TM Airports

[mapcat]

About a month ago I started playing around with Copilot and discovered that it likes to code. Eventually this happened, and Jim graciously agreed to host it on TravelMapping:

https://tmairports.teresco.org/

Here's how it works:

The current output is simple: symbols at airports worldwide that show a user's visits to that airport. Users who have departed an airport will see a green upward-pointing triangle, and users who have arrived at an airport will see one in red pointing downward. Airports where users experienced a layover (with or without a plane change) appear as a blue circle surrounding the triangles.


How to create a map

Maps are generated from "alist" files submitted by users via GitHub or email, however they normally submit their travel updates. The map shows all airports the user has visited: arrivals, departures, and layovers (refueling stops are considered layovers for now).

The filename should be [username].alist. In the file, user data should use the following format:

[IATA Airport Code] [N] [N]* [N]*

*the third and fourth fields are optional.

N can be any of the following codes: A (for arrival), D (for departure), and L (for layover).

Example file lines:

Code	Meaning
ATL A D L	Traveler arrived at and departed from Atlanta, and had a layover there.
LAX A D	Traveler arrived at and departed from Los Angeles.
ORD L	Traveler had a layover at Chicago O'Hare, but no arrival or departure.

Each airport should be on a separate line. The order of the A, D, and L does not matter. The file should be submitted via a GitHub pull request at TravelMapping/AirportData/air/data (email submissions will be available soon but are not currently supported). Once the file is merged, their map should update automatically within a few minutes. Users can locate their maps by choosing their username from the drop-down menu.

There is only one option for the map currently (show all airports, or only visited airports).

More airports will be added. If a user submits an .alist with an airport not currently in airports.csv, that airport will be flagged automatically, which will prompt me to add it to the database. So please include all airports you've visited in your .alist.

Hovering over an airport (or clicking on the icon) will identify it with the name pulled from a list stored in airports.csv.


Known issues:

• User is not persistent. When loading the map, it will default to the first username in the list.
• After a user's .alist is updated, the browser cache must be cleared manually in order to see the updated map.
• Many airports are missing. So far only airports visited by at least one user have been added.
• Airport placement is inconsistent. Some icons are centered on runways, some on terminals, and some at other positions on airport property. Many locations were automatically generated using Copilot.
• The location defaults to the U.S., but it's worth exploring a default location personalized to a user's visited airports.

Future plans and items for discussion:

• A user page with a list of airports visited will be added eventually.
• A list of users who have visited an airport may also be added.
• Additional basemaps may become available.
• The map currently shows any airports requested by users. This may become difficult to maintain. A decision will need to be reached regarding which airports should be included. Public airports with scheduled commercial flights are the main scope for the project, but "public", "scheduled", and "commercial" may need to be clarified.
• Other information (such as city, state, and/or country) may be added to the data identifying airports.

I hope users find this useful. Let me know if you have any questions or ideas, and please make suggestions for improvements and related pages (user page, rankings, etc). Or share your thoughts at GitHub: https://github.com/TravelMapping/AirportData

[si404]

Added my stuff - https://github.com/TravelMapping/AirportData/pull/3

This point thing has potential for other uses - you could do a similar thing with other things that's basically a binary "I've been here" with some ability to give different codes to describe your visit. Eg National Parks (though preferably that would have areas that are coloured rather than points. But National Historic Sites would probably work better as points).

[Jim]

I pulled in a couple of new .alist files on GitHub then pulled the results down onto the TM server.  So the two new users are there now.

I couldn't force a hard enough reload in Firefox to see the updates, maybe I have to manually clear something from its cache.  I'm seeing the latest data when I load in a different browser.

[si404]

An issue I found in my data is that I listed each flight separately in order, and the data only shows the final line with that airport in rather than stacking the multiple lines and saying that I've both landed and departed.

This is perhaps more a feature request than a bug to fix.

[mapcat]

An issue I found in my data is that I listed each flight separately in order, and the data only shows the final line with that airport in rather than stacking the multiple lines and saying that I've both landed and departed.

This is perhaps more a feature request than a bug to fix.

Thanks for trying that. I had not considered that users might want to enter data that way, but will work on it some more and see if it's possible for the script to combine data from lines that begin with the same code.

[mapcat]

I pulled in a couple of new .alist files on GitHub then pulled the results down onto the TM server.  So the two new users are there now.

I couldn't force a hard enough reload in Firefox to see the updates, maybe I have to manually clear something from its cache.  I'm seeing the latest data when I load in a different browser.

I'll look into that since I usually don't have that issue after it rebuilds the pages.

[mapcat]

This point thing has potential for other uses - you could do a similar thing with other things that's basically a binary "I've been here" with some ability to give different codes to describe your visit. Eg National Parks (though preferably that would have areas that are coloured rather than points. But National Historic Sites would probably work better as points).

Great ideas! I agree that national parks should be areas instead of points, but the scripts here should be easy to modify for other travel-related destination displays, assuming there's a demand not already being met somewhere else.

[neroute2]

One potential use for the point tracking: which freeway interchanges you've used. Obviously no new wpt files are needed, just a new list file and a way to parse it.

[Griffith]

NAN airport code is shown as Nan Nakhon in Thailand, the correct code for that airport is NNT.
NAN is actually Nadi International in Fiji

[bejacob]

NAN is actually Nadi International in Fiji

That's pretty important to me as back in the 1970s Nadi was an important fuel stop between Australia and the US. Stopped there several times as a kid on trips between SYD and SFO. NAN and HNL were almost always part of that route. The first time I got to do it nonstop was in 1977 on a Pan Am 747SP. At the time, it was the longest flight in the world.

[mapcat]

Thanks for catching that. Just fixed the csv, and the map should update in the next hour or so.

The user(s) with NAN in their .alist will need to change it to NNT.

First broken .alist! That didn't take long.

[mapcat]

Thanks to all for the submissions. They should all be up now. If the map hasn't updated for you yet, you'll need to clear your cache.