Dave Campbell
1658eda480
Airport lookup and route weather strip. Pulls from aviationweather.gov with no API key. Decodes METAR/TAF client-side. Hosted at rockcampbell.com/airbrief via nginx proxy on rocklab.
118 lines
5.1 KiB
Markdown
118 lines
5.1 KiB
Markdown
# AirBrief — Project Status
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*Last updated: June 16, 2026*
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---
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## What It Is
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A static web app for business aviation situational awareness — specifically built for Airshare line pilots and flight control. Not a certified briefing replacement. Gives a fast, clean weather picture before the official brief happens.
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**Live at:** rockcampbell.com/airbrief
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**Target users:**
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- Line pilot at KMKC with 2–4 legs today, needs a 90-second weather picture
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- Flight control building the day's operation, wants to flag potential weather disruptions
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---
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## Current State (MVP Complete)
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### Airport Lookup (single ICAO/IATA)
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Type one airport ID → full detail view:
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- Flight category badge (VFR / MVFR / IFR / LIFR), color coded
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- Wind, visibility, ceiling, altimeter (inHg — Kollsman window value), temp/dewpoint
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- Sky conditions (tagged)
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- Present weather decoded to plain English
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- METAR: plain-English paragraph + raw text
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- TAF: plain-English per change group (Initial / From / Temporary / Becoming / Probability) + raw text
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### Route Weather (multiple space-separated IDs)
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Type `KMKC KSTL KDEN` → route view:
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- Flight category strip: colored badges per airport with visibility and ceiling
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- Per-airport detail cards: wind, vis, ceiling, altimeter, temp/dewpoint, plain-English summary, obs time
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- Active hazard summary: SIGMETs and AIRMETs filtered to the route bounding box, sorted by severity (convective SIGMETs first)
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---
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## Tech Stack
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| Layer | Choice | Notes |
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|---|---|---|
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| Frontend | Vanilla HTML/CSS/JS | Single file, no framework, no build step |
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| Weather data | aviationweather.gov public API | No key, no cost, no rate limit |
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| Hazard data | aviationweather.gov `/airsigmet` | Same API, returns SIGMETs + AIRMETs |
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| METAR/TAF decode | Client-side JS | No third-party decoder — all done in-browser |
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| Hosting | hugo-site nginx container on rocklab | Static file served directly from disk |
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| CORS proxy | Nginx location `/airbrief-api/` | aviationweather.gov doesn't send CORS headers; nginx proxies server-side |
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---
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## File Locations
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```
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/home/rock/airbrief/
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├── index.html ← entire app (single file)
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└── PROJECT.md ← this file
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```
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**Nginx proxy config:** `/home/rock/docker/rockcampbell/nginx.conf`
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- `/airbrief` → serves `/srv/airbrief/` (the airbrief directory)
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- `/airbrief-api/` → proxies to `https://aviationweather.gov/api/data/`
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**Docker volume mount:** `/home/rock/docker/rockcampbell/docker-compose.yml`
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- `/home/rock/airbrief:/srv/airbrief:ro`
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Changes to `index.html` go live immediately — no container restart needed.
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---
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## API Endpoints in Use
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All routed through the local proxy at `/airbrief-api/`:
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| Endpoint | Used for |
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| `/metar?ids=KMKC&format=json&hours=2` | METAR for one or multiple airports (comma-separated) |
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| `/taf?ids=KMKC&format=json` | TAF including structured `fcsts` array |
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| `/airsigmet?format=json` | All active SIGMETs and AIRMETs |
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**Key API field notes:**
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- `fltCat` (capital C) — flight category; computed from ceiling/vis as fallback
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- `altim` — in **hPa**, not inHg. Divide by 33.8639 to get the Kollsman window value
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- `visib` — string, may return `"10+"` rather than a number
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- `clouds[]` — array of `{cover, base, type}` objects; base in feet
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---
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## Hazard Filtering
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When displaying route hazards, the app builds a bounding box from the lat/lon of all found airports (±3 degrees padding) and filters the SIGMET/AIRMET list to hazards whose coordinates overlap that box. Hazards with no coordinate data are included.
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Sort order: convective SIGMETs → other SIGMETs → AIRMETs.
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Color: red = convective SIGMET, orange = other SIGMET or severe turb/ice, yellow = AIRMET.
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---
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## v2 Backlog (do not build until David returns to this)
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From the original project brief — in priority order:
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1. **Winds Aloft by waypoint** — enter cruise altitude (FL350, FL410), get forecast winds and temps at each route waypoint. API: `/windtemp?format=json`
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2. **Flight Category Map** — Leaflet.js map centered on the route, stations color-coded by flight category, route corridor overlay. Deferred because Turf.js route geometry math was saved for post-MVP.
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3. **PIREPs near route** — pilot reports filtered to the route corridor. API: `/pirep?format=json`
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4. **TFRs** — active temporary flight restrictions. API: `/tfr?format=json` (different response format from airsigmet)
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5. **Multi-leg trip view** — full day's operation across multiple aircraft
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6. **Saved routes / push alerts**
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7. **Radar layer** on the map
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8. **Mobile PWA** (offline-capable)
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9. **Integration with Airshare/Horizon trip data**
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---
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## Known Notes / Gotchas
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- The `airsigmet` endpoint returns ~2,000 records nationally. Bounding box filtering cuts this down significantly for regional routes. For very short routes the box is small; for cross-country the box is large and more hazards show.
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- TAF not always available for smaller airports (returns empty array — handled gracefully).
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- IATA identifiers (e.g., `MKC`) work in addition to ICAO (`KMKC`).
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- Route input accepts space, comma, or slash as separators.
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- The disclaimer is required on every page per the original brief.
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