AVIATIONTOOLBOX: new chart product from the FAA

It's been months since I got a good set of sectional raster DVDs
from the FAA. For a couple cycles a Miami image was missing
georeferencing data. That was fixed but then the current set I
received had a bad (East) disk. So I called to see if I could
get another.

They didn't have any extra disks but I got to talk to a very
kind and knowledgable gentleman who not only agreed to send me
his disk but also talked to me for awhile about a new product
which should arrive in Spring.

The new product is based on an existing set of images used by
controllers (IAPA?). It's like the sectionals but without the
relief shading. (It still has the elevation colors
unfortunately.) The big twist is that it's going to come as one
degree rectangles.

I've made a set of square chunks from the current sectional
product.
http://aviationtoolbox.org/munge/data/square_chunked/
There are some major problems but I was told the FAA will be
committed to addressing any that appear. The georeferencing
will also be much tighter.

This should be a boon for moving map software users.

Oh, and I verified that the sectionals *are* generated
photographically. They're maintained on "plates" not on a
computer.

--kyler

Kyler Laird wrote:
: Oh, and I verified that the sectionals *are* generated
: photographically. They're maintained on "plates" not on a
: computer.

Wow... that's impressive. I'm assuming you mean just the basic ground
shading, etc? The man-made artifacts aren't on the master "plates," right?
Otherwise, anytime anything changed (airways, airport public/private, airspace, etc),
they'd have to re-art the underlying image.

-Cory

--

************************************************** ***********************
* Cory Papenfuss *
* Electrical Engineering candidate Ph.D. graduate student *
* Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University *
************************************************** ***********************

writes:

Wow... that's impressive. I'm assuming you mean just the basic ground
shading, etc? The man-made artifacts aren't on the master "plates," right?
Otherwise, anytime anything changed (airways, airport public/private, airspace, etc),
they'd have to re-art the underlying image.

There are layers (transparencies). Unfortunately they have no plans for
selling products with fewer layers.

--kyler