Weather Info via a web cell phone

[[email protected]]

I searched the archives & did not see any recent posts on this. I
just upgraded my cell phone to a new one, Sprint Service, that comes
with some type of web access. It has some canned weather sites that
provide simple weather for non-pilots, but am interested in a web site
that will (1) fit well, and is simple to use, on the tiny cell phone
screen and (2) ideally, shows current radar, but SA's would be fine
enough.

I experimented with www.duats.com and aviationweather.gov, the two
that I use with a PC. DUATS wasn't too useful. Aviationweather.gov
actually showed a very good, but tiny, pic of the USA with fields in
IFR/MVFR/VFR that the web site shows on its home page when you first
visit it. And tantalizingly, I was able to "browse" to the radar
section but was never able to pull up a useful radar pic.

I was wondering if any site had optimized their site for phone web so
that it would be easy to type in a 4 letter designator and pull up an
SA. For my type of flying this woudl be really useful as during the
summer it invariably involves setting down in front of a line of
cells, getting a pic of the weather,and "threading" through. Many
times this involves setting down in fields where they have apparently
never heard of refrigerated food, much less the internet, so the phone
access is useful. I know I can always call up the FSS but we all know
that calls to the FSS are taking longer nowadays. And the web access
from the phone is free with the service, which is a plus.

Anybody know of any web-phone weather sites out there for pilots?

Thanks in advance,

Hank Rausch

[Don Poitras]

wrote:
> I searched the archives & did not see any recent posts on this. I
> just upgraded my cell phone to a new one, Sprint Service, that comes
> with some type of web access. It has some canned weather sites that
> provide simple weather for non-pilots, but am interested in a web site
> that will (1) fit well, and is simple to use, on the tiny cell phone
> screen and (2) ideally, shows current radar, but SA's would be fine
> enough.

I use wunderground.com. Their PDA version is at m.wund.com

Sample showing radar at Raleigh:

http://m.wund.com/US/NC/Raleigh.html

As a followup question, I've been trying to find a way to enter a flight
plan via cell phone. I have access to a host web site where I can run
a cgi program and I was able to create a page that would invoke a
script to run a telnet duats session, but when I try to use it from
the cell phone, I get "Forbidden". I'm guessing that there's some
problem in running cgi scripts from the cell phone browser. All this
techno-babble aside, does anyone know a way to enter a flight plan
via cell phone (other than waiting 30 minutes to talk to FSS)? I
can do it via www.duats.com, but it's pretty painful. I cell phone
interface to the telnet duats would be ideal, but I don't think
these cell phones can do telnet.

> I experimented with www.duats.com and aviationweather.gov, the two
> that I use with a PC. DUATS wasn't too useful. Aviationweather.gov
> actually showed a very good, but tiny, pic of the USA with fields in
> IFR/MVFR/VFR that the web site shows on its home page when you first
> visit it. And tantalizingly, I was able to "browse" to the radar
> section but was never able to pull up a useful radar pic.

> I was wondering if any site had optimized their site for phone web so
> that it would be easy to type in a 4 letter designator and pull up an
> SA. For my type of flying this woudl be really useful as during the
> summer it invariably involves setting down in front of a line of
> cells, getting a pic of the weather,and "threading" through. Many
> times this involves setting down in fields where they have apparently
> never heard of refrigerated food, much less the internet, so the phone
> access is useful. I know I can always call up the FSS but we all know
> that calls to the FSS are taking longer nowadays. And the web access
> from the phone is free with the service, which is a plus.

> Anybody know of any web-phone weather sites out there for pilots?

> Thanks in advance,

> Hank Rausch


--
Don Poitras - SAS Development - SAS Institute Inc. - SAS Campus Drive
(919) 531-5637 Cary, NC 27513

[ktbr]

Don Poitras wrote:
>
> As a followup question, I've been trying to find a way to enter a flight
> plan via cell phone. I have access to a host web site where I can run
> a cgi program and I was able to create a page that would invoke a
> script to run a telnet duats session, but when I try to use it from
> the cell phone, I get "Forbidden". I'm guessing that there's some
> problem in running cgi scripts from the cell phone browser. All this
> techno-babble aside, does anyone know a way to enter a flight plan
> via cell phone (other than waiting 30 minutes to talk to FSS)? I
> can do it via www.duats.com, but it's pretty painful. I cell phone
> interface to the telnet duats would be ideal, but I don't think
> these cell phones can do telnet.

Didn't there used to be a way to just call in a flight plan and
leave it on a recording? I did that once or twice some years
ago and have forgotten about till now. Seems like that would
be the best bet. You basically read it off as it appears on
the flight plan form.

