Datasources
The datasources I currently use for waypoint generation are:
- FAA
- The Federal Aviation Administration data
CD. Has information on every public and private airport, navaid and other
waypoint in the United States. Has very little outside of the US, except for
off shore waypoints and some Carribbean Islands and US protectorates (like
Wake Island), but what it has is detailed, frequently updated and fairly
accurate.
- DAFIF
- The Digital Aeronautical Flight Information File, from the National Geospatial Inteligence Agency (NGA).
Covers the entire world, with airports, navaids and other waypoints.
Because this file is primarily intended for the use of the US Military, it
doesn't cover airports that are too small to accomodate military aircraft.
Unfortunately, NGA is withdrawing it, and so hasn't been updated after
October 2006. See this link for more
details.
- way-points.nl
- Way-points.nl, a private
collection of waypoints gathered for the benefit of GPS users. Back in
2002, I asked Peter Marinus for their airport waypoints, and he sent me
the file. It has a heck of a lot of airports that aren't in DAFIF, but
with no supporting data (like altitude, frequencies and runways). Also,
comparing waypoints against DAFIF and other sources proves that the data
isn't always accurate, so it's only used to fill in airports that aren't
available from other sources. I haven't updated it since 2002, and it
probably isn't worth it.
- France (Alfred)
- A private collection of waypoints. I'm not exactly sure where this
collection comes from, but it was sent to me by Hermann Alfred in 2002.
It contains airports, VORs, NDBs and VFR waypoints. It seems to be fairly
accurate, and it has elevations and radio frequencies. Used to fill in
data that isn't available in DAFIF.
- Germany
- A private collection of waypoints. This one as updated very
frequently for a while, but stopped. The file has got airports, navaids
and VFR waypoints, and the data for major airports compares well with
DAFIF, but it's missing airport frequencies (but it has navaid
frequencies) and runways.
- Australia
- A private collection of waypoints. This one was sent to me
by Stewart Whitesidei in 2002. This one just classifies the points as
"Airport", "Navaid" or "VFR Waypoint", which is why I have a new type
"UNSPECIFIED NAVAID" in the type choice menu. The data for major airports
compares well with DAFIF, but it's missing airport and navaid frequencies
and runways. And some of the minor airports are completely wrong or
imaginary, not showing up on Google Maps or Wikipedia.
- Ontario
- A private collection of waypoints. This one was sent to me
by Stefan Vorkoetter, and includes all airplane aerodromes in
Ontario, Canada that are missing from the DAFIF data (i.e. they're too
small to land an F-16). Runway and frequency data is included. As
well, there are VFR waypoints.
The data was entered manually from the Canada Flight Supplement, so the
possibility for errors exists. Stefan updated a few times, but last
updated in 2006.
- France (Delamare)
- A private collection of waypoints. I'm not exactly sure where this
collection comes from, but it was sent to me by Georges Delarme in 2003.
Contains airports and ultralight ports. It has many private
airports. It has one frequency and some runway information for some
airports.
- Canada (Thompson)
- A private collection of waypoints. This one was sent to me by Vic
Thompson in 2003, and includes airports in the Maritimes, Quebec, the
Praries and Alberta, but only the ones that are missing from the DAFIF
data. Runway and frequency data is included. The data was entered
manually from the Canada Flight Supplement.
- Austria (Plonka)
- A private collection of waypoints. This one was sent to me
by Christian Plonka in 2003. It includes airports (with comm frequencies
and runways) and VFR reporting points for Austria.
- Netherlands (Vogelaar))
- A private collection of waypoints. This one was sent to me
by Hans Vogelaar in 2003. It includes airports (without comm frequencies
and runways) and navaids for the Netherlands.
- Gulf Platforms
- A private collection of waypoints, mostly oil platforms in the Gulf of
Mexico and reporting points used by helicopters operating there. This one
was sent to me by Stan Gosnell in 2003. I found a couple of errors in the
hospital and other on-shore data he included in the data file, so I left
them out. Mostly that was a duplication of what was in the FAA data
anyway. But the oil platform data wasn't available anywhere else.
