first i would like to thank you for creating this EXCELLENT site!
it has made my life as a pilot and an aviation enthusiast a lot easier!
i have an idea… and sorry if it has already been brought up…
on the flight tracker map of each airport, i think it would be nice to be able to click on the aircraft and be forwarded to the page of that aircraft, so u know where it’s going and stuff…
that way, even if the labels are hidden cuz of an other plane… u can still find out what it is…
also, maybe it’s just me, but i have difficulty using the airline flight tracker on the left… when i type in Air Canada or United Airlines, the list that pops up has no clue what i typed in… is there another name for it that i haven’t heard of?
And speaking of problems with ‘Flight Tracker’ entries on the left panels, the airport code routines aren’t very helpful.
You can’t get the code for Amsterdam, unless you know it’s Schiphol.
You can’t find Toronto unless you know it starts with Lester.
Same for Montreal unless you know Pierre.
I haven’t even tried to find Mexican airport codes.
grrrr
it’s actually not too hard finding the airport code… cuz u don’t have to rely on the left panel for it… u can always just go google it up and paste it into the textbox…
toronto (my home) is listed under lester for a reason… in the CFS (canadian flight supplement)… there are 4 airports under toronto (buttonville, city center, downsville, lester) so i guess it would be a lot of extra work for the staff to incorporate those…
i just thougth of n other idea… i noticed most of the canadian airports didn’t have information on it… but the information are all available in the CFS (there’s an online version)… so is it possible to make a form so users and members can enter the data, that might ease up some of the staff’s work load and provide other members with information they want sooner…
it’s actually not too hard finding the airport code… cuz u don’t have to rely on the left panel for it… u can always just go google it up and paste it into the textbox
I agree with you. There are alternative ways to find the code. But the entire purpose of “Don’t know the airport code?” is to enable a code search within the FA database, without leaving the web page you’re working on.
there are 4 airports under toronto (buttonville, city center, downsville, lester) so i guess it would be a lot of extra work for the staff to incorporate those
Extra work? I suppose that depends on the database structure. There ought to be a field for airport name, a field for city, and a field for code. The search should accept a partial string, look through both airport name and city fields, and output the associated code. The only limitation would be if you searched on too short a string (say, the letter ‘a’) and got hundreds of returns. Four airports in Toronto ought to be easy.
Furthermore, the search instructions for “Don’t know the airport code?” say, “Type part of an airport or city name”. Why would the input of “toronto” give an output of “No matches; are you sure you spelled that correctly?” Yes, I can see that I spelled it correctly.
so is it possible to make a form so users and members can enter the data, that might ease up some of the staff’s work load and provide other members with information they want sooner
I imagine that FA staff would resist the idea of user editing of databases. One malicious hacker might ruin years of careful database maintenance. Wikipedia is having problems with this right now.
The search should accept a partial string, look through both airport name and city fields, and output the associated code.
It does.
For my home area airports, typing in Cincinnati resolves the four area airports (Cinci North KY, Blue Ash, Lunken, and Hamilton Co). Typing Blue Ash, will also resolve Blue Ash Airport.
I suppose the database is not complete, so this dual search will not always find what you are looking for. This is likely more true with airport outside US, since these are not reliably supported by FA.
on the flight tracker map of each airport, i think it would be nice to be able to click on the aircraft and be forwarded to the page of that aircraft, so u know where it’s going and stuff…
that way, even if the labels are hidden cuz of an other plane… u can still find out what it is…
I’ve thought of this one before. I live 15 mi. south of KCLE, and many DL trans-Atlantic flights come in over Lake Erie en route to KATL. Since the vast majority of air traffic in the region is E-W or W-E, I can usually get a sense that these N-S birds are heavies coming in from Europe, but I can’t tell you how many times they’re blocked out by other flights, especially the NW flights descending into or climbing out of DTW. I would love to just be able to click on the a/c icon to track the individual flight info. of that a/c. Thanks for bringing the subject up![/quote]
I live 15 mi. south of KCLE, and many DL trans-Atlantic flights come in over Lake Erie en route to KATL. Since the vast majority of air traffic in the region is E-W or W-E, I can usually get a sense that these N-S birds are heavies coming in from Europe, but I can’t tell you how many times they’re blocked out by other flights, especially the NW flights descending into or climbing out of DTW. 
I would love to just be able to click on the a/c icon to track the individual flight info. of that a/c. Thanks for bringing the subject up![/quote]