Show HN: My new flight tracker, flightlite.com | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: My new flight tracker, flightlite.com

11 pointswhiskers17 comments

http://flightlite.com

Flightlite is a visual flight tracker combining 3D and overhead views and flight information.

It is my first launch since I started reading Hacker News and was developed as a side project for the past 6 months or so. I made the final push on it this morning to get it to a semi-launchable state.

- The best coverage is US and UK

- Sometimes the data I get is a bit crazy (spent a lot of effort to correct/sanitise it but it's not perfect)

- Doesn't work in IE 64bit or Linux due to Google Earth not being available

I'm now trying to work out how to take this further, if there is anywhere to take it that is! Stuff I'm really interested in:

- People with ties in the relevant industries (travel, airlines, flight data) who see potential for this to grow.

- A sample of the raw FAA ASDI data so I can compare it's usability with the feed I'm consuming (perhaps someone has had access to it?)

- Any ideas on how to make this profitable enough to pay for it's own costs and justify me spending some time on it to improve it in the future.

So i'm wondering about the possibility of either co-branding with a sponsor or selling unit space for specific routes (think of Air New Zealand branding on the pages when people are tracking any of their flights for example).

(p.s. I posted this earlier and made a mess of it, feel free to delete my previous submission).

I just tried using the site. It seems quite a bit rough around the edges.

The search bar looks kind of strange with the black background and the bars between each character. I wasn't even sure where I should start typing as the search bar doesn't really look like a search bar. From http://sivers.org/quirks, "The best design should do what people expect, and should not make them think."

Also, I tried searching for my flight today that had been canceled. It was American Airlines flight 5066, but I entered "5066", "AA5066", and "American Airlines" and searching the flights, and could not find it.

Finally, how you checked out flightcaster.com? It's a YC startup from 2009. I'm not sure how your site does much different than that website other than the google earth visualization. I was using flightcaster.com and flightstats.com to check the status of my flight today. Perhaps you could just focus on the google earth visualization and import the data from these websites?

Sorry to be so critical above, but I hope this helps in some way. Congrats on your first launch!

Criticism is welcome, no worries!

The search bar is meant to give the feel of the old style departure boards with the mechanical displays - perhaps it's an analogy too far with the results also presented that way.

I'll look into why AA5066 didn't work, it should have. Thanks for the heads up!

I think flightcaster.com is doing something different really - flightlite.com is all about what's in the air at the moment, more a way to track the progress of a visiting friend or just take a peek at a flight you might be taking in the future (seeing what you'd be passing over etc). Maybe there aren't really enough people interested in that - who knows!

AA5066 is a codeshare operated by a different airline which is why it didn't come back in the search for AA5066 (it is instead CHQ5066).

I'm looking into a way to support this though as it's not exactly helpful :)

I've reworked the search functionality somewhat - I hope it feels easier/clearer to use now.

That search functionality is much better! The changes you made look good. However, when I search for 'CHQ5066' and it brings a list of flights, I click on one flight and it brings up a page with the Fatal Error message: http://flightlite.com/track/CHQ5066/2010-12-28T09:55

Also you say "flightlite.com is all about what's in the air at the moment". Think about how it would be easiest to present this information. Rather than make something that looks like a competitor to flightcaster.com or flightstats.com, try to make something that compliments it.

As veb said, using the Google Maps API is probably better than Google Earth since users wouldn't have to install anything. Perhaps you could have a map of one city on the front page and show all the lines of each flight going into and out of the city. See the Facebook friend visualization for inspiration: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2002742

Ok, that's it for now. I actually have a flight to catch tomorrow since that AA one got canceled. Feel free to contact me privately (contact info is in my profile) if you want more feedback after making some changes on your site.

Finally, remember what Paul Graham says: It's better to make something a few users love than a lot of users only like. (Paraphrased from http://www.paulgraham.com/13sentences.html)

Wise words!

Thanks for the offer to take this chat further - I'll be in touch when I've worked on it some more. Version 2.0 anyone? :)

I really liked the simplicity of the landing page, and especially liked the 'Example' flight-code, so I could search. The page it bought me to wasn't as good in my opinion - you've gone from simple to complex very quickly.

Google Earth plugin? I don't have that, do you know what market of people actually do? Perhaps you can use a basic Map API, using the GE Plugin as a an afterthought feature...

I didn't really like the usage of the Google Ads either, if you've just launched... surely the ads should be kept out until everything is ironed out?

Don't get me wrong, I believe this is awesome. Keep up the good work. :)

Thanks for the feedback :)

I am definitely intending to fallback on a standard Google Map view for the main area if Google Earth is not installed (with the link to install etc). But I figured I had to get something launched so stripped it for now!

Google Ads, yes it's a good point I'll just remove for now.

I've removed some of the fluff from the tracking page to try to make it easier to use. I hope you agree!

Getting a nice fatal error, mate. :-)

Which flight number?

Can't reply to your post below (don't know why) - I'm not sure how you got that link (I can't get it offered by the search, the time in it is wrong - hence the problem).

My contact details are in my profil if you can offer more information - really appreciate the input. :)

http://flightlite.com/track/NZ1/2010-12-27T04:45

Cool.

Checked out a random flight and came across a very late flight (just under 41 years?). DEPARTED 38m ago (359304h 7m late)

As far as a growth/monetization idea (unsure if this already exists or can be improved) - add a pay feature that can text/email/call? if a flight is ahead of schedule or delayed. This maybe too much of a tangent, but hope it helps.

Hehe, on odd occasions the departure time from my provider comes back as the unix epoch (Jan 1st 1970) so I suspect that's what you saw.

Can you remember the flight number so I can investigate further?

I've thought about the alerts idea (text,email,call) but I'm not confident the data is good enough for that yet, I'd hate to give people the wrong information!

I wish I could - my talents for memorizing randomly generated flight numbers is lacking :(. I will play around with it some more and drop a comment here if it reoccurs.

http://flightlite.com

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