Release times for departures, built around inbound arrivals
From the relay's operations log (Ops-Data folder, one file a day): HNL takeoffs and landings from STDDS, IFR arrivals elsewhere from TFMS, VFR traffic from public ADS-B, and the flight schools' schedule. Planning numbers, not official traffic counts.
EXAMPLE: made-up traffic to show how the report looks. It is not real data.
FICTIONAL EXAMPLE. The MOA, arrival and alternate shown here are demonstration data.
Checking the airspace feed…
NOTAM effective periods do not confirm current activation. Recurring schedules, exceptions and altitude references require review of the full text. KZAK SUA notices may extend beyond Hawaii; check location. This view matches locally entered area aliases and arrival names; geographic boundaries and route intersections are not loaded.
Impacts below use all source notices within the look-ahead window, regardless of the notice-list filters above. Route altitude bands are local planning inputs, not observed aircraft altitude. Matching flights use the board arrival-fix name and an optional crossing offset. Alternatives require current availability and coordination checks; nothing is applied to the sequence.
Live notices are received from the configured FAA source (SWIM NMS on the hosted live site; legacy readers poll every 5 minutes). The Hawaii filter includes: every Hawaii airport, Honolulu Control Facility (ZHN), and the Oakland Oceanic (KZAK) NOTAMs that mention the CEP routes, the Hawaii arrival fixes or the Hawaii warning and restricted areas. "Affects arrivals": runway closures, approach aids and procedures at HNL, OGG, KOA, LIH and ITO, airspace activations and oceanic route changes. The summaries are a planning aid: check the full NOTAM in the official sources before acting on it.
EXAMPLE: made-up NOTAMs to show how the page looks. They are not real.
Counted by the SWIM relay from its operations log: every HNL landing and takeoff STDDS shows, IFR and VFR. Itinerant = arrivals and departures; local = touch-and-goes and low approaches (2 each). Users: Air Carrier (airline callsign, more than 60 seats), Air Taxi (airline callsign, 60 seats or fewer, or a T + N-number), General Aviation (N-numbers and other registrations), Military (military callsigns and types); add your own in Traffic-Count\categories.json. VFR = squawk 1200 or a flight school tail. A report for each day is saved automatically in the relay's Traffic-Count folder (one CSV a day, by year, Hawaii days). Times: UTC days run 0000–2359Z (1400–1359 HST); pick Hawaii (HST) to match the saved daily reports. Print gives a one-page report of what is shown. The 2359Z print opens the print window at 2359Z; to have it print with no click, start Chrome or Edge with the --kiosk-printing option. Planning numbers from surveillance data, not the official tower count; hours the relay was off are not counted.
EXAMPLE: made-up counts to show how the page looks. They are not real.
ALTRV, ATCAA and SUA schedule requests from CARF, FACSFAC, PMRF and other agencies. Approve, modify or deny them here; the agency sees the decision on its page and every decision is added to the Excel log on this computer. All times Zulu.
Set the web app up once with Airspace-Requests-Setup.txt in the HCF-Flow-Kit folder, then paste its link and the Board key here. The board checks for new requests every 20 seconds while it is open.
Two briefings from one form, laid out as the facility briefing sheet. Short lines are enough. The date and time are added for you when you send or save it:
There are two briefings, filled in on one. Fill in the stand-up / management briefing: airports, weather, PIREPs requested and SUA. The users briefing fills itself from it, with the airport and weather lines only, for users flying in; to change a line, change it on the management briefing. Each has its own Send to list, and the Email, PDF, Copy and Print buttons work on the briefing that is showing.
The briefing saves with the board as you type. Type clock times in HST, like 0600-0900, and the Zulu time is worked out and sent with it. End a time with Z to enter it in Zulu.
Email briefing copies the briefing that is showing and opens a new Outlook email with the ticked Send to addresses and the subject filled in. Click in the message, press Ctrl+V to paste the briefing in as the body, tables and all, and Send. To send the PDF as well, attach it from the briefing folder.
Saving is automatic. As you type, the day's users and management briefings are saved as PDF files in the briefing folder (choose it once under Briefing archive at the bottom of this page), one folder per day, with the last 30 days kept. The same section shows any day again and saves either briefing as a PDF when you need one to attach.
