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Old November 28th 08, 03:54 PM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
bildan
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Posts: 646
Default (USA) FAA airport database in Google Earth (KML) files

On Nov 27, 7:48*pm, Tuno wrote:
http://www.justsoar.com/public/nasr_apt/

These kml files provide an easy way to browse airports in Google Earth
(current motivation is to examine privately owned strips for
landability -- yer welcome, 66!).

Each file covers an FAA region as follows:

CODE * * * * * REGION NAME
---- * * * * * -----------
AAL * * * * * *ALASKA
ACE * * * * * *CENTRAL
AEA * * * * * *EASTERN
AGL * * * * * *GREAT LAKES
AIN * * * * * *INTERNATIONAL
ANE * * * * * *NEW ENGLAND
ANM * * * * * *NORTHWEST MOUNTAIN
ASO * * * * * *SOUTHERN
ASW * * * * * *SOUTHWEST
AWP * * * * * *WESTERN-PACIFIC

Each file is subdivided into public and private airports.

Some notes to keep in mind while browsing:

- Only facilitytype = AIRPORT and GLIDERPORT are included in the
conversion. Lots of heliports and ultralight strips were dropped on
the floor.

- Private airports are plotted with green runways; public with blue.
Closed airports (public or private) are plotted with red runways.

- The NASR database has one RWY record for each runway at each
airport. However, most private airports (and a number of public ones)
do not have endpoint (base and reciprocal) geo locations in their
runway records; in this case, my conversation software assumes that
the given location for the airport is the center of the runway(s).
This is what you see when the plotted runway(s) are offset from the
Google Earth image (and multiple runways appear as an X).

- For the airports with complete RWY records, most of the data are
very good, with runway plots very closely matching the image in Google
Earth.

- There are still lots of errors in the FAA database. It has active
airports that haven't existed in years (see COOPER RANCH in Arizona --
it is just a hillside now). Some of the locations are off by a mile or
two (see SPENCER NOLF, the only airport in the database with 8
runways).

Enjoy

~ted/2NO


Very cool!

Now, we need people to go to these strips and photograph them from the
ground and post the photos on Google Earth with notes.