now..

Reason I bring this up is that once I called FSS and didn't wait for the closest local briefer and got somebody on the east coast. http://discussions.flightaware.com/view ... 6080#36080

I like that idea of point of it adjusting to point of origin airport as this reduces the possiblity of pilot error input.

Clicking "in an hour" will be the current time plus one hour regardless -- it's just a matter of what time zone it's displayed in. That said, I totally understand your request and the idea. It will likely be implemented.

Duhhh good point1 Guess I am thinking this too hard this early in the morning!

[quote="JHEM"][quote="damiross"]Isn't this what's called modular arithmetic?[/quote]
I believe so and both your time and month calculators are good tools to keep in a personal arsenal.[/quote]

Yes indeed, for time its

(local time + offset)%24

Months are a little harder, you need to know what the modulous is, (it can be 28, 29, 30, 31.

~ Christopher