[flyingearly]

The answer might be 'not possible', but still...

What I'd love to do is take a feed of weather and overlay this onto my work Google calendar to make it easier to see when flyable conditions overlap with gaps in my diary.

Windy.com has an API but it's too expensive for lowly old me ($900/year) and I don't need all the functionality.

Ideally, what I'd like to do is something as simple as possible: take a feed from somewhere (anywhere) and then create calendar entries corresponding, where the conditions are better than personal minimums.

For example, take the TAF data like SkyDemon does, and create calendar entries for each time period.

I'm technical enough not to be dangerous and happy to use IFTTT etc - any thoughts?

[TopCat]

TAFs are no good, as they're never more than a day or so ahead, and then only at the really big airports.

I use this (with a location set) for a quick look at the few days ahead:

https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/public/wea ... recast/map

I find it hard to believe that anything like that that overlaid on a calendar would be accurate enough far enough in advance to be worthwhile.

[Paul_Sengupta]

https://www.howtogeek.com/367936/how-to-automatically-show-the-weather-in-the-outlook-calendar/

https://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/how-to-add-weather-to-google-calendar/

[lobstaboy]

I find it hard to believe that anything like that that overlaid on a calendar would be accurate enough far enough in advance to be worthwhile.

I agree.

It doesn't matter whether or not there are forecasts that will overlay into the calender. For go/no go decisions for leisure flying there is no forecast that reliably will help more than three days ahead (and in some types of weather sequence, 24 hours ahead).

What level of time granularity would you want? All day? Morning or afternoon? A few hours at the end of the day?

And it's no good just having a forecast for home base. What about en route and your potential destinations?

You'll end up scrubbing days when you could have flown if you had adapted your plans to suit what the weather is doing on the day.
Fact is there are very few days that are simply, totally not flyable at some point during daylight.

[JAFO]

Unless it's clearly not flyable then I go to the airfield and think about it there, waiting for the next set of actuals, waiting for it to clear. I can't imagine making a decision to scrub based on a forecast in my diary days ahead.

I bet I'd fly half as much as I do if I tried.

[leiafee]

Seems like an If This Then That job - although it’s going to be a bit “tealeaves” deoending on you data source.

Some starting points perhaps https://ifttt.com/explore/weather-collection

[flyingearly]

Thanks all. I'm happy only have a 24 hours ahead view. The limiting factor is more my diary than the weather, in the sense that things tend to be quite busy at work. I don't have the option to go to the airfield and wait there for a flyable opportunity; I need to be a bit more deliberate and strike whenever there is a clear opportunity, at a time when I might have a gap between meetings.

I think the point I'm trying to address is that if I had the weather overlaid onto my work calendar - given that I look at my work calendar 30 - 40 times a day - I think I'd probably be more opportunistic when I see a gap, rather than my current behaviour which is to look at the weather for the week ahead (once or twice in a week) and then see if there are any gaps in my calendar to match.

IFTTT looks to have some weather underground configurations possible. I've added 'weather' to my google calendar from meteogroup but it's really just temperature, which isn't that useful.

I'll have a play and see what I can do!

[lobstaboy]

...my current behaviour which is to look at the weather for the week ahead (once or twice in a week)

Ah! You need to look at the weather for the week ahead once or twice a DAY at least. This is because the way the forecast is changing can tell you lots about what expect. At the moment you're looking too infrequently to get anything more than snapshots. (Your idea of putting it on your work calender will allow you to do this easily of course).
I find the Met Office stuff is good for 24 hours ahead and then you have to interpret various sources further out - pretty much making your own forecast based on your personal minima (as you rightly say).

[flyingearly]

...my current behaviour which is to look at the weather for the week ahead (once or twice in a week)

Ah! You need to look at the weather for the week ahead once or twice a DAY at least. This is because the way the forecast is changing can tell you lots about what expect. At the moment you're looking too infrequently to get anything more than snapshots. (Your idea of putting it on your work calender will allow you to do this easily of course).
I find the Met Office stuff is good for 24 hours ahead and then you have to interpret various sources further out - pretty much making your own forecast based on your personal minima (as you rightly say).

