APCHECK

Aviation photography checklist — a simple web application designed specifically for aviation photographers that can be used for planning photo sessions at airports.

Features

• Weather data — live METAR & TAF from aviationweather.gov
• METAR/TAF reference — comprehensive code lookup table with filter
• ATC frequencies — displays tower, ground, approach, ATIS, and other frequencies for the selected airport, sorted by relevance
• Runway advisor — wind-optimised runway selection using OurAirports data; shows headwind/crosswind components, surface, lighting, and dimensions for every runway end
• Photo suitability score — 0–10 rating based on visibility, wind, clouds, and precipitation
• Sun position — solar elevation diagram, azimuth, golden hour, blue hour, and day progress timeline
• Checklist — editable equipment & planning checklist with groups, items, and a print button for printable templates
• Distance tool — click-to-measure map using OpenStreetMap, showing segment and total distance in meters/feet/kilometers/miles
• Frame Fill Calculator — calculate how much of the frame an aircraft fills based on its size, focal length, distance, and sensor orientation
• Session notes — auto-saving plain-text notepad
• Optional password protection — bcrypt-based login via auth.json
• Installable as a PWA — add to your device's home screen or taskbar from any modern browser

Requirements

• PHP 7.4+ with allow_url_fopen enabled
• No database, no Composer, no npm

Setup

1. Place the files in a directory served by PHP (e.g. php -S localhost:8000 or any web server).
2. Open index.php in a browser.
3. Enter an ICAO airport code (e.g. EKCH, KJFK, EDDF).

Photo suitability score

The score starts at 10 (ideal conditions) and penalties are subtracted based on the current METAR:

The final value is clamped to 0–10 and color-coded:

Password protection (optional)

To restrict access, create an auth.json file with a bcrypt hash:

{"hash": "2ドルy10ドル$..."}

Generate the hash with PHP on the command line:

php -r "echo password_hash('your-password', PASSWORD_BCRYPT), PHP_EOL;"

Then paste the output into auth.json as the hash value. Alternatively use a tool like htpasswd -nB. When auth.json exists, visitors are redirected to login.php.

Adding missing airports and runways

APCHECK looks up airport name and coordinates from airports.csv and runway data from runways.csv. If an airport or its runways are missing, you can add them manually.

airports.csv

Append a new line at the end of airports.csv in the same format:

EGLL,London Heathrow Airport,GB,51.470748,-0.459909

Coordinates can be obtained from OurAirports, Wikipedia, or any aeronautical database.

runways.csv

Runways are matched by the airport_ident column — this must match the ICAO code used in airports.csv exactly.

Only airport_ident, length_ft, width_ft, surface, lighted, closed, le_ident, le_heading_degT, he_ident, and he_heading_degT are used by APCHECK. Other columns can be left empty.

Example new runway entry for CYVR:

,,"CYVR",10600,200,"ASP",1,0,"08L",80,"26R",260,,,,,

Runway data can be obtained from OurAirports. Download the file, search for the airport_ident, and copy the matching rows into the local runways.csv.

frequencies.csv

Frequencies are matched by the airport_ident column — this must match the ICAO code used in airports.csv exactly. Frequencies are displayed in the sidebar sorted by type priority: TWR > GND > APP/DEP/ARR/A/D > ATIS > CLD > RMP > AFIS > INFO > FSS > RDO > UNIC > CTAF, then by frequency within each type.

Example new frequency entry for KJFK:

,,"KJFK","ATIS","ATIS",115.1

Frequency data can be obtained from OurAirports. Download the file, search for the airport_ident, and copy the matching rows into the local frequencies.csv.

Files

Acknowledgements

• OurAirports
• Aviationweather

License

GPL v3