[Boeing NNTP News Access]

On Wed, 13 Jun 2007 18:50:20 -0700, wrote:

>I searched the archives & did not see any recent posts on this. I
>just upgraded my cell phone to a new one, Sprint Service, that comes
>with some type of web access. It has some canned weather sites that
>provide simple weather for non-pilots, but am interested in a web site
>that will (1) fit well, and is simple to use, on the tiny cell phone
>screen and (2) ideally, shows current radar, but SA's would be fine
>enough.
>
>I experimented with www.duats.com and aviationweather.gov, the two
>that I use with a PC. DUATS wasn't too useful. Aviationweather.gov
>actually showed a very good, but tiny, pic of the USA with fields in
>IFR/MVFR/VFR that the web site shows on its home page when you first
>visit it. And tantalizingly, I was able to "browse" to the radar
>section but was never able to pull up a useful radar pic.
>
>I was wondering if any site had optimized their site for phone web so
>that it would be easy to type in a 4 letter designator and pull up an
>SA. For my type of flying this woudl be really useful as during the
>summer it invariably involves setting down in front of a line of
>cells, getting a pic of the weather,and "threading" through. Many
>times this involves setting down in fields where they have apparently
>never heard of refrigerated food, much less the internet, so the phone
>access is useful. I know I can always call up the FSS but we all know
>that calls to the FSS are taking longer nowadays. And the web access
>from the phone is free with the service, which is a plus.
>
>Anybody know of any web-phone weather sites out there for pilots?
>
>Thanks in advance,
>
>Hank Rausch

https://secure.my-cast.com/pilot.jsp

Not affilicated, just a satisfied customer.

Bela P. Havasreti

[Dana M. Hague]

On Wed, 13 Jun 2007 18:50:20 -0700, wrote:

>I searched the archives & did not see any recent posts on this. I
>just upgraded my cell phone to a new one, Sprint Service, that comes
>with some type of web access. It has some canned weather sites that
>provide simple weather for non-pilots, but am interested in a web site
>that will (1) fit well, and is simple to use, on the tiny cell phone
>screen and (2) ideally, shows current radar, but SA's would be fine
>enough.

I solved the problem by creating my own simple mobile page, and made
that the home page for my phone. Probably your ISP allows you to set
up a free personal home page; if so you can make a weather page. It's
not "official" aviation weather, but adequate for my needs (local
flying, usually Part 103). My links on that page include the local
NWS forecast, WindCast graphical winds, the Weather Underground page
specifically for mobile (which includes a radar image), and a few
others.

Most cell phones won't do CGI scripts, though some will do Java
applications.

-Dana

P.S. For those who've never created a page before, it's absurdly
easy. Paste the text below (between the "cut here" lines" into
Notepad and save with an .htm extension:

----cut here----
<html>
<a href=http://google.com/gwt/n>Goto URL</a><br><br>
<a href=http://mobile.google.com/local>Google Local</a><br>
<a href=http://www.google.com/m/>Google</a><br>
<a href=http://yeswap.com>YesWAP</a><br><br>
<a
href=http://mobile.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?brand=mobile&query=06413>Weather
- Clinton</a><br>
<a
href=http://mobile.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?brand=mobile&query=10911>Weather
- Camp</a><br>
<a
href=http://www.wunderground.com/weatherstation/ListStations.asp?start=0&showall=all>Weather
Underground Stations</a><br>
<a
href=http://www.wunderground.com/weatherstation/WXDailyHistory.asp?ID=KCTOLDSA1>WU
- Saybrook Point</a><br>
<a
href=http://www.intellicast.com/WeatherImg/CurrentWinds/hfd.jpg>WindCast
current winds</a><br>
<a
href=http://weather.noaa.gov/pub/data/forecasts/zone/ct/ctz011.txt>NWS
Southern Middlexex WX</a><br>
<br>
</html>
---cut here---
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[Mike Isaksen]

>>I searched the archives & did not see any recent posts on this. I
>>just upgraded my cell phone to a new one, Sprint Service, that comes
>>with some type of web access. It has some canned weather sites that
>>provide simple weather for non-pilots, .....

If it hasn't already been said,... Verizon Wireless has some of those same
generic weather sites (Accu, Weather.com, 3 more) for about $4/month plus
airtime, and they also have MyCast Pilot Weather for $10/month plus airtime.
That seems to be discounted from the $13/month on the MyCast website. I only
replaced my cell phone with a color model last month, so I do not yet have a
user report on MyCast. Ask me again in a few months and I'll have signed up
by then.

[Hilton]

Another option is WingX:

http://www.hiltonsoftware.com

Animated weather graphics, METARs, TAFs, winds aloft, temps aloft, METAR
trend information, and DUATS support - no more waiting 45 minutes to get a
weather briefing.

Hilton
Disclaimer: I own the company.