My lack of checking the weather is a result of bad habits / lack of time more than anything. I want to make flying a firm priority going forward, not a secondary thing that I think about only when I've got a spare moment. Right now, I only check the weather when I remember to check - and when I'm thinking 'I wonder if I can go flying?'. I need to change my mindset towards 'I'm going to go flying unless the weather or work conspire against me'.

[rikur_]

IFTTT looks to have some weather underground configurations possible. I've added 'weather' to my google calendar from meteogroup but it's really just temperature, which isn't that useful.

I'll have a play and see what I can do!

I like the idea - I might build it for myself too! (identical usecase) https://openweathermap.org/api/hourly-forecast#JSON seems to contain viz, wind, % cloud cover and probability of precipitation but not cloud base ..... but I think that's good enough for me.

[rikur_]

@flyingearly
Got something basic working

Simple mode: Add calendar URL of :

Code: Select allhttps://labs.f17.co.uk/apps/weather-calendar/?lat={latitude}&lng={longitude}

This will show hourly forecasts for the next 2 days

You can then tailor as follows

Code: Select allhttps://labs.f17.co.uk/apps/weather-calendar/?lat={latitude}&lng={longitude}&maxwind=25&maxgust=25&maxcrosswind=10&maxcrosswindgust=15&minviz=8&runwayorientation=220&show={all|ok|notok}

By setting your maximum wind tolerance, visibility minima, and crosswind / crosswind gust it will work out if within limits. You can either see all weather, or only show when it is 'ok' by selecting the value of the 'show' parameter.

e.g. https://labs.f17.co.uk/apps/weather-calendar/?lat=53.9&lng=-1.08&maxwind=25&maxgust=25&maxcrosswind=10&maxcrosswindgust=15&minviz=8&runwayorientation=220&show=ok would add entries to the calendar whenever it is ok to fly from Leeds

[Paul_Sengupta]

While flying at every opportunity is great, I would suggest that as you become more experienced, a half hour "trip round the patch" during a break will get a little samey and you'll want to go places and meet people. For this you'll pretty much need to block off a whole day to go flying. This is what many of us do at weekends. Weekends mean that we can devote the whole day, and also it means we're more likely to be able to meet up with friends/forumites to make the experience more social.

[flyingearly]

@flyingearly
Got something basic working

Simple mode: Add calendar URL of :

Code: Select allhttps://labs.f17.co.uk/apps/weather-calendar/?lat={latitude}&lng={longitude}

This will show hourly forecasts for the next 2 days

You can then tailor as follows

Code: Select allhttps://labs.f17.co.uk/apps/weather-calendar/?lat={latitude}&lng={longitude}&maxwind=25&maxgust=25&maxcrosswind=10&maxcrosswindgust=15&minviz=20&runwayorientation=220&show={all|ok|notok}

By setting your maximum wind tolerance, visibility minima, and crosswind / crosswind gust it will work out if within limits. You can either see all weather, or only show when it is 'ok' by selecting the value of the 'show' parameter.

e.g. https://labs.f17.co.uk/apps/weather-calendar/?lat=53.9&lng=-1.08&maxwind=25&maxgust=25&maxcrosswind=10&maxcrosswindgust=15&minviz=20&runwayorientation=220&show=ok would add entries to the calendar whenever it is ok to fly from Leeds

Oh wow - this is amazing! Trying it out now...

[flyingearly]

Just want to say at first glance, this looks amazing: exactly what I was looking for! It's put perfectly hourly slots in the diary for when the conditions are above personal minimums: absolutely amazing! Thank you!

[malcolmfrost]

Is the server down today? I'm not getting anything showing in my calendar? Importing the ics file fails as well, saying the file may be corrupt?