PilotEdge Forums

Hello Ladies and Gents,
I intend to automate the "rock solid" process Keith Smith outlined at...
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=2206&hilit=Tec+Routes#p13771 . The process is really quite simple in theory which energizes my expectation of success. Time will tell.

The idea is the user ...

• Opens the app...
• Clicks on the configurable "Open Browser" button...
• The app opens the previously selected browser and waits the configured interval...
• Loads "http://www.fly.faa.gov/...preferred_routes_database.jsp" into the browser and executes the "go" command which will take us to the the first web site.
• At this point the app will parse the page for "digital - Airport/Facility Directory" and automatically "click" the link which will take us to the second web site.
• User action will be required to click on the map at "CA." Unfortunately my coding skills do not let me automate this process (yet)...
• The app will (hopefully) "click" on the "Search" button...
• The app will parse the page for "Supplemental" and "click" the link...
• This opens the PDF file.

Ok that should get us to the PDF document. Now to give you a little picture, at the bottom of the app interface I hope to provide buttons for each "AREA" listed in the document. So...

• The user clicks on the desired button...
• The app parses the PDF and locates the desired topic like, "BURBANK AREA" as an example. Another possibility may be to go directly to the "From:" line and and parse for the desired ICAO...
• At this point the automation is complete and the pilot locates the desired TEC.

FYI - For those that may be interested in downloading the PDF it is simple to provide a modified app to serve your needs.

Simple, right?

One of my primary objectives is to design the app to be flexible to allow for a change in the document or even the documents location. Based on what we've seen this has to be a main driver. Beyond this I really have no other agenda, so if anyone has any suggestions feel free to share.

Lastly, I have no ego to bruise, so if one of you ladies or gentlemen can whip this application up in ten minutes, be my guest. My goal is to have an app that will automate as much as possible the tedium of the present method.

Thank you.

Hi Calvin,

There is an easy to use, 3rd party site which has aggregated the preferred route data (it appears to be current):
http://www.iflightplanner.com/Resources ... redRoutes/

Additionally, I'm not sure that the current method of locating the AFD PDF on the FAA web site needs automating. I don't think it's a bad idea that people become familiar with navigating the site, grabbing the PDF, and understanding its layout.

I might be in the minority, though.

Plus the FAA already has a website dedicated to this, but it's currently down for maintenance.

@Keith - Yes, I actually discovered that site doing some research on PilotEdge after I posted; however, I think the app will have a wider use than what was described in my OP, so I will still plan on coding it. As far as preferring not to automate the steps in favor of folks "learning" the FAA site, how much "learning" would actually happen? It would only take 3-5 trips for most folks before their eyes glazed over as they robotically followed the path anyway. Thoughts?

@Ryan - And therein lies the problem. "Down for maintenance" could mean indefinitely when used by government agencies.

Folks, granted the "need" for the app is rendered impotent by the presence of another resource, but for the sake of argument, let's assume the "iflightplanner" site was not there. Would it be of value? What about downloading a copy to your desktop? Would a "push-button" utility that could locate your desired TEC quickly be useful?

EDIT - I am trying to get back to my programming and this application is a simple enough start, so work with me a little here.

The website has been down for 3-4 days... and this is the first time I've ever seen it down. Everyone's acting like the sky is falling...

Ryan Geckler wrote:The website has been down for 3-4 days... and this is the first time I've ever seen it down. Everyone's acting like the sky is falling...

"Everyone?" To whom are you referring? Before things get too excited, exactly which site are you referring to? The old TEC select site I used to use has been down for weeks if not months. Also, let's stay on task here, please? This thread is about the utility of a potential piece of home-grown software.

This is the third post about something related to the TEC routes being gone.. and this is the site:

http://www.fly.faa.gov/Products/products.jsp -> route management tool

Yep, that's the site (I think). It was the same one the I-03 Rating used to point to, but that site has been down for weeks in my limited experience. I think the threads also bear out the same time frame, but as a controller you may have access to something I am unaware of at present. Since Keith has the I-03 pointing to iflight.com it is resolved.

Granted, this is the third thread touching the recognition of a TEC route tool as missing, but this thread is intended for the purpose of developing a utility to automate a manual step process in locating a specific TEC route. I would appreciate keeping the focus of comments, criticism, etc. on that subject. Like I said, I am using this application as a test bed for the next step in learning to code. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

Calvin,

It sounds like you're asking if it would be useful for an app that scrapes the FAA web site to download the Supplemental PDF, then parses it to extract the TEC routes.

If your ultimate goal is to present the user with routes, then a considerably cleaner solution would be to download the route database in CSV format (http://www.fly.faa.gov/Operations/Coded ... tes_db.csv) and build a web-based application to allow the user to search them.

At that point, you will have a slightly less functional application than iflightplanner.com.

If you want to build the app as a way to get into programming, by all means, go for it, and do it any way you like. I just hope you won't be too disappointed when you find that it doesn't receive widespread use. I did something similar when I was self-teaching myself Java. I was struggling with some Object Oriented concepts and decided to a web server log file analyzer. It worked great and produced some basic stats (this was before there were many open source solutions that did the same thing), but it completely unpolished. I never released it because its value was marginal. However, it absolutely served its purpose in that it kindled a love of Java that continues on to this day.

So, in short, build it if it'll make you happy to build it...but don't build it for the benefit of others, because, at least in my opinion, it's not a problem that needs solving, especially with the approach you're suggesting.

Remember, the PDF is constructed as a human-readable document, but it started life as raw, useful data. If you want to search that data, then work with the data, not the highly formatted rendition. You'd just be writing a parser to undo the work of the person that built the PDF tables.

Good points all and an opportunity to maybe learn something new (don't know diddly about XML and creating a web page on the fly). I guess I'm one of those fossils that still likes using the old *.exe to get things done. I forgot the world is moving to web and mobile apps too.
[Note to Self: get out once in a while.]
Thanks for your comments.