Sources & confidence
The workstation combines three different kinds of information. They are not interchangeable, and a live weather label does not make the remaining results operational data.
- Live source
- NOAA Aviation Weather Center polygons and available bulletin fields, labeled with the retrieval time. Retrieval is not issuance time or a guarantee of completeness.
- Reference data
- Bundled airport coordinates, elevations, approximate runway headings and aircraft publication values. Verify current charts, Chart Supplement / AIP and serial-applicable aircraft records.
- Pilot-entered / illustrative
- Qualifications, maintenance, equipment, loading, winds and personal minimums are entered by the pilot. Empty weights, performance and destination ceiling / visibility examples are illustrative.
NOAA weather retrieval
Three fixed AWC GeoJSON endpoints are requested together: /sigmet, /airsigmet and /isigmet. Each request has a 12-second timeout. Successful combined results are cached for five minutes, with concurrent requests deduplicated within the running server instance. Refresh may return that cached snapshot.
A valid empty response is not a weather-feed failure. If any endpoint fails, the workstation switches to explicitly synthetic representative polygons rather than presenting partial coverage as complete. The synthetic fallback is not current weather.
Polygon and MultiPolygon products are normalized into categories including convective, turbulence, icing, IFR and other. The raw bulletin viewer displays the returned text when supplied; missing fields remain unknown. A category describes the received product, not a complete assessment of route weather.
Actual geographic coordinates are projected onto bundled geographic reference data. This is not an aeronautical chart. SIGMETs alone do not cover every hazard; absence of an intersection is not evidence of safe weather.
NOAA AWC API documentation ↗Weight & balance
Station moment = station weight × station arm
CG = sum of station moments / total weight
Landing weight and moment subtract modeled fuel burn at the fuel station arm. Burn is capped at the fuel onboard; this prevents negative fuel in the loading calculation but does not imply that the flight is achievable. Both takeoff and landing points are checked against the selected profile’s maximum weight and CG boundaries. Forward limits are interpolated between the profile’s published reference points.
All empty-weight and empty-CG records in the current profiles are fictional. The reference envelope is not a certification of a particular tail number. Actual empty-weight reports, equipment changes, serial applicability, approved revision and station limits must be checked before operational use.
Cessna 172S Skyhawk
C172S reference profile · user-supplied arms; weight-dependent forward limit. Reference only · verify approved POH, serial applicability and actual empty-weight record.
Front / rear / baggage / fuel arms: 37 / 73 / 95 / 48 in aft of datum. Maximum reference weight: 2,550 lb.
Reference publication ↗Piper PA-28-181 Archer III
Archer III POH report VB-1563, §2.13 and §6 loading form. POH-transcribed normal-category reference · verify serial applicability, revisions and actual empty-weight record.
Front / rear / baggage / fuel arms: 80.5 / 118.1 / 142.8 / 95 in aft of datum. Maximum reference weight: 2,550 lb.
Reference publication ↗Cirrus SR22 G6
SR22 G6 POH P/N 13772-006 Reissue A (2020), Fig 2-1 and Fig 6-3. POH-transcribed reference · verify serial applicability, revisions and actual empty-weight record.
Front / rear / baggage / fuel arms: 143.5 / 180 / 208 / 154.9 in aft of datum. Maximum reference weight: 3,600 lb.
Reference publication ↗Runway performance, fuel & wind
Runway distances use the same C172-based concept formula for every aircraft profile. This is not a POH interpolation or an aircraft-specific takeoff calculation.
Density altitude = elevation + 120 × (OAT − ISA temperature)
Ground roll = 960 × (weight / 2,400)² × max(0.65, 1 + density altitude / 10,000)
50 ft obstacle distance = ground roll × 1.5
The current performance diagram compares these distances with a fixed 6,002 ft reference runway, not the destination runway selected in the wind panel. Standard pressure, a dry level runway and zero wind are assumed. Surface, slope, obstacle survey and wind corrections are not applied.
Surface wind components use the angle between entered wind-from direction and runway heading: headwind = speed × cos(angle), crosswind = speed × sin(angle). Gust crosswind uses the larger of sustained and gust speed. Heading and wind must share the same directional reference. Airport runway headings are approximate magnetic values derived from designators; wind is entered, not live METAR.
Reserve minutes = max(0, (onboard fuel − trip fuel) / consumption × 60)
If route ETE is unavailable, the legacy illustrative duration is 1.55 h + (altitude − 5,500) / 20,000. Reserve is compared with a fixed 60-minute demonstration threshold, not a user-adjustable or regulatory fuel requirement. Alternate, contingency, taxi-specific and phase-specific fuel are not calculated.
Contextual findings
Rules combine route intersections, loading, personal minimums and pilot-entered records. Examples include a gust crosswind above the entered minimum, a modeled fuel shortfall, an icing intersection with no FIKI approval entered, or inoperative equipment requiring review. Sources and the inputs behind each finding are displayed for inspection.
Certificate, instrument rating, time in type, recent landings / approaches, flight review, medical expiry and maintenance / equipment fields are self-reported. They are not verified against logbooks, an aircraft registry or maintenance records. Missing information is not confirmation of currency or airworthiness.
Regulatory references are prompts to verify the applicable rule, exceptions and privileges, not legal determinations. The current flight-review reminder uses a 730-day approximation rather than a full calendar-month calculation. Instrument currency requires more than an approach count. Passenger detection currently uses rear-seat load; front-seat passengers are not identified separately.
Overwater and international reminders use coarse route-identifier heuristics, not coastline/gliding-distance or border analysis. Demonstration ceiling and visibility remain 1,800 ft AGL / 6 SM; they are not an official destination forecast.
Scenario comparisons
A comparison copies the current flight inputs. Changing departure hour, cruise altitude or rear payload recalculates route passage, loading, fuel and the illustrative performance numbers. The original remains unchanged until the scenario is applied.
Both columns use the same weather snapshot and route. A departure change only changes validity overlap; it does not forecast polygon movement, new SIGMET issuance or improved conditions. The comparison’s threshold count is a modeled subset, not a complete risk score or all pilot / aircraft findings.
Coverage & remaining limitations
The original workspace, route builder, NOAA bulletins, aircraft reference envelopes, wind components, pilot / aircraft records and scenario controls are present. The following boundaries remain important:
- No live METAR / TAF, NOTAM, terrain, obstacle, radar or comprehensive airspace briefing.
- No serial-verified aircraft loading or approved aircraft-specific performance.
- No verified logbook, training-in-conditions or maintenance-document ingestion; records remain manually entered.
- Signed-in pilot and aircraft grounding records sync to the account. Flight setups and scenario histories are not yet saved across devices.
- Airport coverage is limited; runway length in the performance diagram remains a separate fixed reference.
These limitations are not removed by a lack of warnings. Help & FAQs explains the current controls and common questions.