Re: Airport and Navaid data for countries other than the US?

[John Peterson <jaypee@netcom.com>]

On Thu, Mar 25, 1999 at 07:46:08AM -0600, Keith Brown wrote:
> >   Just to set the record straight, the fplan airport and navaid database
> >for the USA is derived from the database from the National Flight Data
> >Center. I've seen other FAA databases, but to the best of my knowledge,
> >the NFDC is the best bet (they are given as the point of contact for
> >reporting errors. For example, see the inside of the front cover of one
> >of the green colored Airport, Facility Guide). The NFDC web site is at
> >
> > http://www.tgf.tc.faa.gov/nfdc/index.html
> 
> This is *not* the NFDC website, and the data is almost a year out of date.
> This is an FAA research facility website that uses NFDC data for simulations
> and they make the data available on the site, but it isn't complete or
> current. NFDC and/or NASA *used* to have plans to offer current data on
> line, but they shelved it. AFAIK, NFDC only supplies the data on 9-track
> magnetic tape and you have to pay for it. Also, you have to either find a
> friend with a mainframe :-) or pay someone to transfer the data from the
> tape to media you can use. You might want to check with Paul Santos, the
> webmaster at
> http://www.airnav.com
> He somehow gets the current data and puts it in a searchable database on the
> site. Ask him how he gets the data.
> 

   Just to clarify, I was not implying that this data is an "official
product" of the NFDC. The web page makes this very clear, it states:

 "<<<<< FOR RESEARCH PURPOSES ONLY -- NOT CERTIFIED FOR NAVIGATION >>>>>"

It's also true that the data is almost a year old. On the other hand,
it is still the best public source for this information that I have
seen so far. There have been some updates in the past, roughly every
6-9 months. On one occassion, I discovered a small problem with one of
the data fields, and they promptly corrected the files when I sent them
e-mail describing the problem.

   It probably goes without saying, but having up to date navigational
information is really a "mission critical" issue (so I'll say it anyway).
More than one fatal accident has occured as a result of bad or missing
data. Here are a couple interesting URLs for you all. The first one has
some nice links to other aviation charting resources, and the second
speaks of a law suit filed against Jeppesen, that relates to data.

	http://www.webcom.com/skygod/charting/home.html

	http://www.webcom.com/skygod/charting/dmalia.html

-- 
 ___|___  | John C. Peterson, KD6EKQ | Try Linux for Intel x86, because
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  o/ \o   | San Diego, CA   U.S.A    | See http://www.linux.org/ for info
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