Customizing Sectionals

[Mike Schumann]

Here is a great link to a GIS mapping program that I found that can be used
to customize digital sectionals that are available from the FAA:

http://www.globalmapper.com/

You can download a demo version for free. This gives you 85% of the
functionality of the full package, which costs ~$250.

This program lets you open multiple sectionals and automatically pastes them
together using the graphic coordinates that are imbedded in the geo-tiff
sectional files. This is particularly useful in an area like Mpls / St.
Paul, which is at the corner of 4 sectionals. Using this program, you can
create a custom sectional that incorporates pieces of all 4 sectionals.

In addition, you can overlay the sectionals with other drawings (flight
plans, distance circles, etc.).

The main limitations of the demo version vs the paid version is:

1. You can't reopen saved workspaces.
2. You can't print to scale.
3. You can only open 4 sectionals (the full version lets you open more, but
you had better have a fast computer).

Have fun!
--
Mike Schumann

[5Z]

On Oct 6, 10:55 am, "Mike Schumann" >
wrote:
> Here is a great link to a GIS mapping program that I found that can be used
> to customize digital sectionals that are available from the FAA:
>
> http://www.globalmapper.com/
>
> You can download a demo version for free. This gives you 85% of the
> functionality of the full package, which costs ~$250.

BTW, the charts must be purchased from the FAA at:
http://www.naco.faa.gov/ecomp/Catalog.aspx?a=AERO+NOS+DIGITAL+DSEC
for $1.50 each or a DVD of half the US for $12.60.

There is also a product http://www.glideplan.com/ that is geared to
planning soaring flights. With some coaxing, maybe Matt will add some
stitching ability, and extend this product into a fully featured
electronic sectional chart system for use while flying. He is already
providing current scans for no additional charge, so it is already
legal to use in the cockpit. Note that so far, I think GlidePlan is
plent good enough to replace my paper charts, but better printing
options would turn it into a great product. Oh, there is a commercial
product available for about $100/yr that will do this as well, but it
is aimed at the airplane pilot so likely has many features most of us
would not be interested in.

Also at the FAA page is a Digital National Flight Database with all
airport inofrmation. It's not clear, but I asume all the frequency,
etc., info is there as well. It would be really cool if someone came up
with a scheme to take what is currently available at the Worldwide
Turnpoint exchange (http://soaring.aerobatics.ws/SOARING/JL/TP/) and
somehow update the airport portions of the available files with current
frequency info. Heck, I'd be willing to pay a reasonable subscription
rate to know that the comments field in my GNII database is current, as
this would be yet another reason to keep the sectional chart tucked
safely behind my elbow.

-Tom

[Doug Haluza]

John Liebacher has made the FAA airport database available at:

http://soaring.aerobatics.ws/TP/FAA

If you have SeeYou, you can load this database, then overlay your
turnpoints, and reject nearby duplicates. This will update the airport
data in your exiting turnpoint database, plus give you landout airports
for the whole country. You can then trim this down as much as you like.


5Z wrote:
>
> Also at the FAA page is a Digital National Flight Database with all
> airport inofrmation. It's not clear, but I asume all the frequency,
> etc., info is there as well. It would be really cool if someone came up
> with a scheme to take what is currently available at the Worldwide
> Turnpoint exchange (http://soaring.aerobatics.ws/SOARING/JL/TP/) and
> somehow update the airport portions of the available files with current
> frequency info. Heck, I'd be willing to pay a reasonable subscription
> rate to know that the comments field in my GNII database is current, as
> this would be yet another reason to keep the sectional chart tucked
> safely behind my elbow.
>
> -Tom

[Eric Greenwell]

Doug Haluza wrote:
> John Liebacher has made the FAA airport database available at:
>
> http://soaring.aerobatics.ws/TP/FAA
>
> If you have SeeYou, you can load this database, then overlay your
> turnpoints, and reject nearby duplicates. This will update the airport
> data in your exiting turnpoint database, plus give you landout airports
> for the whole country. You can then trim this down as much as you like.

You may not need SeeYou, as John may have a version for GNII. The SeeYou
version does include the frequencies, runway width, fuel availability
(for motorgliders, of course). Some formats have smaller
comment/description fields and may not have all info.

