Hi all,

The first thing I would like to say is thanks for sticking with me. I haven't communicated nearly enough but I have been working hard on the site. Unfortunately, I have not yet implemented a lot of what I'm planning to do. Work and family commitments have slowed this process down.

AIRPORT GUIDE ON YOUR SITE - At my own peril with the search engines, I have decided to redo my link structure to make it easier for you to add links to your favorite airport right on your web site. The new linking is http://AirportGuide.com/id/XXXX where XXXX is the ICAO, IATA, or FAA ID. You can read more about direct linking in the development blog.

BAD LINK FIX - I started working again on the site today and noticed that the video and Buy Now link for the LogTen Pro logbook for Mac, iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad was not working. I have fixed it now so you can try out the LogTen Pro links.

AIRPORT SEARCH UPDATE - I have updated the Airport Search Form search capabilities. This search is found in the top left area of the main content on most every screen. Anyway, the search is really cool now in that it will take any number of words or portions of words and perform an AND search on them. So what does this mean to you? In the past you could only search on a single word and use wild card characters on either end of the word to find something. Now you can type something like Angeles heli and find two records that contain both words in any combination of the ICAO ID, FAA ID, IATA ID, Name, City, State, Country, and Type.

You will also notice that the headers are links. Clicking on any of them will sort the list by that column. A column heading in green, like Country shown below, is the column sorted on.

ICAO	FAA	IATA	Name	City	State	Country	Type
	98CA		Everest & Jennings Helistop Nr 1	Los Angeles	California	United States	Heliport
	8CL5		R I Ai Canoga Park B/2 Helistop	Los Angeles	California	United States	Heliport

AIRMEN CERTIFICATED DATABASE - I just updated the airmen certificated database. It's such a massive database that I have been letting it slide for the other items above. Well, it was time so have fun searching.

DETAILED AIRPORT PAGE - This is next on my list. I want to completely update the layout of the detailed airport pages. I have received feedback saying thanks for having all of the information in one place BUT I have also received feedback saying too much information. Here's my take on this. All of the information is important but to different sets of people, therefore, the goal is to maintain all of the information but display it so it is right there but out of the way. You will see what I'm talking about when I get around to this page.

There are so many more items on my plate here that I don't want to mention them for fear of my well-funded and well-staffed (at least 1 full time person) competitors implementing before me. Stay tuned as there is much coming......

If there is anything you would like to see or any changes to the site to make it easier to use, please tell me about it.

Happy flying and remember to keep the dirty side down,

Mike

Hi all,

I have been watching how people have been using this site and the questions they ask and have come to the conclusion that my redesign over the last 8 months has helped in some cases but hasn't solved the simple problem of finding what you need quickly. AirportGuide.com has so much information and so many different ways to interact with it that it can be difficult at times to figure out the best approach to accomplish something.

That being said, I am continuing to refine the user interface to help you find what you want quickly. When the volcano blew up in Iceland last week, my traffic went through the roof because I had recently added worldwide airport delay pages. That idea came from an AirportGuide.com user.

Any of you can come up with a great idea that will show up on this site. If you have one, please let me know.

Anyway, it's back to the redesign for me.

Mike

Well, after months of work, the new look and feel of Airport Guide has been deployed.* Please tell me what you think, good or bad.

I would like to point out a few new features to look for.

• At the top of every page you will see a pulsating red button. Click on it and a pull down window deploys with Airport Delay maps. I love this feature!
• You will notice a question mark in a small circle next to many titles and fields throughout the site. Just click on it for help and definitions on that section.
• All of the site navigation has been moved into a horizontal green bar with drop down menus. This should provide you a more friendly user experience when trying to find your way around the site.
• Speaking of navigation, I found that people coming to the site were not really sure where they should go since the site is now catering to both pilots and travelers. The site is now broken into six main areas:

• • Pilot Information - This area encompasses the original Airport Guide where you can Browse Airports, perform an Airport Search (you can actually do this on every page now in the upper left of the page) and see detailed information about an airport such as runways, frequencies, approach plates, FBOs, etc. You can also search our Certificated Airmen, Navaids, and other databases (coming soon) and get Customs Forms to name a few.
• • Pilot Resources - Here you can try out some great pilot logbooks, read the entire FARs and AIM, update FBO and fuel information, review NTSB Accident Reports, use Aviation Calulators, and read interesting aviation related white papers. There is more than I can list here but keep checking back as I will be constantly adding to this area. If you have any ideas for what you would like to see in this area please tell me.
• • Pilot Store - You need supplies so this is where you look for them. There is an Aircraft for Sale/Auction page as well as a full blown aviation store with most any pilot supply you could need including:

