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

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