--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA
Change "netto" to "net" to email me directly

"Transponders in Sailplanes" on the Soaring Safety Foundation website
www.soaringsafety.org/prevention/articles.html

"A Guide to Self-launching Sailplane Operation" at www.motorglider.org

[Andy[_1_]]

Eric Greenwell wrote:

> You may not need SeeYou, as John may have a version for GNII. The SeeYou
> version does include the frequencies, runway width, fuel availability
> (for motorgliders, of course). Some formats have smaller
> comment/description fields and may not have all info.

I didn't see a version for GNII or for Garmin. My almost new but now
obsolete 396 does not include private fields so hope John adds a Garmin
compatible format one day.


Andy

[Paul Remde]

Hi,

If you open the SeeYou version or the US Airport Database in SeeYou, or the
StrePla version in StrePla, you can then export waypoint files for use in
Glide Navigator II or transfer waypoints to a Garmin (I think). I create
Glide Navigator II files using SeeYou often. It works great.

Paul Remde

"Andy" > wrote in message
ups.com...
>
> Eric Greenwell wrote:
>
>> You may not need SeeYou, as John may have a version for GNII. The SeeYou
>> version does include the frequencies, runway width, fuel availability
>> (for motorgliders, of course). Some formats have smaller
>> comment/description fields and may not have all info.
>
> I didn't see a version for GNII or for Garmin. My almost new but now
> obsolete 396 does not include private fields so hope John adds a Garmin
> compatible format one day.
>
>
> Andy
>

[BB]

Which of these programs will allow me to make maps for contests --
import the turnpoint database, overlay on a sectional, then print out
the relevant area, perhaps at a different scale?

John Cochrane BB

[[email protected]]

At a major contest this summer, the file supplied by the organizers had
only the TPs in it; no other airports, public or private. Call me old
fashioned but I remember in the dim dawn of the GPS era when the
official contest DB had at least the airports on the sectional and
often other landing spots as well. Some intrepid pilots apparently flew
the contest with this but since landing spots were not always plentiful
in certain task areas, I wanted all the airports showing in GNII.

I used Excel to open the US Airport Database and sort the data,
selected an area covering the contest envelope and trimmed it, arranged
it in the correct columns and formats, and added waypoint numbers.
After I imported this into the organizers' file, I had to delete all
the duplicate airports that were also TPs. I also had to edit the
comments to make sure the stuff I wanted to see in GNII came up first
(freqs. and runway headings).

QUESTION: Could I have used SeeYou for this?

I did use SeeYou to upload the resulting waypoint file directly to a
Garmin GPS/MAP 76 (my backup GPS/logger).

Chip Bearden
ASW 24 "JB"

[5Z]

wrote:
> QUESTION: Could I have used SeeYou for this?

Yes. SeeYou allows you to import several files and join them. It wil
ask if you want to include ot ignore new waypoints that are near
existing ones. Down side is that if the contest provided airports
don't have useful comment info (CFAF, AWOS, etc) then you will lose
that as you want to keep the contest TPs untouched (at least the
coordinates).

Also, GNII also allows you to open several waypoint files.

For a contest, file #1 would be the one with the official turnpoints so
they will be number 1 through N per the contest DB. Then open another
file with all landpoints - preferrably edited so it doesn't contain any
airports that are also contest TPs.

Since these files are all typically just plain text with some type of
delimeter, it's fairly easy to do some merging with either a text
editor oe Excel, etc.

As for creating a marked up sectional for contests, Matt Herron
(GlidePlan) is working on an import function for waypoints. You then
will have the option to draw glide ratio or distance circles around the
waypoints as well. I'm sure if a bunch of us buy the current software,
Matt will be more inclined to add these features over the winter.

-Tom

[Eric Greenwell]

Eric Greenwell wrote:
> Doug Haluza wrote:
>> John Liebacher has made the FAA airport database available at:
>>
>> http://soaring.aerobatics.ws/TP/FAA
>>
>> If you have SeeYou, you can load this database, then overlay your
>> turnpoints, and reject nearby duplicates. This will update the airport
>> data in your exiting turnpoint database, plus give you landout airports
>> for the whole country. You can then trim this down as much as you like.
>
> You may not need SeeYou, as John may have a version for GNII. The SeeYou
> version does include the frequencies, runway width, fuel availability
> (for motorgliders, of course). Some formats have smaller
> comment/description fields and may not have all info.

I just tried exporting to a Cambridge DAT format, and the radio
frequencies are not exported, though the runway width and fuel show up
in the comments field.

