mentat@juniper.UUCP (Robert Dorsett) (04/12/88)
A couple of months ago, I posted inquiries as to where to find electronic
copies of information on airport geometries (the NOS charts are obviously
computer-plotted) and navaid information. Among the replies I got were
suggestions to contact IBM, the US Geodetic Survey, and other agencies. I
finally got results through the US National Ocean Service. While I haven't
found anyone who knows anything about the airport geometries (yet), they do
publish airport information on disk--which should be quite handy for those
of you writing flight planners (or simulators :-)).
The information is updated every 56 days, and is available through subscrip-
tions. Richard Powell is the contact person at 301-443-8761, or you can
write
NOAA Distribution Branch, N/CG33
National Ocean Service
6501 Lafayette Avenue
Riverdale, MD 20737
Oh, yeah, the cost:
Media Format Price
----------------------------------------------------------------
Magnetic tape (1600 BPI, 0.5"): ASCII $600.00
EBCDIC $600.00
Floppy disk (5.25", MS-DOS): ASCII $320.00
Paper $270.00
I haven't been able to learn yet whether they'll release a "one-shot" copy of
any of the above; if they did, assuming a uniform accumulation of charges, a
set of disks should run about $50.
The format of the information is quite simple. Lines of text. An
example:
MAJ R N 69 35 37.0 W 140 10 55.0 KOMAKUK B 0388 9999 -99999 +04 ZMP MI
Translation:
Identifier: MAJ
Type: R=NDB
Latitude degrees: 69
Latitude minutes: 35
latitude seconds: 37.0 (N)
Longitude degrees: 140
Longitude minutes: 10
Lognitude seconds: 55.0 (W)
Name of navaid: KOMAKUK
Frequency 388
Channel not available (9999)
Sign of navaid elevation (+/-)
Navaid elevation (not available--99999)
Magnetic variation +04
ARTCC: ZMP
State: MI
This would be a fantastic source of information for flight planning software,
if only it wasn't so !($!*$! expensive...
BTW, most of the above information can be derived from the Airport/Facility
directory. Also, the AFD can be used to get a gross idea of navaid elevation.
--
Robert Dorsett {allegra,ihnp4}!ut-emx!walt.cc.utexas.edu!mentat
University of Texas mentat@walt.cc.utexas.edu
at Austin {allegra, ihnp4}!ut-emx!juniper!mentatmentat@juniper.UUCP (Robert Dorsett) (04/12/88)
That address I posted is for ordering. For information:
NOAA, N/CG3x12
6010 Executive Blvd.
Rockville, Maryland 20852
301-443-8761
--
Robert Dorsett {allegra,ihnp4}!ut-emx!walt.cc.utexas.edu!mentat
University of Texas mentat@walt.cc.utexas.edu
at Austin {allegra, ihnp4}!ut-emx!juniper!mentat