• • • Aviation Parts
• • • Headsets
• • • Flight Bags
• • • Jackets
• • • Aeronautical Charts
• • • GPS
• • • Pilot Courses
• • • Logbooks
• • • Gifts

• • Traveler Information -
• • Travel Planning -
• • Travel Store -

* Note: The detailed airport pages are undergoing their own redesign and should be deployed within a week.

AirportGuide.com has been undergoing a 4 month site redesign to address our traveler visitors as well as our pilot visitors. I may be wrong but I believe we are the first site to take it to this level of catering to both groups.

As I start to transition to the new site this week, please be patient. You may notice some pages have changed and some haven't. This is a result of selectively replacing pages as they are proven to work.

Also note that this is just the beginning as I have a ton of ideas to implement. Look around the site and you may see glimpses of what is to come.

As always, if you feel you have a new feature, data source, web tool, idea, etc., that would be a good fit for this site then please contact me.

Thanks! --Mike

Sorry I haven't written in a while but I have been overwhelmed with the work on this site. It may look quite comprehensive to most of you but the truth of the matter is that only about 10% of my vision is functioning right now.

I read all feedback that users of the site have been providing to me and find I agree with most comments. Some comments such as
- Less is more
- I like all the information on one page
- I wish you had terminal maps
- etc.

The first two seem a bit contradictory but I have though of a way to have all airport information on one page without cluttering it up. This will take some time to get right but it will be worth it when it's done. The bottom line is I'm performing a COMPREHENSIVE SITE REDESIGN to enhance the user experience.

I am adding a full-blown weather section so you will never have to look at another site no matter what your weather needs are.

Airport Parking has now been added to 138 major airport pages. Look for the Red button in the upper right of the page. Also, look for a dedicated parking page in the future.

There are so many more things I'm working on that I can't list here. Just keep checking back to see the improvements.

Remember to keep the dirty side down. :)

Mike

Airport Guide is pleased to offer Aircraft For Sale through the eBay network. Check it out for yourself.
Whether you are looking for a Cessna, Piper, Beechcraft, Aviat, Lancair, Cirrus, Grumman, Diamond, or any other type of aircraft, you've come to the right place.

AirportGuide.com is pleased to provide the immediate availability of U.S. Terminal Procedures charts online*. As we refine this enhancement to AirportGuide.com, we solicit your suggestions for how this service can be made more convenient and useful to you. Please send your comments and suggestions to info@airportguide.com.

The types of charts available are as follows :
APD - Airport Diagram
DP - Departure Procedures
IAP - Instrument Approach Procedures
MIN - Minimums
STAR - Standard Terminal Arrival Route

* Charts may be found on an individual airport's page. Perform a search for an airport and scroll down the page to locate them.

Thanks for your assistance as we improve the process by which we provide these services to you.

I just realized that when I put up the direct linking blog post last summer, I forgot to tell you about another little popup feature I created for YOUR websites. It's a small popup screen with basic airport info. This will keep visitors on your site and if they want more info they can just click a link.

So here is how it all works.

MINI POPUP
http://www.AirportGuide.com/search-mini/XXXX
where XXXX is any 3 or 4 letter airport id (ICAO, FAA, or IATA)

To link to John F Kennedy airport in New York use the following:
http://www.AirportGuide.com/search-mini/KJFK

If you are at a smaller airport with only three letters as the identifier such as Hendersonville, North Carolina’s 0A7 just type the following:
http://www.AirportGuide.com/search-mini/0A7

At the top right of all airport pages there are two buttons

and

Each of these will allow you to view ALL aircraft arriving or departing from an airport. This, of course, has some restrictions as it is only valid for public use airports AND the aircraft will have had to have filed a flight plan so they are being tracked. For anyone leaving to catch a flight or picking someone up from the airport, this will have everything you should need.

ENJOY!
Mike

You can now check your airline flight status by Airline Name and Flight Number or by Departure and Arrival Airports. Just click on the Flight Tracker link in the Navigation Menu.