Weather and NOTAMs update in real time: with the SWIM relay running, the board checks every minute and fills in new METARs, TAFs and NOTAMs as soon as they are out (the relay reads the FAA NOTAMs every 5 minutes). They also refresh by themselves when you open the Daily Briefing (if the last refresh is more than 10 minutes old) and every 30 minutes while it stays open, the same as pressing Get current weather and Get NOTAMs. Each refresh replaces those boxes; Undo on the message puts your text back.
Get current weather starts with the main source, the weather.gov forecast for Honolulu (today and tonight), then reads the latest National Weather Service observations, plus the synopsis and aviation outlook from the newest Honolulu forecast discussion, and writes them into the Weather box. It replaces what is there, and you can edit it before sending. It needs an internet connection.
The same button fills in PIREPs requested. It reads each airport's terminal forecast for the next twelve hours: a ceiling at or below 5,000 ft asks for CIGS, visibility at or below 5 miles asks for VIS. Where there is no terminal forecast it uses the current observation and says so. Requests you add or change by hand are never overwritten.
Users bookmark one link and always see the latest summary: each airport's status, runways, current weather, delay programs in effect, busiest times, key NOTAMs and your note. This board checks every minute and publishes as soon as anything on it changes (and at least every 10 minutes), while it is open and connected. Set the web app up once with Hawaii-Summary-Setup.txt in the HCF-Flow-Kit folder, then paste its link and Board key here.
Edit the page. Each airport fills itself from the briefing, the initiatives and the latest weather (shown greyed in each box). Type in a box to replace that line on the page; empty it to go back to automatic. Your edits are cleared with "Clear for a new day".
Preview: what users see on the link, with your edits.
Fill in the briefing here: airports, weather, PIREPs requested and SUA. The users briefing fills itself from it.
For users flying in: the airport and weather lines from the management briefing, nothing else. To change a line, change it on the Stand-up / Management briefing.
The board files every day by itself, with nothing to press. A day runs midnight to midnight HST and holds each flight's delay report lines for every tab and the initiatives saved that day. The briefings are archived separately, on the Daily Briefing page, in a folder of their own.
Pick a day and press View archived day to open it in its own box over the board; Close or Esc puts it away. Search narrows the day to the lines that match, and lists the days where the same callsign, airport or word turns up: press one to open it.
Choose flow data folder is a one-time step. After it, each day is also written as files in that folder, in a folder named for the date: a page you can open and print, and a data file the board reads back. Copy the folder to another computer, choose it there, and the days appear on that board. The briefings go to the briefing folder chosen on the Daily Briefing page.
When the board is opened again the browser may ask once whether it can keep saving to the folder. It asks on your first click. Until you answer, the days are still kept in this browser and are written to the folder as soon as you allow it.
In the folder, the board only ever removes files it wrote itself, and only for days more than 30 days old.
An inbound holds the arrival slot at its ETA, and departures are released around it. From is optional.
Give an inbound a crossing fix and the board works out when it should cross that fix to make its arrival slot. When the slot is later than the ETA, a box comes up with the advice: the fix, the crossing time, and a speed. It has to be acknowledged, and it comes up again if the time moves two minutes or more or the restriction is no longer needed.
The minutes are the flying time from the fix to the runway, kept separately for jets, props, C208s and fast props (DH-8, ATR 42/72, Saab 340, Brasilia). Each inbound uses the column for its type: a C208 the C208 column, a Dash 8 the fast props column, any other prop the props column, everything else the jets column. The starting figures are the fix distance at 250, 170, 150 and 230 knots, so set them to what you see in practice. A fix you add takes the jet minutes you type, and the other columns start in proportion; change any of them in the table. The speed is groundspeed arithmetic with no winds: a starting point for the controller.
On HNL each fix also has IMC lines for RWY 8L, 4R and 26L: the minutes flying the published arrival and instrument approach to that runway, worked out from the charts of 01 Oct 2026 (ILS 8L, ILS Y/Z 4R, LDA 26L; legs the charts leave to radar vectors are straight lines). With Conditions set to IMC, an inbound with a fix uses the line for its runway: its crossing time, and its ETA moves by the difference from the VMC figure, so moving it to the other runway moves its slot. In VMC the VMC line is used and ETAs are as received. Change any figure in the table.
