PilotGeek
PilotGeek
FAQ
PilotGEEK User FAQ
The following frequently asked questions describe the services, policies and usage for the PilotGEEK notification service for airmen. If there are any questions not answered in this FAQ or recommendations, please send them to tnery@pilotgeek.com
What is PilotGEEK?Where do you get the information from?
How can I get access to the data?
PC Access
Cell Phone Web Access
Cell Phone DUATs Briefer
How do I connect with my iPhone?
When I connect to pilotgeek.com on my cell phone, I am not getting the cell phone web pages
Cell Phone Text Message Access
Event Notification System
Do I need a cell phone to use the information?
How do I get an icon on my desktop?
How do I change the default airport?
What do the colors on the free briefer mean?
Do you keep credit card information?
What, no radar, satellite, etc.?
Will the price increase as features are added?
Why does the free briefer always start at 1B9
I’ve got a question you didn’t answer
What is PilotGEEK?
As a private pilot who mainly flies VFR, I once came close to busting a TFR because I didn’t call FSS for the second leg of my flight. Luckily, it was a minor TFR and there were no ramifications, but I realized the necessity of checking in before each take-off. I also tend to use online facilities to check flight information rather than calling FSS as most of the time the toll-free FSS number connects me to a site remote from my location.
I looked at other commercial offerings but felt the $60-$100/year was more than I was willing to pay. So, being a software engineer, I decided to put together my own briefing system, one that could be accessed via my cell phone.
As I showed my system to friends and home base CFI’s they suggested improvements and asked for access to it.
PilotGEEK is the result of that collaboration.
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Where do you get the information from?
I get my information from the same site used when planning a flight on my PC. The weather data comes from the same NOAA site that supplies data for the ADDS site.
The PilotGEEK server downloads new METAR data from the government’s computers every 5 minutes and maintains it in a local database.
Like METARs, TAF data is also downloaded from the NOAA site, but is updated every 30 minutes (since TAF data is updated less frequently).
TFR data comes from the FAA’s TFR web site. As a result, it is as accurate as the data provided by the government. Remember that the FAA recommends that you call FSS before take off. TFR data is acquired every 10 minutes.
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How can I get access to the data?
There are four ways to access the PilotGEEK data:
1. PC AccessAccess the PilotGEEK web site, optimized for your PC. The briefing page provides a report for a route or a single location where you can view:
- Decoded METAR reporting stations within a defined radius or route width
- Decoded TAF reporting stations within a defined radius or route width
- Weather radar for the origination airport (expandable to allow scrolling)
- Notificaiton of active TFRs for the requested airport or route’s NOTAM area, with a link to the faa’s TFR site
To get to this site, just point your PC’s browser to www.pilotgeek.com/briefings.php to get a fixed size pop-up page or add the page www.pilotgeek.com/routing.php to your favorite's list.
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2. Cell Phone Web Access
The pilotGEEK cell phone route briefer has been designed to work with as many phones and providers as possible. The route briefer requires no special software and has been optimized to require minimal user input. Currently, the pilotGEEK cell phone route briefer provides:
- Briefing summary, including:
- Trip information, including distance and initial course
- TFR, METAR, TAF and Winds Aloft
- Link to origination and destination decoded NOTAMs and almanac data
- ASOS/AWOS phone numbers along route
- User configurable weather radar, either:
- centered around a METAR reporting station
- animated DUAT radar, for cell phones supporting capability
- AOPA portal (requires AOPA membership), with:
- Airport information
- Business/FBO information
- Ground transportation
- Restaurant information
- Attractions
- Fuel price, radius search
- DUATs portal (requires DUAT account) for official weather briefings, with:
- Decoded Metars, TAFs and NOTAMs
- Optimized NOTAM report, customized for your requested briefing
- Full report emailed to you registered email account for later reference
- Simple configurable user interface, with user settable:
- Text size
- Text, input box and background color
- Settable route width
- Route width
- METAR/TAF decoding
- Static or looping radar display
- Test, before save
- Registration Screen
The first step to using the PilotGEEK Route Briefer is to register your phone with the PilotGEEK service. This is easily accomplished by pointing your cell browser (most cell phones have a GoTo URL menu option) to www.pilotgeek.mobi.
Enter the cell phone number that was registered in your PilotGEEK profile. Please note that the telephone number should be entered using only the cell phones number. Once complete, submit the data by highlighting the Submit button and entering the Select function. Once verification is complete, you will be presented with the PilotGEEK Route Briefer.
- PilotGEEK Route Briefer, user interface.
At the top of the main PilotGEEK Route Briefer screen are a small number of links that when selected will bring you immediately to the requested section of the briefing.
For example, to quickly jump to the METAR data, just select the METAR link by using the Move Right cell phone operation. Most phones will display the selected text by highlighting the text. Then press the cell phone Select option. Once selected, your display should jump immediately to the METAR section of the report.
To get back to the main menu, select the cell phone Back option. Sometimes the back option requires a cell phone menu selection.
