Add a camera & weather station

How it works

1. Set up your camera and/or station using the guidance below.
2. Submit it here — you receive the exact push / FTP settings to enter on the device, and a confirmation e-mail with the same details.
3. A camera's FTP account goes live immediately so there's an image to review — but the station stays hidden from the public site until an administrator approves it.
4. On approval it goes live and your account is elevated to Contributor — comped Pro benefits (full flight briefs, history, messaging) for helping the community.

Compatible cameras (scheduled FTP upload)

We ingest still images pushed over FTP on a timer. Most current HikVision IP cameras can do this — look for FTP and timed / scheduled capture on the datasheet. Good choices:

• ColorVu (e.g. the DS-2CD2xx7G2 family) — full-colour at dawn and dusk, which reads sky and cloud colour best.
• AcuSense (e.g. the DS-2CD2xx6G2 family) — a solid all-round day/night choice.
• Any 2-series camera captures fast enough for a 5–10 minute upload; 4-series support faster intervals if you ever want them.

Always confirm FTP + timed capture on the specific model's datasheet. Detailed FTP setup steps are on your thank-you page after you submit.

Image quality — resolution

• 4MP is the sweet spot — enough detail to judge cloud texture and distant landmarks without a slow upload every 5–10 minutes.
• 2MP is an acceptable minimum on a slow or capped connection.
• 8MP (or higher) is unnecessary for a sky/horizon view — the files are much larger for no real gain in usable detail, and can slow the FTP upload enough to miss the interval.
• Whatever the sensor, turn off all supplemental/IR light — it reflects straight back off haze and mist in front of the lens and wrecks night visibility. Full settings are on your thank-you page.

Mount it with a clear view of the horizon

Frame roughly five-sixths sky and only the bottom one-sixth showing the horizon, kept level across the screen. The sky is what matters for cloud, storms and visibility.

Preferred hardware

• Davis Vantage Vue or Vantage Pro2 with a WeatherLink data logger — our first choice, pulled directly from the Davis cloud (see below).
• Ecowitt and WeatherFlow Tempest can also be supported — contact us before you buy so we can confirm the feed.

Siting & setup

• Temperature/humidity sensor about 2 m above ground, in the shade, over natural surface — not over tarmac or against a wall.
• Anemometer as high and clear as practical, well away from buildings and trees.
• Rain gauge level and clear of overhang. Keep the whole array out of exhaust and air-con plumes.
• Tell us the sensor height above ground when you submit — we use it for pressure and cloud-base maths.

By contributing, you grant the South African Airline Operators' Association (SAAOPA), its affiliated companies, and any third party SAAOPA chooses to share it with (for example aviation weather partners such as Windy) an open, non-exclusive, royalty-free, perpetual licence to store, display, redistribute and process the images and weather data your camera and station send to WX-CoPilot — for aviation weather awareness, safety, training and related community purposes.

• You keep ownership of your imagery and data.
• SAAOPA decides, at its discretion, which partners and services your feed is shared with under this licence.
• You confirm you have the right to install the equipment and share what it captures, and that it does not deliberately surveil people or private property.
• You can ask us to retire your station and stop publishing its feed at any time.