(US) Spring Airport and Airspace Data Update

[2KA]

Spring is nearly upon us in the US again, and it is a great time to update the airspace and airport databases in your glide computer, PNA, handheld GPS, or desktop planning software in preparation for the upcoming season. The FAA data for the charting cycle effective March 26, 2020 is now available on my website at http://www.soaringdata.info. Airspace files from the previous cycle (effective February 27, 2020) are also available on the airspace area of the Worldwide Soaring Turnpoint Exchange.

If your current waypoint file is in CUP, STX, NDB, or Cambridge DAT format, it is easy to update it. Just go to the Airports section of my website, upload your file, and select the option to compute a bounding polygon automatically. You can then download an updated waypoint file and a companion airspace file as well.

For those of you who are Oudie owners I've written an article with step-by-step instructions on how to update both your airspace and waypoint databases. It can be found at http://www.soaringdata.info/airports/OudieUpdateNotes.pdf.

Other stuff on my website includes:

- Current sectional charts in CMR format for SeeYou
- Current sectional charts for GlidePlan
- Sectionals in GeoTiff and JPG formats for GoogleEarth
- Airspace data for Garmin recreational GPS receivers
- An online generator for current TFRs in Tim Newport-Peace, OpenAir, NDB and CUB Formats

As always, all of this is free and freely redistributable.

Happy Downloading!

Lynn Alley
"2KA"

[SoaringXCellence]

Lynn,

As always, thanks so much for your work to provide this to the community.

Mike

[2KA]

Just a bit more detail on updating turnpoint files. If you have an older, but beloved turnpoint file, it is easy to update it using information from the official FAA airport database. Here are the steps:

1. Go to http://www.soaringdata.info, and select the Airports tab. Follow the link to the US airports information form.
2. Upload your file (see line #2 on the form) and choose the dropdown menu selection to "Compute a bounding polygon".
3. Type "Soar" in the box on line #5 and hit the submit button to download your updated file!

Computing a "bounding polygon" means that your downloaded file will cover the same area as your input file. Soaringdata will:
- Find any new airports in that area and add them to the output file;
- Remove the airport attribute for any airports that have closed and no longer exist in the FAA database; and
- Update info such as communication frequencies, airport IDs, and runway lengths and widths for all the others.

Supported formats include CUP, DAT, STX, and NDB. You can also generate and download airspace files for your bounding area in OpenAir, TNP SUA, CUB, or NDB formats at the same time. Just check the appropriate boxes on line #4 of the form.

Again, all this is free, and freely redistributable.

Lynn Alley
"2KA"