Delays: up to the speed-control limit below (3 min to start) an inbound is slowed; more than that and the advice is to hold at its fix in whole turns, with speed for what is left. On a fixed corridor (KAENA to start) there is no speed control or vectoring: any delay is holding before the corridor, and offload advice comes sooner. Goes ahead of: when an inbound on that arrival ties with one on the arrivals listed (KAENA ahead of BOOKE, KLANI and OPACA to start), it keeps its time and the other one takes the delay. Offload to lists the arrivals a fix's traffic can be moved to; Used in limits an arrival to one runway flow, so an offload only goes to an arrival in use (BAMBO, JULLE and KAENA in 4s and 8s, SYMIN and SAKKI in 22s and 26s to start). Check these against your letters of agreement.
| Fix | Jets min | Props min | C208 min | Fast props min | Offload to | Used in | Fixed corridor | Goes ahead of | Remove |
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Click a P-time, release time, ETA or minutes out and type over it to amend it. A release time or ETA you type for a departure is kept exactly as typed, and the other flights recalculate around it.
Arrivals are kept at least the set number of minutes apart. Every release is a two-minute window, and a departure holds that whole window in the arrival stream, so two departures in a row land further apart than the interval. The arrival rate is shown for reference and on the delay report. It does not change any time.
The list covers the next two hours, and each open row is an arrival time with room for another aircraft. Openings less than 25 minutes away are closed and not shown.
Runway flows says how the airport is being run. RWY 4/8 and RWY 22/26 are one flow for both runways. RWY 4 and RWY 8 are for running on that runway alone, when the other is closed: one flow, each with its own arrival rate that starts at 20 and can be changed. 4/8 Ind runs RWY 4 and RWY 8 independently, each with its own arrival rate and minutes between arrivals, for when different controllers are working each runway. Every flight then has a RWY box in its row; a new flight starts on the runway you pick when adding it, or the one last used for its departure airport. Open in new window shows the two runways side by side. As on one flow, the minutes between arrivals set the times and the arrival rate is for reference and the delay report.
HNL arrival rate comes from the facility AAR table. Pick the conditions (VMC or IMC) and the arrival runways in Arrival runways (AAR table), and the rate is the table figure: 08L|04R in VMC is 56, 32 in IMC. Each runway flow starts on its usual row: RWY 4/8 on 08L|04R, RWY 22/26 on 26L|22L, RWY 4 on 4R, RWY 8 on 8L. Tick No LAHSO on a row with a no-LAHSO rate (08L|04R 40, 04R|04L 40, 08L|04L 20) to use that rate. A row with no IMC figure takes 26L, the only arrival runway in IMC: 20. On 4/8 Ind each runway takes its single-runway row: RWY 4R 20 and RWY 8L 20 in VMC, 16 each in IMC. Changing the runway flow, conditions, row or No LAHSO puts the table rate back in the box; you can still type a different rate. The table says it is for estimating only. Other tabs work their rate out from TBL 10-7-1 as below.
Arrival rate. Minutes between arrivals only set the slots the board fits satellite departures into, between the arrivals; they do not set the rate. The rate comes from JO 7210.3DD TBL 10-7-1: the knots for the conditions (VMC 140, IMC 120) divided by the miles on final, a fraction rounded down, then taken to the nearest rate divisible by 4 (the lower one when it is exactly between two). RWY 4/8 lands on both runways, so its rate is always both runways together. LAHSO is the standard, so No LAHSO starts unticked: VMC with LAHSO is 140 knots, so 5 miles is 28 + 28 = 56. Tick No LAHSO and the board uses its own miles on final for no LAHSO, starting at 7: 20 + 20 = 40 in VMC. IMC is 120 knots on the no-LAHSO miles: 7 miles is 16 + 16 = 32. In IMC No LAHSO is ticked and greyed out, since LAHSO is not run in IMC. The board remembers the LAHSO miles and the no-LAHSO miles separately. On 4/8 Ind each runway has its own miles and its own rate. Changing the conditions, LAHSO, the miles or the runway flow works the rate out again; you can still type a different rate in the box.
