Focus Fields???

[DrZGard]

Are we still posting focus fields? As of today no listings.

I do like this although I find it is hit and miss for finding other users flying between or around them.

[Keith Smith]

Yes, we are. I normally enter them one month at a time. It was 2am when I was entering the last batch while I was on the road, so I just did the first 5 days, then I didn't get to finish the rest. I'll add them now. Things sometimes fall through the cracks when a lot is going on. It doesn't mean they're going away. If I do decide to alter/remove the program, I will definitely announce it advance.

[Keith Smith]

It's been tough to keep up with the data entry, I've added all the airports for this month (thanks to PE subscriber Dawn Waterbury for supplying the list, as always!).

Btw, in light of the popularity of the pattern work that's been going on of late, and based on requests from a few pilots, would there be interest in adding some suggested times to the focus field flights, or designating one of the towered fields to be a pattern field in addition to the suggested time?

My thinking is that we'd have one or two random times for each focus field on each day, as a way of concentrating traffic (which appears to be of interest to people). Think of it as an automated event that's randomly generated each day, but published in advance.

The alternative is for users to drive this themselves using the 'fly with me forum', but it's hard to imagine that could be done on a consistent basis.

Thoughts from the pattern junkies?

[Juan B]

A time and suggested pattern field would be great Keith!!

Juan

[TexFly]

I think it is a great idea...if we could have a consistent schedule not just for the patterns. It could easily be extended to planned flights. If I know that every Saturday at X time I have more pilots in the air I will try to be there as much as I can.

My 2c

[Keith Smith]

Alrighty, so far every single vote has been for consistent, repeatable times on a given day of the week (both here and on Facebook). Good to know!

And yes, the goal of the focus fields was to get traffic to congregate so as to maximize the chance of experiencing other live aircraft sharing the radio at the same time. However, without an agreed upon time (like we used to have during the beta), it's not as effective.

We'll work on it!

[Keith Smith]

Annnnnd the work is done (Tim, as always, is the man).

Focus field program updated, here's the schedule:
Mon - 11am PDT and 5pm PDT
Tue - 12pm PDT and 6pm PDT
Wed - 1pm PDT and 7pm PDT
Thu - 2pm PDT and 8pm PDT
Fri - 3pm PDT and 9pm PDT
Sat - 10am PDT and 6pm PDT
Sun - 12pm PDT and 7pm PDT

The site has been updated to show those times on the focus field detail page.

[theskunk]

VERY NICE!

I joined yesterday and saw a plane in the ptn with me at bfl.

[Keith Smith]

It's going to take some time for the word to get out, but hopefully we'll see increased traffic during those times. I'll be sure to get a note out in the next newsletter, too.