Another ID change for Smoketown? (37PA, Q08, S37)

I noticed in the new New York Sectional (just came out a few days ago)
that the Smoketown, Pennsylvania (just east of Lancaster) has a new
identifier, S37.

Ok, identifiers change sometimes, but a few years ago Smoketown changed
from 37PA to Q08, presumably in the effort to make public use airports 3
digits.

Now it changed yet again...why? Was there a problem with Q08--perhaps
being confused with somebody else in the area? (Most one letter- two
number airport IDs in Pennsylvania/ NJ begin with N.)

What's even stranger is that 37PA was subsequently used by a heliport
(IIRC) and it is now the identifier for private use Roadcap Airport in
western PA, which was previously known as 31N. 31N has not been
reallocated as far as I can tell.

So what's with the musical identifiers? A secret evil plot by the GPS
database providers?

On Sun, 16 May 2004 00:12:55 -0400, Jeff Saylor
wrote:

I noticed in the new New York Sectional (just came out a few days ago)
that the Smoketown, Pennsylvania (just east of Lancaster) has a new
identifier, S37.

Ok, identifiers change sometimes, but a few years ago Smoketown changed
from 37PA to Q08, presumably in the effort to make public use airports 3
digits.

Now it changed yet again...why? Was there a problem with Q08--perhaps
being confused with somebody else in the area? (Most one letter- two
number airport IDs in Pennsylvania/ NJ begin with N.)

What's even stranger is that 37PA was subsequently used by a heliport
(IIRC) and it is now the identifier for private use Roadcap Airport in
western PA, which was previously known as 31N. 31N has not been
reallocated as far as I can tell.

So what's with the musical identifiers? A secret evil plot by the GPS
database providers?




Very odd. All I can imagine is that people didn't know if the 0 was a
zero, or an O. Otherwise I'd just blame it on the feds trying to keep
busy.g

z

Jeff Saylor wrote:

So what's with the musical identifiers? A secret evil plot by the GPS
database providers?

Here's another interesting case, Drummond (Montana) Airport lost its three
letter identifier, DRU (or KDRU) recently. It is now M26. It will be
interesting to see where KDRU pops up next, I don't know of many cases where
an airport lost its 3 letter id.

Jeff Saylor wrote:

I noticed in the new New York Sectional (just came out a few days ago)
that the Smoketown, Pennsylvania (just east of Lancaster) has a new
identifier, S37.

Ok, identifiers change sometimes, but a few years ago Smoketown changed
from 37PA to Q08, presumably in the effort to make public use airports 3
digits.

Now it changed yet again...why? Was there a problem with Q08--perhaps
being confused with somebody else in the area? (Most one letter- two
number airport IDs in Pennsylvania/ NJ begin with N.)

Looking further, a bunch of Q-number-number ID's have changed recently to
something else. Perhaps the FAA no longer likes identifers that begin with
Q? Still its strange that they just assigned one to Smoketown a few years
ago only to change it now.

Here's a bad one, 6PA4 (Morgantown, PA) became O03. (That's letter
O-Zero-Three.)

I may be wrong, but don't most 3-letter identifiers offer weather reporting
of some type? There are probably exceptions, but if the identifier contains
numbers, they don't offer weather reporting. I have seen identifiers change
from having numbers to all letters when they got AWOS. I suppose if they
lose their weather reporting, they could revert to an identifier with
numbers.

I remember reading online about airport identifiers a while back. Now, if
only I can find it again...


"Jeff Saylor" wrote in message
...


Jeff Saylor wrote:

So what's with the musical identifiers? A secret evil plot by the GPS
database providers?

Here's another interesting case, Drummond (Montana) Airport lost its three
letter identifier, DRU (or KDRU) recently. It is now M26. It will be
interesting to see where KDRU pops up next, I don't know of many cases
where
an airport lost its 3 letter id.

"G. Burkhart" wrote:

I may be wrong, but don't most 3-letter identifiers offer weather reporting
of some type? There are probably exceptions, but if the identifier contains
numbers, they don't offer weather reporting. I have seen identifiers change
from having numbers to all letters when they got AWOS.

That's usually true. An exception is G. O. Carlson-Chester County Airport,
Pennsylvania. It's had weather reporting for a while now and I've heard of no
plans to change its identifer from 40N.


I suppose if they
lose their weather reporting, they could revert to an identifier with
numbers.

I remember reading online about airport identifiers a while back. Now, if
only I can find it again...

I don't think DRU ever had wx reporting but could be wrong. My guess is that FAA
wants to reserve DRU/ KDRU for someplace else, it's just unusual to see an
airport lose a three letter. Those three letter ID's are probably getting
pretty scarce, especially with all of the weather machines deployed everywhere.

In article ,
Jeff Saylor wrote:
Jeff Saylor wrote:
Now it changed yet again...why? Was there a problem with Q08--perhaps
being confused with somebody else in the area? (Most one letter- two
number airport IDs in Pennsylvania/ NJ begin with N.)

Looking further, a bunch of Q-number-number ID's have changed recently to
something else. Perhaps the FAA no longer likes identifers that begin with
Q? Still its strange that they just assigned one to Smoketown a few years
ago only to change it now.

South County (Q99) is changing to E16. The change is due to the
conflict with Q identifiers used on RNAV routes.

John
--
John Clear - http://www.panix.com/~jac

"Jeff Saylor" wrote in message
...
That's usually true. An exception is G. O. Carlson-Chester County
Airport,
Pennsylvania. It's had weather reporting for a while now and I've heard
of no
plans to change its identifer from 40N.


I remember reading online about airport identifiers a while back. Now,
if
only I can find it again...


I found the identifier information at
http://www.faa.gov/atpubs/LID/LIDHME.htm and
http://www.faa.gov/atpubs/LID/ch1.htm

In article fdCpc.56114$536.9689876@attbi_s03, G. Burkhart
wrote:

I remember reading online about airport identifiers a while back. Now, if
only I can find it again...

IIRC... it is an ICAO requirement.

"Jeff Saylor" wrote in message
...

Here's another interesting case, Drummond (Montana) Airport lost
its three letter identifier, DRU (or KDRU) recently. It is now M26.
It will be interesting to see where KDRU pops up next, I don't
know of many cases where an airport lost its 3 letter id.


Three-letter identifiers are assigned to navaids; to airports with a manned
air traffic control facility or navigational aid within airport boundary; to
airports that receive scheduled route air carrier or military airlift
service, and to airports designated by the U.S. Customs Service as Airports
of Entry. DRU VOR is close by, but it's not within the airport boundary, so
DRU should never have been the identifier for Drummond Airport. Apparently
somebody finally caught the error.