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.

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.

"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

"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.

The primary motivating factor to change to a 3-letter identifier is when an
airport has a localizer or ILS approach. The FAA has decided they want the
navaid ID to match the airport ID, i.e. in Pennsylvania 2G3 was changed to
KVVS because the localizer is IVVS and the NDB/FAF is VV.

--------------------
Richard Kaplan, CFII

www.flyimc.com

Richard Kaplan wrote:

"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.

The primary motivating factor to change to a 3-letter identifier is when an
airport has a localizer or ILS approach. The FAA has decided they want the
navaid ID to match the airport ID, i.e. in Pennsylvania 2G3 was changed to
KVVS because the localizer is IVVS and the NDB/FAF is VV.

40N in Pennsylvania has had an ILS and weather reporting for many years. I've
never heard any plans to give it a three letter; it certainly deserves one based
on the FAA's criteria. Anybody know why this airport doesn't receive a new
identifier?

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.

"G. Burkhart" wrote in message
news:fdCpc.56114$536.9689876@attbi_s03...

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


http://www.faa.gov/atpubs/LID/LIDHME.htm