As per normal, a ton of behind-the-scenes changes, improvements, and features have continued to be worked on and released over the past month. Aeroconomy has been a huge success, and we’ll shortly be rolling out more updates very soon.

You may have noticed, over the last couple of day,s some major improvements to our radar pages (Global Radar and VA Radar pages) in addition to some enhancements to our pilots’ Web GPS too.

In this blog post, I’ll update you on some of the major updates on both Fshub and Aeroconomy, you’ll have to forgive me that I’ve probably forgotten a lot of the smaller enhancements and updates that have been deployed this month too.

Global (and VA) Radar Updates

The cost for using Google Maps was starting to get extremely prohibitive for me, and so, despite trying to get around to “sorting this out”, by “sorting this out” I mean, switching to another mapping/library provider. I spent the last few days converting our radar maps and pilot Web GPS maps (of which I’ll cover in the next section) to use the OSM-compatible providers.

I also took the time to add weather overlays, too, of which I’m sure you will notice shortly (if you haven’t already).

In addition to the above, as it appears that many of you have specific preferences on map styles, the global radar and virtual airline radar maps now have four different styles which are now user-changeable and will persist (save) against your account.

You may have noticed that I have reduced the size of the aircraft too, I believe that, visually, this looks better.

Similarly, the virtual airline radar pages also include the same styles and will load the same (user-specific map choice) too:

Pilot GPS (Web GPS) improvements

In addition to the radar maps, our Web GPS feature (personal web GPS/radar) has also been improved with range ring distance marker labels, cardinal headings and some extra sparkle.

A similar set of map styles has been included, and your preference is independently saved against your account, too. The map styles now include Day Mode, Night Mode, Terrain, and Satellite.

I have also improved the UI and click spots for the various GPS action buttons and options, including the ability to load and display the weather overlay, too.

The “dateline” issue…. fixed!

Yes, it took an absolute age, I know… there has just always been “something else” that has needed my attention more and well, fixing the issue isn’t the most enticing of bugs to want to fix up 😂 (especially when it’s not actually “our bug” to fix as technically it’s an issue with the thirdparty mapping library) but hey, it’s sorted, I finally managed to find the time and determination to finally sort it and yep, it’s sorted now!

We obviously have multiple maps around the site, and so, if you “spot” a similar issue on another map, please let me know!

Aeroconomy PFH Jobs – Oh, we have a TON of jobs now…

With well over 1,000 advertised “Pilot for Hire” jobs available at any one time, now, there will certainly be something for everyone. I would like to take a personal movement to thank one of our community content creators (DenniHulme, Blance and some of the other FsHub team members who have dabbled in adding a few too) of whom has been working tirelessly to add literally thousands of “possible” job templates into the system.

Aeroconomy Domestic Properties

In last month’s release of Aeroconomy features, the domestic properties feature was “the centre piece”, and to date, almost 400 domestic properties have now been built and owned by Aeroconomy pilots. Our support team have been super-busy reviewing and approving the “planning requests”.

A ton of discussions have (and other updates) have been going on over on our forums, if you’re interested in learning more about Aeroconomy and specific features.

Not seen the property features yet? Consider these screenshots for your enjoyment:

Pilots can manage, sell and auction their properties easily from the Portfolio page:

Aeroconomy Banking Interest and the Lotto!

Smaller features but still interesting nonetheless, several pilots have already enjoyed their share of lottery winnings, and as a small reminder, you can find out the latest winners and the lottery draw results using our dedicated microsite.

The testing on the weekly banking interest has also gone off without a hitch and is working perfectly – just a reminder, and as mentioned elsewhere (on the forums, maybe), personal bank interest is only paid out if you have been “active” that week (have completed at least one Aeroconomy-valid flight).

REST API and logbook filter updates

As requested by a member of the community, I have updated the API flight report endpoints so they include the Aeroconomy tags now too, so that airlines and third-party applications can now identify Aeroconomy-specific flight reports. The pilot logbook and airline logbook filters (and exported CSV files) now also contain the Aeroconomy tagged data.

More updates soon…

Whilst I have probably forgotten a ton of other improvements that have been deployed ad-hoc throughout September (based on user requests etc). I’ve been super busy with the map improvements (due to my requirements [funding] to change from Google Maps – I kinda need to expedite this a the cost was just getting silly!), but further features of Aeroconomy are planned to be rolled out over the next few weeks.