--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA
Change "netto" to "net" to email me directly

"Transponders in Sailplanes" on the Soaring Safety Foundation website
www.soaringsafety.org/prevention/articles.html

"A Guide to Self-launching Sailplane Operation" at www.motorglider.org

[Doug Haluza]

5Z wrote:
> wrote:
> > QUESTION: Could I have used SeeYou for this?
>
> Yes. SeeYou allows you to import several files and join them. It wil
> ask if you want to include ot ignore new waypoints that are near
> existing ones. Down side is that if the contest provided airports
> don't have useful comment info (CFAF, AWOS, etc) then you will lose
> that as you want to keep the contest TPs untouched (at least the
> coordinates).
>
Yes, this is why you want to load the new aifield data first, then
overlay your old waypoint database and reject nearby matches. This way
the new airfield data will be retained. The only thing you need to be
careful about for contests is if the airfield is also a turnpoint. In
this case you may have to manually edit the coordinates to match the
contest official version if they are different. In this case, be sure
to set your degree display format to match the format used for the
official turnpoint list to avoid round-off errors.

[[email protected]]

I had to edit the comments manually so the freqs, headings and runway
dimensions would all display in GNII.

One "problem" I've noted with SeeYou is that it sometimes offers to
delete nearby waypoints even when there really are two points you may
want to keep; e.g., two airports within a mile or so, or two different
sets of coordinates for the same airport caused by the FAA and
organizers' data being slightly different. That's another reason why I
went the Excel/text editor route. I assumed it was better (i.e,. easier
for me) to edit externally and then use SeeYou to export/upload in the
proper format.

Chip Bearden
ASW 24 "JB"

[Matt Herron Jr.]

I purchased a copy of Global Mapper, and as an experiment, I am
offering custom made charts for licensed customers of GlidePlan. Just
send me an email from this page:
(http://www.glideplan.com/download/Experimental.html). Resulting maps
will be posted for download at the above link. In this way, hopefully
we can get around the limitations of single sectional flight planning.
As a first example, I have included a map that covers the area from
CedarVille down to Bakersfield CA, and Sacramento East to Tonopah,
which will account for most of the reachable destinations out of the
Reno area.

[Paul Remde]

Hi Eric,

You are correct of course. The radio frequency data was not exported -
which is a bummer. I requested that SeeYou add the ability to select what
data is put into the export file's comment field but no luck so far. The
data is in SeeYou. I believe it is possible to get the radio frequency into
the file using some creative column copying in Excel, but I haven't tried it
yet.

Even so, it is very easy to create a waypoint file for any area of the USA
with very current airport data using SeeYou or StrePla.

Good Soaring,

Paul Remde
Cumulus Soaring, Inc.
http://www.cumulus-soaring.com

"Eric Greenwell" > wrote in message
news:W90Wg.1696$WD1.1000@trndny04...
> Eric Greenwell wrote:
>> Doug Haluza wrote:
>>> John Liebacher has made the FAA airport database available at:
>>>
>>> http://soaring.aerobatics.ws/TP/FAA
>>>
>>> If you have SeeYou, you can load this database, then overlay your
>>> turnpoints, and reject nearby duplicates. This will update the airport
>>> data in your exiting turnpoint database, plus give you landout airports
>>> for the whole country. You can then trim this down as much as you like.
>>
>> You may not need SeeYou, as John may have a version for GNII. The SeeYou
>> version does include the frequencies, runway width, fuel availability
>> (for motorgliders, of course). Some formats have smaller
>> comment/description fields and may not have all info.
>
> I just tried exporting to a Cambridge DAT format, and the radio
> frequencies are not exported, though the runway width and fuel show up in
> the comments field.
>
> --
> Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA
> Change "netto" to "net" to email me directly
>
> "Transponders in Sailplanes" on the Soaring Safety Foundation website
> www.soaringsafety.org/prevention/articles.html
>
> "A Guide to Self-launching Sailplane Operation" at www.motorglider.org

[Andy[_1_]]

Paul Remde wrote:
> Hi,
>
> If you open the SeeYou version or the US Airport Database in SeeYou, or the
> StrePla version in StrePla, you can then export waypoint files for use in
> Glide Navigator II or transfer waypoints to a Garmin (I think). I create
> Glide Navigator II files using SeeYou often. It works great.

I don't have StrePla or SeeYou.