- Malaysia and Singapore
- A private collection of VFR reporting points, Airports and NDBs
for Malaysia and Singapore, sent to me in 2003. Fanton, the supplier of
the data, lives in Singapore. He says that the charts available in
Singapore and Malaysia are terribly out of date and these VFR
waypoints are very important. Some of the data comes from the AIP,
and some is local unpublished information.
- Australia (Roberts)
- A private collection of Australian airports, supplied by Philip
Roberts, typed in from the En Route Supplement Australia and from the AOPA
National Airfield Directory in 2004. There are over 1000 airports in this
list. There are no comm frequencies or runway information for this data.
Some of the airports do not appear on Google Maps or in Wikipedia, so I'm
trying to winnow out the bad ones.
- Switzerland (Rueedi)
- A private collection of Swiss airports and VFR Waypoints, supplied by
Michel Rueedi in 2004. The airport information contains comm frequencies
and runway information, including grass secondary runways that aren't in
DAFIF. Airports that require prior notice or other arrangements before
landing there are marked as "private".
- B.C. (Elder)
- A private collection of airports and (a few) seaplane bases for
British Columbia, Canada. Like "Canada (Thompson)" and "Ontario", it only
includes airports that aren't in DAFIF data, and includes comm frequencies
and runways for some of them. This data comes from Craig J. Elder and was
last updated in 2004.
- Ireland (Mackriell)
- Airports, Navaids, Reporting Points from the Irish AIP. Airports
include runway and comm frequencies.
This data comes from Andrew J. Mackriell and was updated several times
until he left Ireland in 2006.
- Brazil (Bolorino)
- Airports from Brazil. Only includes name, city+state, latitude,
longitude and elevation, no other data.
This data comes from Fabrica Bolorino in 2005.
- Canada (Robertson)
- Airports and Navaids from Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British
Columbia, and Yukon Territories in Canada.
This data comes from Douglas Robertson in 2005.
- UK and region (Janjua)
- Airports, navaids, reporting points and others. Some data is taken
from DAFIF, some is taken from UK and European AIP, but also includes
ultralight ports and VFR reporting points. Nadim Janjua maintains this
data and makes it available on his web site
http://www.pcpages.com/njanjua/CoPilot.htm. He generously gave me
permission to use it here as well. I last updated it in 2005.
- Argentina (Ortiz)
- Airports only. Converted from a Copilot database sent by Osvaldo
Oritz in 2005. Not sure of the data source, but the airports that are
also in the DAFIF data shows some minor discrepencies in position and
elevation.
- Canada (McCormick)
- Warren McCormick sent me an update for 5 or 6 western Canadian
airfields in 2007. I'm hoping he'll send me more.
- Canada (Plews)
- George Plews maintains a list of airports and a list of water
aerodromes taken from the Canada Flight Supplement. He updates it every
data cycle, although he's usually a few days behind the FAA data.
Does not include runway or communication frequency data.
- World IFR Airports
- Demaf Rame maintains this list of airports around the world. Most of
these airports are also in DAFIF. Last updated in 2007.
I take all this data, and combine it. I made some arbitrary decisions
about which user data to take if the same waypoint was in more than one
data source, mostly based on when was the last time I'd received an update
from that user. Since many of the private sources don't include
communications frequencies or runways, for instance, I may end up using
the basic waypoint data from the private source and combine it with
frequencies and runways from DAFIF.
The DAFIF data is getting stale, and some of the private data I have is of
questionable accuracy. If you find a problem, please don't hesitate to
send me an update. If you want to enter some data from your local AIP,
whether it's one airport or your whole country, please send it along.
This data is only as good as the data I'm given. Your contribution of
data will keep this data up to date and free.
If you live in the US, the FAA does a pretty good job of providing free
and complete data. If you want to contribute, I can give you the URL of
various country's AIPs that are available in PDF format and you can type
that data in for me.
For more information about the CoPilot program, see this link or the Frequently Asked
Questions list.
For more information about the GPSPilot programs, including
Fly see this link.
For more information about the GPX data format, and
programs that support it,
see this link.
For more information about the AeroCalc program
see this link.
For more information about the AeroPalm program
see this link.
You can email the author of the Waypoint Generators at
ptomblin+generator@xcski.com.
I do these waypoint generators on my own time and with my own money. If you
would like to support my efforts with a donation, I have several options
available. Or you can contribute data, which is even more useful to me.
