greatcirclemap.com Display flight routes on top of Google maps
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: May 2017
Posts: 11
greatcirclemap.com Display flight routes on top of Google maps
Hey everyone,
I recently finished building www.greatcirclemap.com.
The website lets you enter airport codes or names of cities and it then plots the great circle path between the airports on a map. If you've ever used www.gcmap.com or www.greatcirclemapper.net you know the concept. I have personally spent countless hours on these sites, but I thought they could be improved upon:
Gcmap.com is nice but the map-image is small and doesn't let you zoom in since it's just an image. Greatcirclemapper.net is zoomable since it uses google maps but is painfully slow because the entire page has to reload every time you put in more routes.
greatcirclemap.com should be much faster than both of those sites since it never reloads the page. If you type in a route, it will appear instantly.
TIP: Check the Raw input-toggle if you already know the airport codes. It will let you input ICAO- or IATA-codes manually so you don't have to bother with auto-complete. It should work exactly like gcmap.com.
If you have any suggestions or feedback, I would greatly appreciate it! Seriously, I've put in so much time in this project, so if you have any feedback at all I'd love to hear it.
I recently finished building www.greatcirclemap.com.
The website lets you enter airport codes or names of cities and it then plots the great circle path between the airports on a map. If you've ever used www.gcmap.com or www.greatcirclemapper.net you know the concept. I have personally spent countless hours on these sites, but I thought they could be improved upon:
Gcmap.com is nice but the map-image is small and doesn't let you zoom in since it's just an image. Greatcirclemapper.net is zoomable since it uses google maps but is painfully slow because the entire page has to reload every time you put in more routes.
greatcirclemap.com should be much faster than both of those sites since it never reloads the page. If you type in a route, it will appear instantly.
TIP: Check the Raw input-toggle if you already know the airport codes. It will let you input ICAO- or IATA-codes manually so you don't have to bother with auto-complete. It should work exactly like gcmap.com.
If you have any suggestions or feedback, I would greatly appreciate it! Seriously, I've put in so much time in this project, so if you have any feedback at all I'd love to hear it.
#2
Join Date: Oct 2015
Location: next to HAM
Programs: LH M+M
Posts: 960
I really like this.
For the heck of nit-bits, clicking on 'km' could switch through the other units? ;-)
on mobile (android7/chrome59) the 3 buttons dont appear - and since (by you?) the +/- buttons on the map are suppresed, zooming in/out cant work on mobile.
Yet: very cool, nice work!
For the heck of nit-bits, clicking on 'km' could switch through the other units? ;-)
on mobile (android7/chrome59) the 3 buttons dont appear - and since (by you?) the +/- buttons on the map are suppresed, zooming in/out cant work on mobile.
Yet: very cool, nice work!
#3
Original Poster
Join Date: May 2017
Posts: 11
Thanks for taking the time.
I did take out the +/- buttons. I thought noone used them haha. The way it's supposed to work on mobile is that if you touch the map or make a swiping motion, the side-menu will disappear. Then you can zoom in/out by pinching your fingers like on normal google maps.
That's a good idea. A lot of people will probably not realize that they can switch distance unit in the settings menu, since it's a bit hidden. I'll consider changing it.
Something I just thought of: Do you think it would be a good idea for the default unit to be miles for people in the US, while other people still get kilometers? That could make it less likely that someone would want to change the setting in the frist place...?
Something I just thought of: Do you think it would be a good idea for the default unit to be miles for people in the US, while other people still get kilometers? That could make it less likely that someone would want to change the setting in the frist place...?
#4
Join Date: Oct 2015
Location: next to HAM
Programs: LH M+M
Posts: 960
Got it.. swiping the query bar to the side reveals the settings-buttons. Then zooming with two fingers works here, indeed. Not a mobile-native..
Geo-IP based units? Why not.. speaking of it: which 'miles' are status relevant, statute or nautical? ;-)
Add a factor for J + F (in LH that would be 200 and 300%). Everybody lazy there
Geo-IP based units? Why not.. speaking of it: which 'miles' are status relevant, statute or nautical? ;-)
Add a factor for J + F (in LH that would be 200 and 300%). Everybody lazy there
#5
Original Poster
Join Date: May 2017
Posts: 11
Frequent flyer miles always refer to statute miles.
Btw, I went to Lufthansas miles calculator just to see if it gives you the correct amount of miles... and it doesn't. If you book FRA - BKK in P you get 5584 award miles, but the real distance is 5598 miles. A difference of (gasp) 14 miles. Hm...
Btw, I went to Lufthansas miles calculator just to see if it gives you the correct amount of miles... and it doesn't. If you book FRA - BKK in P you get 5584 award miles, but the real distance is 5598 miles. A difference of (gasp) 14 miles. Hm...
#6
Join Date: Sep 2012
Posts: 299
I didn't get a total distance on my desktop results (Win 10, Chrome or Edge). However, it was simple to use and fast. I also noticed that if you switch tabs while not in "raw input" mode, the entry field will be empty when you come back (could be annoying when typing a long list).
#7
Original Poster
Join Date: May 2017
Posts: 11
Good to hear you found it easy to use otherwise.
Good catch, I should be able to fix that for the next update.
#8
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: SFOSJCOAK
Programs: AA-EXP & 1MM+, AS, MR-LTT, HH Gold
Posts: 7,576
greatcirclemap.com should be much faster than both of those sites since it never reloads the page. If you type in a route, it will appear instantly.
Indeed it is fast! ^
My other use of flight map is to document my own travel in travel journals. I often print these journals. The problem so far with online maps are that they have low resolution (72dpi), not suitable for printing. Is it possible to have 300 dpi?
One more observation: the airport codes are written on top of a BLACK background, it is possible to have a TRANSPARENT background (no background)? I think it improves readability without background.
Thanks again!
#9
Original Poster
Join Date: May 2017
Posts: 11
I use the map in my trip report posted in the TR Forum of FT. Being able to get a larger map is a plus!
My other use of flight map is to document my own travel in travel journals. I often print these journals. The problem so far with online maps are that they have low resolution (72dpi), not suitable for printing. Is it possible to have 300 dpi?
My other use of flight map is to document my own travel in travel journals. I often print these journals. The problem so far with online maps are that they have low resolution (72dpi), not suitable for printing. Is it possible to have 300 dpi?
Thanks for the kind words by the way. Much appreciated.
#13
Join Date: Oct 2015
Location: next to HAM
Programs: LH M+M
Posts: 960
The homepage does, but not an actual route, like http://www.greatcirclemap.com/HAM-MRU
Does it? Tried three different browsers.
Does it? Tried three different browsers.
#14
Join Date: Jan 2014
Location: The Indo Jungle
Programs: AA EXP, IHG Spire
Posts: 1,319
Maybe the syntax changed because I did that from the home page and the resulting URL was http://www.greatcirclemap.com/?routes=HAM-MRU