New Improved Military Training Routes KML File -- Includes Puppies

After noticing that the FAA had reduced the line length of their Military Training Route text file from 553 characters to 520 characters in their April release, I knew that I had some cleanup work. They also created a new type of record, separating out the agency data from the base MTR record into its own type. Database folks would call these tables. Who says they government can't change? This makes creating the KML a little easier, because I'd rather parse more record types with fewer fields than fewer record types with more fields.



Fun facts:

• Pretty much everything the FAA writes is in ALL CAPS.


• There are about 400 "noise-sensitive" areas that our military pilots need to know about, including at least nine chicken farms.


• There are about 39 "CONGRESSIONAL" noise-sensitive areas, including several "CONGRESSIONAL (EXTREMELY) NOISE SENSITIVE AREA".


• There is at least one "CONGRESSIONAL NOISE SENSITIVE AREA (CATTLE FARM)" at N36-28.8 W80-27.5. Who knew that sonic booms make milk go sour?


• Puppies! "ROUTE SEGMENTS A TO B AND B TO C CLOSED 1 MARCH THROUGH 30 MAY ANNUALLY DUE TO NEW BORN SILVER FOX PUPS." We'll forgive the grammar for puppies.

I am working on creating a KML sub-set to include just Congressional noise-sensitive areas, so we can all know which areas to avoid.

File Format Improvements:

• SOP and other data are not commingled between IR and VR routes with the same number. Route Type and the number are a composite key.


• Now includes terrain-following operations notes, if applicable


• When you click on a line, you get a table of data rather than all freeform text.


• When you click on a waypoint, you can see the Navaid distance and radial.


• Waypoints are now star shapes instead of the stock pushpins.

The new Military Training Route file is in the KML Archive. The filename starts with "MTR".

NOT FOR NAVIGATION. CONTAINS UNVERIFIED DATA.

Not for Navigation: FAA Navaid File for Google Earth KML

I parsed and plotted the FAA's navigation aid file into KML for Google Earth. This includes VORs, VORTACs, and NDBs, among others. Even decommissioned VOTs are listed because they're still in the database. Other VOTs are still listed as operational. I thought they were obsolete. Seeing all the different navaids in Google Earth is pretty impressive. There are a lot of them. (File is in the KML folder if you can't be bothered to read the rest. It's called US_NAVAIDS, but it includes some foreign navaids, too.)

I tried to include as much data as possible about each navaid, but I left out the details on the Fan markers, because there are only eight of them unless there's a bug in my code someplace.

This file has not been checked, so take a look the VORs near your base and let me know if they're off.

Some of you may be thinking that radio navigation is becoming obsolete and that it's expensive to maintain 2,615 ground-based aids to navigation now that we have GPS, GLONASS, and Galileo. Certainly, many pilots rely on GPS exclusively, but I think that's a mistake. GPS signals are extraordinarily easy to jam. Jammers are cheap, but they're generally not strong enough to reach the altitude required.

Traditional radio-navigation has been working for years. It fails well. One NDB or VOR is not linked to any others, so if one fails, all the others still work. Given that there are thousands of them, it's hard to imagine not being able to tune in any VOR/VORTAC/NDB at all but the lowest altitudes.

With GPS, it's a little easier to imagine widespread failures now that incidents have been documented.

NOT FOR NAVIGATION.

Not for Navigation: FAA Parachute Jump Zones KML

I got around to parsing the FAA's parachute file. At first, the data elements looked good enough to do a proper circle in Google Earth. However, most jump zones have a null radius or no radius. Nevertheless, where there is a radius, it's listed in the area comments. There's a similar problem throughout the data -- elements are missing in many records.

Another mystery: Some areas are charted, some are in the A/FD, and some are listed in neither. (FAA's Airport/Facility Directory This link will expire.).

If you've ever wanted to see all the jump zones in the US in Google Earth, the file is in the archive. Hint: It's called dropzones in the kml directory.

Another mystery: Why I can't get the lat/long math correct on multiple hemispheres the first time I try.

NOT FOR NAVIGATION

Not for Navigation: FAA Communications Outlets

If you've ever wondered where all the FAA Radio communications outlets are located, here you go. These are not tower frequencies, nor ARTCC or TRACON frequencies. These are the ways to connect to Flight Service Stations, that are sometimes co-located with VORs or airports. They are not unique -- outlet stations associated with an FSS can have multiple locations with the same ID. So says the FAA.

The file is in the usual place. I link to the folder rather than a specific file because the filenames will change with each release cycle.

Thanks to Nicolas Mollet for the icons. I was getting sick of the default Google pushpin

NOT FOR NAVIGATION.

Not for Navigation: Airports KML File Updated

I updated the Airport KML file with all US Airports. It still needs edits for cleanliness of the comments. The FAA updated the layout of the file back in April (2012) to include more data. The updates moved the location of a lot of data. All my code merely looks at the right place on each line for the data points, so there was some work to be done.

As usual, it's in the KML folder on my webserver.

NOT FOR NAVIGATION

Not for Navigation: KML Files Updated Again

I have updated the Special Use Airspace, Military Training Routes, and AWOS KML files. There have been significant changes in the FAA Data Files. It looks like the FAA Airports file is now providing data to other agencies in the Executive Branch, so there are several more record types to sort out. It looks interesting, so I'm going to take a look at it. I need to rewrite a little code and adjust the SQL tables. Thus the airports KML file is not done yet. (It's not a big deal -- the entire codebase is just string manipulation and SQL queries.)

Also, Military Training Routes are still not validated. I have no idea how accurate they are because I can't find the data in other forms.

Finally, the new AWOS file is AWOS data from the AWOS file only. Previously, it had included airports' AWOS data. Now it doesn't. On the upside, it does inlclude previously not-included AWOS-only stations. If you're wondering what those are, open it up and look at the Gulf of Mexico. There are two entries for each comment.

I really need to figure out the new XML airspace schema.

NOT FOR NAVIGATION.