Things you should know

Although this site is new, several questions came from email and these answers may help you to decide or not send a support inquiry.

general questions

Q: I would like to participate but my site has restrictions I am affraid people will not respect. What can I do?

A: If your site has restrictions, you have 2 options. First one is not share it. If you think you can brief new pilots in your site before they fly (or even fly with them), share your site but DO NOT map the correct coordinates. Instead, mark the coordinates as the name of the city. This way, people will know that there is a site in your region but they must contact you before to go there.

Q: Can I help the development of this site? Can you teach me to develop so I can help the site?

A: The best way to help the development of this site is to share as much places as possible. Being a part time project, I cannot teach people how to develop simply because I do not have time for it (I am sorry for that as I love to teach). Even if you have development skills, I would need time to discuss all database and code before you start to help. So, at this moment, besides sharing places, you can invite other pilots and send me suggestions via the Contact option above. Many of the suggestions coming from other pilots are being implemented. Read more about this in the blog.

places editing

Q: How can I check and update the information I have provided?

A: It is easy. When you are logged, you see a link Your Account on the right top of the page. Selecting this option you will see your personal page. In there, click the tab Contributions and you will see all your entries. To edit a place, just click its name. To delete a comment, for example, just click its name either.

Q: Can I update information on places already shared?

A: If you shared the place you can update the information about it, like restrictions or even the map coordinates. Due security issues, you are not able to update places shared by other members. If you see problems with information shared by others, use the Contact form and report the situation.

Q: Can I upload pictures while sharing a place?

A: Unfortunately not (it was a design decision with security in mind). You have to create your place before upload pictures, sharing your online videos, rating or add comments.

Q: Can I delete a place I shared?

A: Send me an message via the Contact area I will do it for you. My decision in not provide a button to delete was the fact you may not share a place anymore but others can still have it shared. So, when you ask to delete a place, please inform also the reason for that.

Q: Can I update a comment/rate/picture/video instead of just delete them?

A: Due the nature of comments/ratings/etc (they are just a small piece of information), it was easy to me just enable the deletion option. So, quick answer is no. If you really want to update a comment, delete it and write again. Sorry, I just had 30 days to learn PHP, MySQL and Dreaweaver and I had to take some hard decisions like that.

google maps

Q: Why my coordinates shows wrongly in the map?

A: GPS location is a sensitive topic. Officially no provider (Google Maps as an example) can point to the exactly location (they have a error margin from a few yard to a few miles according the location - if it is a populated location, error margin is lower than an inhabited area) due security reasons. That's why different providers show coordinates differently.

Q: What is the best way to enter coordinates in the map?

A: When sharing a new (or updating a) place you have two options. The easiest one is to use the map in the page and find your spot. Click there and automatically the site will fill out the fields Lat and Long. Second option is to get the coordinates from another site or application (like Google Earth) and copy them in the Lat and Long fields. The problem here is the fact Google Maps uses the numbers only format, instead of number/letter. Example: 34.43.82N must be entered as 34.4382.

Q: It takes time to select a spot in the map as it opens in a higher zoom level. Why?

A: The main difficult to me when developing was to define the first level of zoom for someone sharing a place. How the site could know that John Doe wants to enter a location in Ohio, let's say? My decision was to open the map in a high level of zoom (covering the entire US but also easy to international members to find their countries), enabling the user to zoom in till the location. I know it is a pain but, until I have a better idea (do you have one?) it was my development decision.

Q: Sometimes the take-off area is mapped over the water. Why?

A: Two reasons for that. If the site is near water and the member wants to protect the take-off area allowing people flying there only after a brief, he/she can map the coordinate over the water and inform the correct points after the briefing. The other reason is the way Google (and probably other providers) handles points at certain levels of zoom. In most cases, keep zooming in and you will see the icon in the correct position.

Thanks a lot!