This is the user manual for the Pilot Gear Watch METAR’n’TAF App (PgW MnT). This application gives you direct access to the weather information of your favorite airports on your Samsung Galaly Watch (Wear OS versions) !
Version
This is the version 2.0 of this manual.
Change log
| Version | Date of issue | Highlights |
|---|---|---|
| 1.0 | Sep. 27th, 2022 | Creation of the manual |
| 2.0 | Dec. 20th, 2023 | Add new features :
|
Important notice
This application requires an internet connection on your watch.
The main view of the application shows decoded METAR messages. The screen can display up to 3 messages at a time. The layout is automatically adapted to the number of messages to display to maximize the number of values you can read easily. When the number of messages is greater than 1, the values are not displayed on a single page but on several pages changing automatically every 3 seconds in an endless cycle.
- The date and time of observation
- The visibility (in meters by default but unit can be changed. See section Changing the units of measures)
- The ceiling (lowest cloud layer reported in the message)
- The temperature (in °C by default but unit can be changed. See section Changing the units of measures)
- The dew point (in °C by default but unit can be changed. See section Changing the units of measures)
- The pressure QNH (in hPa by default but unit can be changed. See section Changing the units of measures)
- The wind (direction and strength)
The meteorological information is provided by Aviation Weather Center (NOAA). The data is loaded when you request an information based on this and when the application cache contains only obsolete data.
For Australian airports, when the messages are not available on the NOAA database, the messages are taken from the Australian Bureau Of Meteorology. Check out the post Australian METAR and TAF not available.
The name, location and altitude of the airport are provided by Aerotools database. If the airport is not available in our database, these information won’t be displayed. This won’t block the display of the meteorological data.
4 major colors are used in the main view and the detailed view of the METAR message to represent the flight category associated to meteorological conditions. These colors are: lime, teal, orange and red.
- VFR : Visibility > 8km and ceiling > 3000ft
- MVFR : Visibility ≥ 5km and ceiling ≥ 1000ft
- IFR : Visibility ≥ 1.7km and ceiling ≥ 500ft
- LIFR : Visibility < 1.7km and ceiling < 500ft
The flight category is always computed using the METAR data.
When you tap a message in the main view, you will access the airport detailed meteorological data pages. See below the description of these pages.
Choose your airports
Just tap the bottom button “Add airport” on the main screen. It will display the smart keyboard to let you enter the ICAO code of the airport you want. See below how to use the smart keyboard. When the code is set, the app retrieves the METAR data and displays it on the main screen as soon as it has been received.
You can enter the code of any airport which has a meteorological station.
The smart keyboard is composed of
- 26 buttons spreaded all around the screen for letters,
- 10 buttons for numbers,
- one field where the code is displayed as you enter letters,
- one red button to cancel the latest letter
- and one button named “Cancel” to directly return to the navigation map.
Touch a letter or rotate the wheel and touch the big letter to enter your code character by character.
When the code is set and the code background becomes green, touch it to validate the input.
The application doesn’t check your input. You may enter an invalid code. In this case, the app will display the message “METAR not available” if the NOAA server returned no meteorological data for the entered code. If you’re sure you entered the right code and no airports have METAR data available please check the internet connection of your watch.
On top of the pages, the airport code is displayed along with its name.
The background color of the header is related to the flight category corresponding to the meteorological conditions described by the METAR.
Swipe the header to quit the data pages and go back to the main view.
If you tap the code of the airport, you will open the location data page. This page displays the following information:
- GPS coordinates
- Altitude
- Sunrise and sunset times
Tap the “OK” button to close this page.
Location and altitude of the airport may not be available if the airport is not in the airports database of Aerotools (a warning message will be displayed on the screen if this is the case). This will not block the display of the METAR and TAF messages if they exist.
There are 3 data pages :
- One shows the METAR data
- The second shows the TAF data
- The last page shows the METAR evolutions during the past hours
You can scroll from one sub page to another by swiping the screen from right to left or left to right.
This page gives a decoded and graphical representation of the latest METAR downloaded by the application.
The application downloads a METAR if one of the following conditions is met:
- No METAR data has been downloaded for the current AD
- The downloaded METAR data is deprecated.
The wind indicator shows runways’QFU with lines. The color of the lines gives the nature of the runway:
- paved (gray color)
- unpaved (green)
The application automatically invalidates the latest METAR cache memory 30mn max after the time of its publication.
The application will automatically try to download a new METAR message every minute until a valid METAR message is received.
This feature requires an internet connection. It can use either a direct WIFI connection or the 4G/3G connection of your smartphone through bluetooth.
The AD must provide a METAR message to have the weather report.
Here are some examples of METAR pages with their associated METAR message:
Touch the button “show/hide RAW” to get the full raw METAR message displayed on your screen. Touch it again to hide the raw message and go back to the decoded view.
