Releasing @av8nwx into the wild

I’ve built a basic twitterbot behind the @av8nwx twitter account as a way for pilots to get access to aviation weather reports via Twitter. I’ve been testing it over the past few weeks and it seems to work pretty well so Im going to send out some tweets about it and see if others find it handy. Information on how to use the system and what it can do are on the av8nwx page.

What is the point of something like this? Well, firstly I wanted to explore using Twitter as a way to send and recieve other types of information, not just personal messages. Secondly, I wanted a way to quickly get weather information on my phone when I was away from my computer and an internet connection. I’m using an iPhone so I can get radar and all the other great info from sites like ADDS but sometimes you dont want to wait for it all to load (or its too slow), you just want the information without having to spend an age browsing to find it.

Enter Mr Tweet

What really got me thinking about this was the message I got back when I signed up with MrTweet, a twitter-based service that suggests other twitterers who you might be interested in following, based on your interests and those of your followers. I dont have the actual message handy but it was something like ‘Hi there! Mr. Tweet, your personal Twitter assistant, is ready for work‘. Now this is just a message from a computer but the whole ‘ready for work’ part really got me thinking. How could I use this type of approach as a way to put a simple interface onto a more complex system housed on a server somewhere? Many people use twitter via the standard web interface or tools such as Tweetdeck, Twhirl and similar desktop applications. If I’m sitting at my desktop I can build a normal web page or use existing sites to get the information I need so that’s not quite so exciting. However, the integration of Twitter with SMS text messages allows you to break free of the internet connection if you want.

Using twitter you have the ability to use send text messages from your phone to some standard Twitter phone numbers in order to send public tweets and also direct messages to others. This provides a simple, flexible cellphone-based front end to a twitter-based messaging system. If you combine this with a script that uses the Twitter API to monitor incoming tweets and DMs sent to a particular Twitter account and which acts on the instructions contained in these messages you have a twitterbot that can do just about anything you want.

Whither the Weather?

As a pilot the weather is always a important factor, I check the aviation weather reports regardless of whether Im flying or not as its often faster than looking a the local TV and it gives me data I can use and interpret myself. The practical benefit of @av8nwx is that I can use SMS on my phone to text a DM to the account and then receive a SMS back on my phone when @av8nwx DMs me the weather information. This is a pretty convenient way to get weather info in some situations. I can also use Tweetie or Twitterific on the iPhone but composing a DM on those is slower than quickly sending a DM via a SMS text message.

Currently the bot will return METAR and TAF reports for stations which provide these reports (List of international METAR stations). It could probably do a lot more  things, the only restriction being the 140 character input and output limits and cost of text messages:

Its not going to return graphical data (though it could send back a URL to that data). Currently you have to send in a new request to get new data – with some more coding it could be set up to send things like:

• the next 3 metars for a particular station
• alert you if the current winds (in the METAR report) got above/below a certain speed: ‘set windalert if kord morethan 15‘ might check the KORD metar periodically and send you a DM if the wind went above 15kts
• alert if thunderstorms were in the forecast at a station(s) you were interested in, etc.
• It could do E6B conversions ’6 gal fuel = ? lb’
• crosswind components (‘xwind rwy 22 kmwc’) using the current METAR wind reports

Currently its pretty basic but it does work, the av8nwx page describes how to set it up and the commands you can currently use.  I’d be really interested in any opinions people might have and suggestions for other things that it could do to help provide some useful additional information to the aviation community.

Disclaimer: every effort is made to provide current, up to date weather information but this is experimental and there are most likely bugs and hence this should not be used as a replacement for an official weather briefing. It can be useful to provide enhanced situational awareness but should be used in concert with other approved information sources such as those provided by the Aviation Digital Data Service (ADDS), DUATS and other FAA approved weather providers.