The screen shot shown, also shows the trip information. Note that the trip from 1B9 to IJD is 47nm with an initial TRUE course of 251.
Also in the trip section there are links to get:
- Airport information. This is available to AOPA members and requires you to enter your AOPA username and password the first time the feature is used.
- Fuel price in a radius around the airport. The radius is set using the Configure Cell Phone Options link on the main page and can be either 25 or 50 nm. This is also only available to AOPA members.
- Weather radar for the airport
- NOTAM information for both the origination and destination airports
- Almanac information for both the origination and destination airports
The main screen also has data entry points for the origination and destination airports. As well as buttons to enter new route data or go to the DUATs briefing page
Following are some examples of PilotGEEK cell phone screens. Notice that all of the screens display decoded information. Decoding is an optional parameter set from the Configure Cell Phone Options link.
METAR FUEL RADAR 
TAF TFR NOTAM 
As seen on the main page, underlined text indicates a link. Therefore if you select OWD - Norwood Memorial from the FUEL page, information about OWD will be displayed. Of course the same is true for FUEL and RADAR links on the metar page.
If your cell phone supports it, you can also highlight the ASOS/AWOS phone number displayed in the metar display and dial the number directly to get current weather conditions at the selected airport!
Configuring the PilotGEEK Route Briefer
To configure the route briefer, select the Configure Cell Phone Options link on the main page.
3. Cell Phone DUATs BrieferThe configuration page allows you to optimize the display for your specific phone. The configuration page shown on the right, allows you to change the text size that should be used. In the text size drop down selection object you can choose text sizes from 3pt (very, very small) to 18pt (very, very large).
Additionally, you can select the text color, background color and input box color from one of 12 options.
When you have made all your selections, select the TEST button to see what your selections look like on your phone. Please note that the configuration screen does not use the settings, but instead a table at the bottom of the page shows the selection. This is to allow you to continue to change configuration after you've selected an unreadable combination.
Once satisfied with your settings, select the SAVE button to use the settings in all upcoming sessions.
This is also the screen where you can select the route width to use for weather briefings (25 or 50nm), decoding and the type of radar display.
PilotGEEK's cell briefer now provides DUATs route and weather briefing capability. Now in the time it takes to get a flight service briefer on the line and read your flight information, you can complete a full briefing. Never again fly without receiving a legal briefing. In fact it is so quick and easy, there is no reason to fly any hop without receiving an official briefing moments before takeoff. To go to the DUATs briefing page, just select DUATS Brief button from the main display.
The PilotGEEK server will have pre-completed some of the sections of the page. If you have used the DUATs portal, your access code and password will be filled in, as will your tail number.
Origination and Destination airports will be initially completed from the main PilotGEEK web page as will the route width.
PilotGEEK assumes your routing will be direct. If it isn't, just delete DIRECT from the Route of flight field and enter your complete route.
Departure time can either be entered as zulu time (for example 1300) or minutes from now. Minutes from now is entered with the format +mmm. So to leave in 2 hours, you would enter +120.Complete the form by entering the estimated flight time and planned altitude.
Once completed just select the Get DUATs Briefing button.
After a few seconds, you will be returned to the same page, but this time there will be a link at the top labeled wii th the date and time of the briefing. Select it and you will be brought to a jump area where you can jump to sections of the briefing. The sections are:
- Area Forecast
- Severe Weather Outlook
- SIGMETs
- AIRMETs
- Surface Observations
- PIREPs
- Terminal Forecast
- Winds Aloft
- NOTAMs
- FDC NOTAMs
- Departure Information
- Destination Information
A copy of the briefing will also be emailed to your pilotGEEK registered email address. This way you always have a copy of your briefing should you ever require it. When you're done using this page, just select the Return to PilotGEEK button. The previous briefing will be presented every time you enter the DUATs portal, so you can review it any time you wish.
Selecting any of the links will bring you to that section of the briefing. Once done with review of the section, just select the back option (available on most cell phones via menu option or key) to get back to the section list.
To make the briefing usable on cell phones and PDAs, the briefing report will be customized to show only pertinent NOTAM (for example all of the CANCELLED NOTAMs are filtered) as well as some limited translation from FAA acronym to plain english.
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When I connect to pilotgeek.com on my cell phone, I am not getting the cell phone web pages.
How do I connect with my iPhone? - TAF text message to taf@pilotgeek.com
- TFR text message to tfr@pilotgeek.com
- Radar text message to radar@pilotgeek.com
Note: Radar images are sent via your cell phone provider's MMS service (the same service you use to send pictures from your cell phone) which may have an additional per message charge. Radar delivery has been tested with Verizon Wireless. Should you have problems receiving radar images, please contact me at tnery@pilotgeek.com. - ASOS/AWOS phone number text message to asos@pilotgeek.com
- FSS phone number text message to fss@pilotgeek.com
- Winds Aloft text message to wa@pilotgeek.com
- No active TFRs in NOTAM area ZBW
- KTAN has Marginal VFR conditions and is 11nm from
requested the airport - KOWD has Marginal VFR conditions and is 11nm from the
requested airport - KSFZ has IFR conditions and is 14nm from the requested airport
- KPVD has Marginal VFR conditions and is 19nm from the
requested airport. - KPYM has IFR conditions and is 21nm from the requested airport.