You can control the vertical scroll of the text by turning the wheel of your watch.
- The visibility. Value is in meters by default. It can be changed with the procedure described in the section Changing the units of measures. ‘9999’ is displayed if the visibility is greater or equal to 10kms. In the background, clouds appear from the right side of the screen if visibility is lower than 9kms. The more the background is cloudy the less the visibility is good.
- The cloud layers. Each layer is displayed from the left (the lowest layer) to the right (the highest layer) on the same band. The horizontal position of the layer in the band is relative to the layer height in feet. Each layer contains the coverage factor (FEW,SCT,BKN,OVC) and the cloud base in feet above the ground level. A red line starts a layer when the coverage is equal to BKN or OVC.
The keyword ‘TCU’ appears on the left of the band when the METAR raw message contains ‘TCU’.
- The weather is described in a coded way into the white box on the left with the QNH value. The coding is the one of the raw message. Under the box, two keywords may appear : TEMPO, BECMG. They are shown if the raw message contains the keywords. Touch the box with your finger to read the raw message (see below).
- The wind is shown graphically over the AD symbol with its QFU if the airport is available in the Aerotools database. The arrow gives the direction of the wind. The barbs give the strength of the wind in knots. The barbs are displayed using the same rules as the WINTEM chart. The angle reference is the true north. Magnetic declination is taken into account.
- The temperature and the dew point are shown in degrees Celsius. The temperature is on top. The unit can be changed. See the procedure described in the section Changing the units of measures.
TAF-on-WHEEL
The next information page is the weather forecast decoded from the TAF message.
The application downloads a TAF if one of the following conditions is met:
- No TAF data has been downloaded for the current AD
- The downloaded TAF data is deprecated.
The application automatically invalidates the latest TAF cache memory 2h max after the time of its publication.
The application will automatically try to download a new TAF message every hour until a valid TAF message is received.
This feature requires an internet connection. It can use either a direct WIFI connection or the 4G/3G connection of your smartphone through bluetooth.
The AD must provide a TAF message to have the weather forecast. Otherwise, the following page appears:
The TAF content is displayed in a very efficient and innovative way called TAF-on-WHEEL: the weather forecast is decoded hour by hour from the TAF message. Each hour is displayed in a sector of 60 degrees placed on a rotating disc. Use the wheel of your Samsung Gear to turn the disc:
- Turn clockwise to see the next hours.
- Turn counter-clockwise to see the previous hours.
Small arrows in the header show if sectors are available before and/or after the visible part of the disc.
The wheel is automatically rotated to show the current UTC time segment.
The TAF header shows the TAF publication date and time and forecast period (start datetime and the end time. If the end time is not for the same day, the number of days is displayed in the header. For example, the indication ‘+1d’ means that the end time is for the day after the start date of the forecast).
Touch the button “show/hide RAW” to get the full raw TAF message displayed on your screen. Touch it again to hide the raw message and go back to the decoded view.
You can control the vertical scroll of the text by turning the wheel of your watch.
- The visibility: A digit gives the visibility in thousands of meters. A ‘+’ indicates a visibility greater than 10kms. The background color changes with the visibility: blue means a good visibility, gray means visibility is poor.
- The cloud layers: Up to 4 layers are shown. Each layer is given with the coverage level (FEW,SCT,BKN,OVC) and the clouds base in feet above ground level. The background color depends on the coverage level: blue for FEW, white for SCT, gray for BKN and dark gray for OVC.
- The weather: shown in the coded format directly taken from the raw message. TEMPO, BECMG and PROB flags are displayed too.
- The flight category and the wind. The wind speed is expressed in knots. The background color depends on the flight category.
If the TAF contains BECMG and/or TEMPO segments, the weather may vary during some hours. In this case, the different weather conditions applicable to the same hour
are displayed alternatively on the same sector.
METAR Evolutions
The next information page displays the METAR evolution during the past hours. The following parameters are displayed on separate charts :
- Cloud base
- Visibility
- Pressure
- Temperature and dew point
- Wind speed, direction and gusts
You can see the chart you want by tapping the corresponding symbol on top of the chart or you can turn the bezel of your watch.
The METAR data used to draw the charts is not stored on your watch but is taken directly from the NOAA website. So this feature is available even if the app was not running during the past hours.
This feature requires an internet connection.
Changing the units of measures
Units are defined in the configuration menu. This menu can be opened by tapping the small Aerotools logo on top to the main view.
The selection of the unit is applicable to the following measures:
- temperatures
- pressure
- visibility
Available units are:
- Temperature : °C (default) and °F
- Visibility : m (default) and SM
- Pressure : hPa (default) and inHg
Changing the timezone
In the configuration menu, you can select your time zone :
- UTC
- Local
The times displayed on the pages will taken into account your choice:
- Sun rise time
- Sun set time
- TAF segment hours
- METAR evolution scale