Add City Database

[bkfly1]

I had a need to fly to Coralville, IA. Not being familiar with the area, I typed "Coralville" into the flight plan, which returned no results. I then used a mapping program to locate the town and found the Iowa City airport about 4 miles away.

It would be very helpful if the program included a city database which would show nearby airports within the application.

 

[Cobra]

I'm not sure what you're asking for, or what your use case is. Are you saying you didn't know where "Coralville" was, and iFly couldn't help you find it? Are you suggesting iFly should know every single named town, village, and settlement, so that it can tell you the closest airport? I think that's asking a lot. There's a reason why Google Maps hosts its database in the cloud instead of locally on your phone.

I think most pilots start their flight planning with a general awareness of where their destination is. If (s)he doesn't already have a specific airport in mind, (s)he can pan the map to that area, and then visually scan for nearby airports, which may not be in the same town or city.

If a pilot is truly so unfamiliar with a destination that they don't even know where it is on a map, then perhaps some basic research (like via Google Maps) is in order, which I think is what you ended up doing.

 

[bkfly1]

Precisely. If the application included a city database you could search for a city or town name and it would provide you with a selection of nearby airports. This really isn't all that complex or unusual of a request.

I worked for a flight planning software company back in the mid 90's and this was a basic feature of the application. I believe the city database we used had the lat/long of the city center and the program would provide the distance & bearing to nearby airports which you could select from & insert into your flight plan.

Switching out of the application to locate cities near airports is feasible but time consuming and as you pointed out, what I did in this case. If it were built in to the app, that's one less step the user has to go through to locate an airport in an unfamiliar location.

 

[Tony Bolstad]

I had a need to fly to Coralville, IA. Not being familiar with the area, I typed "Coralville" into the flight plan, which returned no results. I then used a mapping program to locate the town and found the Iowa City airport about 4 miles away.

It would be very helpful if the program included a city database which would show nearby airports within the application.

bkfly1,

If you're using iFly while connected to the internet it does just what you're asking. In the flight planning screen add a city then click on the "Google" button on the right side. It brings up a list of airports sorted by distance from the location you entered. Typing in Coralville, IA returned this list:



Tony

 

[Don Maxwell]

Wow, that's terrific, Tony! But it's a little more complicated than you said--at least, on my iPhone 14 Pro Max. Adding coralville does NOT bring up a Google button until i first tap Search 'All'. Then I can see part of the Google button but can't press it. Trying to press it or tapping the Close button makes the Search 'All' dialog to go away, and then tapping Google gets the list you provided above. It's a very cool trick. Thanks for letting us know about it!

 

[bkfly1]

Thanks Tony that's very helpful, and basically what I was looking for. I had not noticed the Google button there before.

 

[Cobra]

Thanks, Tony! I had forgotten about that feature.

I started a bug report thread over here: Bug report: City search behavior. I included a video of the Google button (mis)behavior that I can see. @Don Maxwell , if you (or another iOS user) could add a photo of the malformed Google button that you see, that would be helpful.

 

[Tony Bolstad]

Wow, that's terrific, Tony! But it's a little more complicated than you said--at least, on my iPhone 14 Pro Max. Adding coralville does NOT bring up a Google button until i first tap Search 'All'. Then I can see part of the Google button but can't press it. Trying to press it or tapping the Close button makes the Search 'All' dialog to go away, and then tapping Google gets the list you provided above. It's a very cool trick. Thanks for letting us know about it!

In Windows version the Google button shows up as soon as you type something that isn't in the database. I did a search for Hood River, OR. It isn't until you enter the "d" in Hood that the Lat/Lng button switches over to the Google button. Similar action on other searches like Stevenson, WA where the Google button shows up with the letter v.







I'd never noticed this behavior before. I haven't checked to see if Android acts the same way.

Tony

 

[Don Maxwell]

Hah. Just checked my iPad and iPhone. "Google" doesn't appear until after I enter at least 3 characters and THEN hit the Spacebar.

 

[Cobra]

I'd never noticed this behavior before. I haven't checked to see if Android acts the same way.

Yeah, I compared Windows vs. Android this morning, and mentioned the differences in the bug report thread I created.