- The message was sent on May 2, 2006 at 12:00 Zulu.
The iPhone web browser looks more like a computer than a mobile device. As a result you will need to point your
browser to the address www.pilotgeek.mobi, the mobile gateway to get the optimized web pages for small screens. The first
time you connect, you should see the registration screen.
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3. Cell Phone, Text Message Access
Utilize PilotGEEK’s text message interface. Access to this service will require you to be a registered user of the PilotGEEK services. Because of the delivery process, it is possible to receive text messages at higher altitudes than normal voice and web services. I have successfully requested and received METAR and Radar data at altitudes above 5000 AGL.
Each of the briefing data services have an email address associated with it. So to receive METAR data, just send an email to metar@pilotgeek.com and specify one airport id in the body of the message. No need to worry whether the specified airport has METAR data as the PilotGEEK server will supply the closest METAR data to the airport you specify.
Cell phone text messages are limited to 160 characters, therefore you may not get the same amount of information as the web interface.
The other services available are:
In all cases, you should expect a reply text message within 5 minutes. However, I have found that some messages get lost in the cell phone system, and are delivered much later. So, if you do not receive a response within 5 minutes, I’d recommend resending the request.
To use this service you will need your cell phone and service to support text messaging. While I don’t know the costs for all cell providers, my service, Verizon, charges $0.05 (5 cents) per message.
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4. Cell Phone, Text Message Event Notification
Utilize PilotGEEK’s event driven messaging system. The event driven messaging system allows you to configure the system to send your cell phone email when certain weather or TFR data changes. To use it, log in and go to your profile page. At the bottom of the page you will see the event configuration data:
Click Here for Larger Image
In the event notification setup, you can enter up to 5 airports. Note that if you only enter one airport, the 5 closest airports to the specified airport will be monitored for changes. Also each airport does not need to have weather reporting, the PilotGEEK system will report the closest weather station.
Next, specify which days of the week you want the event notification system activated, then indicate notification start and stop times. Remember, this must be done in Zulu time.
Lastly, check the events from which you want to receive notification. For example, checking only VFR will cause email to be sent anytime the weather changes from or to VFR conditions.
Once submitted, you will receive an email each time the event system activates (from an inactive state). The email will look as follows:
The example email indicates the activate state of the requested stations;
This email informs you that the system is active. Now, when weather conditions change, you will receive an email, such as:
These three messages indicate that weather at KOWD became marginal, a TFR was activated at West Point and finally the West Point TFR was deactivated.
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The PilotGEEK system is designed to provide data to your cell phone. If you don’t have one, just use the free system available on your PC. Of course you may reconsider the value of having a cell phone now that the PilotGEEK service is available.
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How do I get an icon on my desktop?
To get an icon on the desktop, just go to www.pilotgeek.com/routing.php
and drag the position the mouse over the internet exporer icon in the address bar, left click on it then drag the icon to the desktop. That should give you a link to your desktop.
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How do I change the default airport?
If you always want the desktop icon to go to the same routing page you can enter the following on your browser’s address line:
- www.pilotgeek.com/routing.php?qdata=1b9,cqx,50
- www.pilotgeek.com/routing.php?qdata=1b9,1b9,100
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What do the colors on the free briefer mean?
The colors for the METAR and TAF displays indicate the flying weather conditions, with the following definition:
- GREEN - VFR conditions
- BLUE - MVFR conditions
- RED - IFR conditions
Do you keep credit card information?
No. PilotGEEK stores no credit card information at this time. Additionally, PilotGEEK considers all of the information provided as confidential and will not make it available to any other services’ mailing list. None, Never!
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What no satellite, notams, winds aloft, etc.?
The initial implementation of the PilotGEEK service provides those services that I need the most. The others are very valuable, but tend to be more planning related which I prefer to do from a full size computer terminal.
PilotGEEK will continue to evolve and add new features as time permits. The features added will primarily be those most requested by registered users (or me). I currently have a list of things I plan to add but am always looking for more suggestions. If you've got one, just email it to me at tnery@pilotgeek.com.
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Will the price increase as features are added?
PilotGEEK will continue to evolve and offer publicly available services to registered cell phone users for $14.99 per year. There may be a time in the future where a premium service will be offered at a higher cost for services not available elsewhere, but at this time there is none in the works.
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Why does the free briefer always start at 1B9
The free briefer uses cookies to remember where you were last. If you have cookies disabled, the browser won’t be able to save your information. If you are using Internet Explorer, you can enable cookies for the PilotGEEK site by opening the menu Tools, Internet Settings. Then select the tab Privacy and click on the button Sites. In the textbox Address, enter www.pilotgeek.com and click on Allow button. You should now always return to your last briefing location and the latest conditions on the home page should be for that location as well.
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I’ve got a question you didn’t answer
Easy, drop me an email at tnery@pilotgeek.com.
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