PIREPMap

✈️ Overview

PIREPMap is an advanced aviation situational awareness app for pilots, displaying real-time weather data, submitted by pilots, SIGMET overlays, airspace boundaries, and user-submitted PIREPs for weather phenomena. It includes live traffic from ADS-B Exchange, breadcrumb tracking, and flight planning support via GPX tracks.

Pilots can save live information for Cloud, Wind, Turbulence, Lightning or Hazards that may help other pilots in their situational awareness. These information pins will then be shared and shown on all other instances of PIREPMap running on an iOS Device.

PIREPMap User Documentation

Version: 3.3

Platform: iOS iPad and iPhone platforms

Developer: Michael Parsons

Last Updated: June 2025

🗺️ Main Features

🌩️ PIREP Submission

Users can submit weather reports via the map interface:

  • Cloud Base Reports
    • Location & base altitude
    • Remarks (optional)
  • Wind Reports
    • Direction
    • Speed
    • Altitude
    • Remarks
  • Rain Reports
    • Location only
  • Lightning Reports
    • Location & optional remarks
  • Turbulence Reports
    • Location
    • Intensity: Light, Moderate, Severe

📍 All PIREPs appear as map pins with SF Symbols and brief inline labels.

Rain Label
Warning / Hazard Label
Cloud Label
Wind Label
Lightning observed

🛬 Airspace Overlays

  • Toggle “Show Airspace” to load Class A–G, Restricted, and Danger areas
  • Colored by ICAO class:
    • A/B: Black
    • C: Purple
    • D: Blue
    • E: Orange
    • F: Gray
    • G: Red
    • Restricted: Yellow
    • Danger: Red
  • Polygon with altitude label (e.g., SFC–FL55)

⚠️ SIGMETs

  • Red polygon overlays
  • Label includes SIGMET text (e.g., EMBD TS, SEV TURB)
  • Drawn above airspace polygons

🛰️ ADS-B Traffic

  • Enabled via toggle (“Traffic On/Off”)
  • Data from ADS-B Exchange (via RapidAPI)
  • Aircraft icons:
    • Rotate based on heading
    • Color-coded by vertical proximity:
      • Blue: >5000 ft
      • Orange: within 1000 ft
      • Red: within 500 ft
  • Arrows will show up if climbing and down if descending
  • Shows:
    • Aircraft type
    • Altitude
    • Callsign (if available)

📍 Location & Breadcrumb Trail

  • Live GPS tracking with arrow icon
  • Accuracy indicator (color-coded)
  • Breadcrumb trail shows recent movement
  • Option to filter nearby traffic by altitude ±5000 ft

🧭 GPX Route

  • Route shown on the map
  • Used for basic nav planning or flight path overlays

🌐 Base Map Options

  • Support for:
    • Apple Map
  • Map automatically adjusts layers when panned

🛠️ UI Features

  • Sidebar LED indicators
    • Green: Data OK
    • Red: Network issue
    • Orange: GPS accuracy degraded
    • Dashboard showing altitude (GPS) speed (KTS) and Heading
  • Map overlays:
    • “Show Data Age” picker
    • Report filtering (Rain, Wind, Cloud, etc.)
    • Airport filter: Heliport / Small / Medium / Large

🧾 Subscription Features

(If using StoreKit 2 subscription model)

  • Paywall:
    • Automatically hides if verified

📤 Submitting a Report

  1. Select report type (Cloud, Wind, Rain, etc.)
  2. Enter optional details
  3. Confirm using current GPS location
  4. Submitted to Online Database and appears on map

🧪 Troubleshooting

  • App not refreshing?
    • Check internet connection (network LED will show red).
  • No GPS?
    • Ensure location permission is granted in iOS Settings.
  • ADS-B data not showing?
    • Ensure token for ADS-B Exchange is valid.
  • Airspace not loading?
    • Pan the map slightly to trigger region refresh.

📍 Glossary

  • METAR: Meteorological Aerodrome Report
  • PIREP: Pilot Report (user-submitted)
  • SIGMET: Significant Meteorological Information
  • SFC: Surface
  • FLXXX: Flight Level (e.g., FL55 = 5500 ft std alt)

🔐 Privacy

PIREPMap collects anonymous location data for displaying breadcrumb trails and PIREP locations. No personal data is stored or transmitted.

📞 Support

For bugs or feedback, contact:

📧 pirepmap@avi8global.uk

🕸️