"Mike Isaksen" > wrote in message
news:Vofhi.30$bh5.15@trndny01...
>>>I searched the archives & did not see any recent posts on this. I
>>>just upgraded my cell phone to a new one, Sprint Service, that comes
>>>with some type of web access. It has some canned weather sites that
>>>provide simple weather for non-pilots, .....
>
> If it hasn't already been said,... Verizon Wireless has some of those same
> generic weather sites (Accu, Weather.com, 3 more) for about $4/month plus
> airtime, and they also have MyCast Pilot Weather for $10/month plus
> airtime. That seems to be discounted from the $13/month on the MyCast
> website. I only replaced my cell phone with a color model last month, so I
> do not yet have a user report on MyCast. Ask me again in a few months and
> I'll have signed up by then.
>

[Montblack]

("Hilton" wrote)
> Another option is WingX:
>
> http://www.hiltonsoftware.com
>
> Animated weather graphics, METARs, TAFs, winds aloft, temps aloft, METAR
> trend information, and DUATS support - no more waiting 45 minutes to get a
> weather briefing.
>
> Hilton
> Disclaimer: I own the company.


How's business been treating you?

(Psst. ....this is where you talk up your product. <g>)


Montblack

[karl gruber[_1_]]

What is the best handheld unit to run this software?



"Montblack" > wrote in message
...
> ("Hilton" wrote)
>> Another option is WingX:
>>
>> http://www.hiltonsoftware.com
>>
>> Animated weather graphics, METARs, TAFs, winds aloft, temps aloft, METAR
>> trend information, and DUATS support - no more waiting 45 minutes to get
>> a
>> weather briefing.
>>
>> Hilton
>> Disclaimer: I own the company.
>
>
> How's business been treating you?
>
> (Psst. ....this is where you talk up your product. <g>)
>
>
> Montblack
>
>
>

[Hilton]

Hi Karl,

The industry is shifting from the 'stand alone' Pocket PC such as the Dell
Axim to the Pocket PC Phone Edition devices such as the Cingular 8525 and
Verizon 6700 - a lot of WingX folks have these devices. With WingX, you can
use these phones to get the features mentioned below, as well as upgrade the
software, update the databases, and now even get a full legal DUATS briefing
and you can be pretty much anywhere; i.e. no WiFi hotspot required. Dell
have actually stopped selling the Dell Axims recently because Cingular etc
are selling the Pocket PC Phone Editions for $100-$200 (with a 2-year
contract of course). There are other options such as getting one with a
built-in GPS (or you can get a GPS receiver with Bluetooth). Some have
WiFi. You can pick up a 2GB card for about $20. It's amazing to have all
this capability on a small Pocket PC Phone. The NACO charts can be dragged
around with your thumb - great for one-hand operation and no stylus
required. Make sure you get WM5 or WM6 and if you get a GPS Bluetooth
Receiver, get one that has the SiRFiii chipset (or better). Another nice
thing with these phone devices is that WingX will highlight the ATIS, ASOS,
FSS, airport manager's phone number - just click and the phone automatically
dials the number. For a non-phone PDA, check out the rx5915 from HP.

We'll be releasing WingX for the Smartphone soon - this version will run on
the Motorola Q, Cingular Blackjack, T-Mobile Dash, and even the Cingular
3125 flip phone. So this is another option. The user interface/experience
is different because these devices are not touch screen, but once you get
used to them, they're great and small and practically all the "WingX for the
Pocket PC" features are in these Smartphones including charts, animated
RADAR, and DUATS support. I put together a page with some screen shots -
take a look: http://www.hiltonsoftware.com/sp

We'll be adding "Filing Flight Plans" shortly too. Instead of waiting 45
minutes for FSS, you will be able to get a briefing and file a flight plan
in about 2 minutes.

Hope this helps. Feel free to call or email us directly if you wish:
1-866-42-WINGX (http://www.hiltonsoftware.com)

No purchase necessary to have DUATS support through July/August; i.e. great
for Oshkosh!

BTW: I'll be at Oshkosh if anyone wants to meet up to see the latest WingX
stuff or just grab a drink. (July 23-26)

Thanks, keep well,

Hilton



"karl gruber" > wrote in message
...
> What is the best handheld unit to run this software?
>
>
>
> "Montblack" > wrote in message
> ...
>> ("Hilton" wrote)
>>> Another option is WingX:
>>>
>>> http://www.hiltonsoftware.com
>>>
>>> Animated weather graphics, METARs, TAFs, winds aloft, temps aloft, METAR
>>> trend information, and DUATS support - no more waiting 45 minutes to get
>>> a
>>> weather briefing.
>>>
>>> Hilton
>>> Disclaimer: I own the company.
>>
>>
>> How's business been treating you?
>>
>> (Psst. ....this is where you talk up your product. <g>)
>>
>>
>> Montblack
>>
>>
>>
>
>

[Hilton]

Montblack wrote:
> "Hilton" wrote
>> Another option is WingX:
>>
>> http://www.hiltonsoftware.com
>>
>> Animated weather graphics, METARs, TAFs, winds aloft, temps aloft, METAR
>> trend information, and DUATS support - no more waiting 45 minutes to get
>> a
>> weather briefing.
>>
>> Hilton
>> Disclaimer: I own the company.
>
>
> How's business been treating you?
>
> (Psst. ....this is where you talk up your product. <g>)

Here are 18,000 words: http://www.hiltonsoftware.com :)

Hilton