Airport Location Database

[Amadeus]

Is there an Airport Database (maybe AirNav or similar - or even the FAA website) that could be linked with text in the forums so that when reading postings we could hover over the airport identifier (KXXX) in a post and the city, state show in a temporary text box while hovered? I have a great memory yet still cannot remember the city, state of each of the more than 5,000 airports in the United States.

 

[Ironflight]

It would be easier if folks didn’t just assume that writing the identifer only (where the heck is SVE?) is sufficient. Sounds cool that pilots have all this memorized, but I’ve got more useful things to store in memory when it is limited…. If you only care that locals who already know your unique identifiers (O43?) respond to a post, great….but if you’re stuck on the ground with a flat tire at NV05, writing out the name of the airport would help folks who want to help you….

 

[plehrke]

This is one of my pet peeves. I will pass on any post that does not list the name and location of the airport.
Also please spell out acronyms. I have 45 years in the aircraft biz but i do not know what every acronym is. Please at tleast write it out at least once in the post.

 

[koupster]

It would be easier if folks didn’t just assume that writing the identifer only (where the heck is SVE?) is sufficient. Sounds cool that pilots have all this memorized, but I’ve got more useful things to store in memory when it is limited…. If you only care that locals who already know your unique identifiers (O43?) respond to a post, great….but if you’re stuck on the ground with a flat tire at NV05, writing out the name of the airport would help folks who want to help you….

Also, it would help if posters added the state name when listing a city. There are 33 Springfields and 18 Atlantas in the US.

 

[RV-9erA]

When I'm unfamiliar with an airport ID, I just put it into the search box on the SkyVector webapp and hit Go. For example, in a previous hangar post for the SQL airport, we are looking at San Carlos Airport in the bay area.

 

[Amadeus]

When I'm unfamiliar with an airport ID, I just put it into the search box on the SkyVector webapp and hit Go.

Sure; one can choose to do that. SkyVector, AirNav, ForeFlight, Garmin Pilot and many other sites one could choose to do this. As Plehrke stated above I, too, choose to pass on reading. At least the SQL post you reference was posted in the "California" forum so it narrows that post down from more than 5,000 potential cities to just more than 800 potential cities.

If I'm asking for help or assistance I'm not going to assign homework to the readers.

I've posted on this topic before but now I'm curious if the Web Site Development team might have the ability to link to one of these airport databases so it can happen by just hovering over the identifier in a post.

 

[RV-9erA]

Sure; one can choose to do that. SkyVector, AirNav, ForeFlight, Garmin Pilot and many other sites one could choose to do this. As Plehrke stated above I, too, choose to pass on reading.

Well - I always keep a SkyVector tab open on my computer, so there is very little hassle in simply copying an ID into SkyVector and hitting Go. I also use SkyVector for most of my flight planning, weather observations and airport information , including, airport maps, gas prices, arrivals, departures and approaches.

 

[rolivi]

but now I'm curious if the Web Site Development team

heehee... you mean Xenforo? I know they have two aviation forums as customers (this one and POA) but this feature would be of no value to the majority of their customers.

 

[Amadeus]

heehee... you mean Xenforo?

No. I mean @DeltaRomeo and @bkervaski and/or anyone else that manages the forum.

 

[ve0kog]

that sounds more like an AI browser plugin to activate on vaf thread views and parse for things that look like a location or airport id and hot link to sky vector. i would also ask it do generate the thread summary locally. wont be surprised if something like this already exists

 

[bkervaski]

I've posted on this topic before but now I'm curious if the Web Site Development team might have the ability to link to one of these airport databases so it can happen by just hovering over the identifier in a post.

Interesting idea, I like it! If one were to build such a Xenforo plugin and Doug approves I'll vet it and we'll get it installed.

 

[Desert Rat]

You dang kids with your dang internet. Back in my day, we didn't have these fancy links and plugins. We had to figure this out the old fashioned way; by asking one of the old timers hanging round the coffee pot in the line shack

I guess I just assume that if I don't know the identifier, it's probably not germane to the story. If I think it might be, I just look it up. I don't see it as a big deal.

 

[erich weaver]

Interesting idea, I like it! If one were to build such a Xenforo plugin and Doug approves I'll vet it and we'll get it installed.

