(USA) FAA airport database in Google Earth (KML) files

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

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.

On Nov 27, 7:48*pm, Tuno wrote:

Which file includes Arizona? I tried ASW first, then ASO. My
computer is far too slow to try them all. It also seems I don't
support clamped polygons.

thnaks

Andy

Thanks Tuno!

Now we just have to convince Google Earth that we need the whole world
in up-to-date 1m resolution!

(Check a recent AvWeek for a Frech proposal to do this, with an update
rate of monthly or so - commercially available! That'll **** off the
security freaks!).

Kirk
66

On Nov 28, 8:57*am, Andy wrote:
On Nov 27, 7:48*pm, Tuno wrote:

Which file includes Arizona? *I tried ASW first, then ASO. *My
computer is far too slow to try them all. *It also seems I don't
support clamped polygons.

thnaks

Andy

My next guess was AWP but that produces a parse error at line 1127
column 103.

Andy

Andy,

Arizona is in the AWP (Western-Pacific) file. You just needed to try
one more!

If you GE doesn't support clamped polygons you should probably upgrade
your version. Mine is 4.7.3xxxx. (I haven't yet found a runway that
wasn't clamped to the ground.)

2NO

I've had a report from one user whose computer changed the file name
to use .xml extension instead of .kml. If you have trouble, check that
your pooter didn't do the same.

Also I've placed a copy of the NASR's schema file for the airport
database in the web site he

http://www.justsoar.com/public/nasr_...pec/apt_rf.txt

You can browse the schema file and if you see any fields in there you
want to see in the .kml data (e.g. added to the popup description),
let me know. (The descriptions currently contain airport owner and
manager contact info and comm frequencies, when provided.)

-ted/2NO

Andy, what version of GE are you using?

Regardless, I've removed the clampToGround altitude mode since that
should be the default for polygons in all versions, and refreshed the
files. Let me know if you have any more trouble.

~tuno

On Nov 28, 9:30*am, Tuno wrote:
Andy, what version of GE are you using?

Regardless, I've removed the clampToGround altitude mode since that
should be the default for polygons in all versions, and refreshed the
files. Let me know if you have any more trouble.

~tuno

The refreshed AWP file does not give me the parse error and displays
ok. The parse error was unique to that file and did not appear in the
pre-refresh ASW or ASO files. GE version is 4.2.0181.2634 beta. It
does not tell me an update is available and that is what usually
prompts me to do it. It may be that my computer dos not support the
newer version. I'll check later.

Andy

What a nice thing to have! Thanks very much, very nice review before
flying in a new area.

Bob
Canada


On Nov 27, 9:48*pm, Tuno wrote:
http://www.justsoar.com/public/nasr_apt/

These kml files provide an easy way to browse airports in Google Earth
snip