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Radar 5.10 Release

Richard Brown
Richard Brown
CTO & Founder

Summary​

This release adds a Drone zones map layer: where you may not fly a drone, where you need permission first, and where conditions apply, for the United Kingdom, Luxembourg and Switzerland to start with. Alongside it, the Radar screen in a Nomad van has learned to behave like a screen in a vehicle: you can search from it, the map comes back to the van when you ask, and while you are driving nothing on it asks you to type.

Drone zones​

Switch on the Drone zones layer and the map shades every zone that affects a drone, coloured by its rule, the same four everywhere: red for no drone flying, amber where permission is needed first, yellow where conditions apply, and a grey outline for a zone the publisher lists for information only. A dashed outline is temporary: a NOTAM, or a zone that starts within the next week.

Tap a zone for its name, its class, the heights it covers, when it applies, the authority to ask and any conditions attached. The layer is off until you switch it on, because most travellers do not carry a drone, and Radar remembers your choice.

Three countries to begin with:

  • United Kingdom: every aerodrome's flight restriction zone and runway protection zones, the danger areas and the prohibited areas from the UK AIP, plus the live NOTAMs that matter to a drone. Both come from NATS and are used with their permission. NOTAM circles are drawn at the radius the notice gives, and they refresh every hour.
  • Luxembourg: the national geographical UAS zones.
  • Switzerland: the federal geographical UAS zones, including the nature reserves where flying needs authorisation.

More countries follow as their aviation authorities confirm the data may be reused; several are already prepared and waiting on a written answer.

This is a planning aid, not a clearance. The zones come from the official publishers on the cadence they publish, and a NOTAM can be issued at any time. Check the NOTAMs and the publisher before you fly.

The Radar screen in a Nomad van​

You can search from the van screen. A round Search button now sits among the map's round buttons. Press it and the same Search panel you get on a phone slides up: type a postcode, a place name or a what3words address and the map goes there. Searching somewhere is you asking to look at it, so the map stops following the van while you do. To come back, press the button at the bottom left of the map, which now reads Follow the vehicle, and the map returns to the van and follows it again. That button never turns on the tablet's own location, because the van already knows where it is.

While you are driving, nothing on the map asks you to type. When the van is in Drive the Search button is put away, the categories in the Filters panel become large tiles you can hit without looking twice, and the buttons for reordering the groups are hidden until you park. Which scene the van is in is the van's decision, not the map's.

Premium map tiles now reach the van. A driver with Premium gets the higher-detail map on the van screen in the daytime, as they do in a browser. For a while the van drew the standard map whatever the driver was entitled to.

Saving a place from the van no longer offers a sign-in page, which could not open inside the van's dashboard. Pick who is driving from the faces beside the map and the place goes to that person's account; if nobody is picked, the Save box says so.

Smaller things​

  • The "which did you mean?" list is where you can reach it. On a phone, and on the van screen, the list of matching places now sits inside the Search panel directly under the box you typed into. It used to float over the panel where a tap could not reach it, and on a tablet the keyboard closing could take it away before you had seen it, so the first search seemed to do nothing.
  • Searching the same place twice moves the map. Search for a postcode, wander off across the map, and search the same postcode again: the map goes back there. It used to stay where you were.
  • The Data sources page lists the four drone zone publishers, with the licence and attribution for each, alongside every other source.

Still to come​

Route planning still covers Great Britain only, on both plans. Places in Germany or Norway do not mean directions there.

Offline map packs remain a planned Premium feature and will arrive with the native mobile app. They are not available yet on any platform.