I for one would be in favor of this.

 

[Snowflake]

... if you’re stuck on the ground with a flat tire at NV05, writing out the name of the airport would help folks who want to help you….

On the other hand, if you don't recognize the identifier, you're probably not close enough to help.

 

[RV-9erA]

It could be done with either PHP or JavaScript and MySQL, but it would probably need to be "activated" by first highlighting an airport ID and then either hovering over it or right-clicking the highlighted desired airport ID. Otherwise, it would be an inefficient process that would be searching for every 3-letter word your mouse happened to hover over.

 

[bkervaski]

It could be done with either PHP or JavaScript and MySQL, but it would probably need to be "activated" by first highlighting an airport ID and then either hovering over it or right-clicking the highlighted desired airport ID. Otherwise, it would be an inefficient process that would be searching for every 3-letter word your mouse happened to hover over.

Yes, that's the stack for Xenforo, however, it would need to be built as a plugin to avoid issues with updates later.

I imagine you would design it so it just tags every pattern that would match, i.e., "KEET" becomes <a class="lookup">KEET</a> or similar and then on hover or click would then do the lookup. False positives expected. Seems like it would be fairly easy †o do by someone who has the time.

 

[RV-9erA]

Yes, that's the stack for Xenforo, however, it would need to be built as a plugin to avoid issues with updates later.

I imagine you would design it so it just tags every pattern that would match, i.e., "KEET" becomes <a class="lookup">KEET</a> or similar and then on hover or click would then do the lookup. False positives expected. Seems like it ould be easy †o do by someone who has the time.

Features can be added or removed as modular PHP classes.

 

[N890GF]

i made this pretty quickly. its not perfect, but it works. Its a local chrome extension in javascript. but I bet the logic could easily be implemented to automatically allow for a tooltip popup when hovering over any airport code on the forums

GitHub - georgefahmy/airport-lookup

Contribute to georgefahmy/airport-lookup development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

Example screenshot of the tooltip below on KEET:

 

[RV-9erA]

i made this pretty quickly. its not perfect, but it works. Its a local chrome extension in javascript. but I bet the logic could easily be implemented to automatically allow for a tooltip popup when hovering over any airport code on the forums

Since this a Chrome extension in javascript, will this work with another browser like Bing?

 

[N890GF]

Since this a Chrome extension in javascript, will this work with another browser like Bing?

It should integrate into Microsoft Edge just fine, however I made this extension in about 15 minutes using AI and data from OurAirports and it's just running locally in my Chrome browser using developer mode. I think a better option would be to build the functionality into the VAF website directly (maybe with a toggle or some way to opt in) rather than a dedicated extension (there are others that exist too).

 

[N890GF]

It should integrate into Microsoft Edge just fine, however I made this extension in about 15 minutes using AI and data from OurAirports and it's just running locally in my Chrome browser using developer mode. I think a better option would be to build the functionality into the VAF website directly (maybe with a toggle or some way to opt in) rather than a dedicated extension (there are others that exist too).

the purpose of me linking my extension on github is hoping that someone on the VAF dev side can steal it

 

[bkervaski]

the purpose of me linking my github is hoping that someone on the VAF dev side can steal it

While I’m an experienced PHP developer, we don’t really have dedicated VAF developers. We use XenForo along with various plugins/add-ons, and the only custom development I’ve done for VAF has been outside of XenForo itself.

Technically, something like this would be fairly straightforward to build. The issue is that it’s not the kind of feature that’s likely to drive new subscriptions. While it’s definitely an interesting idea, it’s not something we’re planning to pursue internally.

Our priorities are stability, security, performance, ease of maintenance, ease of use, and — most importantly — storing knowledge long term.

That said, if someone wanted to set up their own XenForo staging site and develop an add-on/plugin for this, I’d be open to reviewing it with Doug’s approval. As long as it doesn’t create performance, maintenance, or security concerns, I wouldn’t object to installing it. However, whoever develops it would also need to maintain it, since future XenForo updates could break compatibility.

 

[KMMUflyer]

Embedded links are part of the forum.

I get that people want this automatically, but this is an alternate.

I fly out of KMMU.

Feel free to hover over it and verify where it will take you and click on it.