Airline pilot's interactive guide to aviation radio

Name: Airline pilot's interactive guide to aviation radio
Availability: InStock
Author: jamesharding

by jamesharding·Jul 10, 2026·3 points·8 comments

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AI Analysis

●●SolidNiche GemCozy

Actual airline pilot built interactive animations to replace static textbook diagrams.

Strengths

•Domain expertise from active A350 pilot adds credibility textbooks can't match
•Draggable simulations for VOR, DME, ILS make abstract radio concepts tangible
•Addresses GPS jamming reality with relevant fallback navigation education

Weaknesses

•Educational content rather than reusable tool limits long-term engagement
•Niche audience means most developers will browse once and move on

Post Description

Hey HN! I'm an A350 pilot, some of you might remember my flying stats page from last year.

Most people assume modern airliners navigate purely by GPS. In reality we still lean on a whole stack of ground-based radio navaids (VOR, DME, NDB, ILS) the oldest of which trace their lineage back to the 1920s.

With the amount of GPS jamming around the world at the moment, there are regular stretches of a flight where the jet falls back to these older systems to work out where it is.

I first learned all this from a textbook full of static diagrams, and always thought it deserved better. So I built interactive, draggable animations for each one — VOR, ILS, DME, TCAS, SELCAL, phased arrays and more.

Happy to answer any questions about the tech or the flying! :)