Runways on 4/8. The standard is props and turboprops on RWY 4R, air carriers and jets on RWY 8L, and that is where every flight starts unless you pick a runway yourself. On RWY 4/8 and on 4/8 Ind each flight shows its runway in a RWY box, in the sequence and in its departure request, and the delay report totals delay for each runway. Runway advice works on 4/8 Ind, where each runway has its own flow. The board then keeps re-running the whole sequence, both runways, every time a time changes, whether you typed it or the SWIM feed updated it. When moving a jet to the other runway would cut its delay by the minutes set in "Advise a runway change at min saved", counting time on the ground and minutes to lose in the air, and the airport as a whole comes out ahead by the same amount, a box comes up with the move and what it costs any other flight. Move it, or leave it; a flight you leave is not raised again unless the saving grows by that many minutes more. Props are never advised off their standard runway. When 8L cannot take air carriers (construction, say), set Standard runways to Jets 4R · props 8L: every jet that was on its standard runway moves to 4R and every prop to 8L, new flights start there, the runway advice keeps props on 8L, and the setting stays until you change it back. This is arithmetic on the times the board has, not a forecast of weather or of what a crew will do, so it is only as good as the ETAs.
Fighter recovery. Enter a recovery as planned when it is scheduled, and press Inbound now when they call 5 to 10 minutes out (or open Fighter recovery straight away). Inbound, it blocks arrival time on the runway they land on, RWY 8L unless you pick 4R; on one runway or RWY 22/26 it blocks the arrival runway. The block is the runway time for the flight size (1.5 min for 1 or 2, 2.5 for 3, 3 for 4) plus 3 min for an overhead, and you can change it. Arrivals on that runway keep the normal minutes between arrivals clear of the block; the other runway keeps landing. A box then lists every flight that moved: airborne arrivals with the time they now have to lose and the other runway as an option, and departures whose release times change. A planned recovery only blocks if you protect its time. −2 and +2 move an inbound block; Landed opens the runway again. The recovery also shows in the arrival demand chart.
A flight leaves the board by itself five minutes after its slot time. With the SWIM relay feeding the board, an airborne arrival past its slot that has not been reported landed stays on the list, tagged "not landed yet", until STDDS or TFMS reports it on the runway (up to 45 minutes past its slot). Its figures are kept in the shift log, so Print delays covers every flight since the log was last cleared. Clear shift log starts a new shift.
EXAMPLE: the VFR flights shown are made up for this preview, not real traffic. VFR is never metered.
| Seq | From | Callsign | Slot | ETA | Time over fix | Release | Delay |
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P-time is the proposed departure time. To make a flight meet an arrival time, fill in ETA to meet, with or without a P-time, and the release is set from that ETA. Leave both blank for a flight that is ready now.
Lets towers request releases from their own link, with no Claude or Google sign-in. Set it up once with Tower-Requests-Setup.txt in the HCF-Flow-Kit folder, then paste the web app link and the board key here. It runs while this board is open, in the copy opened from the HCF-Flow-Kit folder.
Each flight school can get its own link to the VFR schedule web page (it signs them in by itself) and a desktop icon. Paste the schools' feed link, the one the relay uses (web app link + ?feed= + the Feed key), then click Get school links. Needs the newer School-Web-App files.
| Airport | Callsign | P-time | Release window | ETA | Relayed |
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| Airport | Callsign | P-time | Release window | ETA | Relayed |
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Proposed departures by departure airport, from TFMS flight plans and departures on this board. Give one flight an EDCT, a CFR (call for release) or a GS (ground stop); it flashes on the strip and on that tower's page. Click a strip to make it flash on the tower's page too (click again to stop). Towers request a release from their strip, and it pops up here.
A planning aid built on FAA JO 7210.3 chapter 17: least restrictive initiative first, local ground stops of 30 minutes at most, initiatives reviewed and cancelled when no longer needed, each one logged with its justification. Check every suggestion against your letters of agreement and the ATCSCC.
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Planning aids built on the board's own sequence. They sit beside TBFM, TFMS and the ATCSCC, never in place of them: confirm every initiative through the normal channels.
Pick a departure airport and the initiative in force, then Add. Each tab keeps its own list, and the list prints with the delay report. A ground stop holds that airport's departures that have not been relayed yet.
Departures to Honolulu (HNL) · Tower
A coordination aid between your tower and Honolulu Control Facility. It does not replace official release procedures. If anything here is unclear or does not match what HCF tells you, call HCF.
All your departures to HNL: filed flight plans and requests. Click Request release, enter the P-time, and HCF's board works out the release time and sends it here. An EDCT, CFR (call for release) or GS from HCF flashes on the strip; a strip with a flashing yellow border means HCF wants you to look at that flight.
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