Special Use Airspace and Military Training Routes KML Files Updated

I updated the Military Training Routes KML file as well as the Special Use Areas KML file on the Sept. 20 FAA data cycle. Both are in the KML folder here.

I also found an interesting new site that has more KML files available, as well as an MTR KML file with a different data source. This is the first time I've been able to check my work against anyone else's. In Google Earth, it's very easy to have two layers and compare them.

The source on the other file is the DoD's DAFIF file, which is now FOUO. That's For Official Use Only, as in not for public release.

The BLM (Bureau of Land Management, part of the Department of the Interior) has an inter-agency airspace coordination site to help coordinate flight restrictions around forest fires. Under that site is a directory of KML files.

The MTR information is close on both files, with the exception of "Slow Routes." I guess the DoD's DAFIF files include "Slow Routes" but the FAA's text data has no such type of MTR listed.

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.

US Airports KML file updated. That's 13,632 airports.

There are 13,632 airports in the FAA database. That does not count balloonports, seaplane bases, gliderports, heliports, or ultralight facilities. That's also a huge number of placemarks for a KML file, so your Google Earth machine will need some processing power.

If you pan out, the placemark icons will cover the continental United States. It also drives home the point that if you're flying high enough and your engine dies, you should be able to glide to an airport.

Improvements: Public airports are in blue; private airports are in red. AWOS data is included where applicable. (If airports have an AWOS, it's included. Note that ATIS is not the same as AWOS.)

Code improvements: All output code is Python. The database is still Microsoft SQL, and the API is adodb for Python. Next: Porting output code to Linux (need a new database connection) and keeping back end MS SQL for now. Long-term: cleaning up and uploading data via python into MySQL.

Random Comments on Python: String manipulation in python is the same as in visual basic script, but different. If statements have no end, just an indent and and end of indent.

The KML file is in the KML archive, as usual. DO NOT USE FOR NAVIGATION.

View Airport Weather Stations in Google Earth: Updated AWOS KML file

I have an updated AWOS KML file that will show you the telephone number, frequency, and AWOS type for the airports listed in the FAA's AWOS text file. You can download it here. As always, the KML archive is here.

This file uses the airport's latitute and longitude rather than the AWOS' latitude and longitude, which is missing in some cases in the FAA's file.

Also, the FAA files seem to have arbitrary layout changes from release to release, as well as some data quality issues. (Missing data, data out of alignment, etc.) I'm glad I don't have to produce this stuff on deadline.

Updated Special Use Airspace KML

After losing a disk, I finally got around to rebuilding the database and scripts to generate KML files from the FAA's NFDC subscription. First to be redone is the Special Use Airspace KML. Microsoft's SQL Server 2008 does a far better job of importing files than SQL 2005 did. The airspace KML archive is here.

Airspace KML files updated for the December 17 cycle

I updated the airspace KML files again -- skipping one release. The latest covers from December 17, 2009 throughFebruary 11, 2010. You can find them in the archive here.

Airport AWOS Frequency/Phone KML file updated

I have updated the AWOS frequency, phone, phone and type file based on the FAA's 56-day subscription data. However, instead of using latitude and longitude included in the file, I joined the main airport file by airport ID. This requires making an assumption that all AWOSes are at the airport they serve. While that might not be the case, I get 643 more airports into the file then before. The AWOS file has 2,185 entries of which 1,542 have latitude and longitude. Almost every corresponding airport in the APT file has latitude and longitude. Thus, DCA will now show up with a phone number, but no frequency. The new KML will also show the AWOS type: ASOS, AWOS-1, AWOS-2, AWOS-3, or AWOS-A.

Finally, matching airports to AWOS increases the complexity. I had hoped to write a simple script that does text manipulation for all KML files -- one script altering one FAA text file to produce one KML file. As with the Special Use Airspace, however, there wasn't a good way to do it without using a database and relations.

Find them in the KML archive.

Airspace, Special Use, and Airport KML files updated (not all US Airports are in the Western Hemisphere)

I updated the Airspace, Special Use, and Airport KML files for the FAA data covering the 56 Day Subscription from August 27 2009 to October 22 2009. I have also created batch files to call all the scripts, and I'm working on a T-SQL script to clear the tables and do a bulk import from the files.

Also, I corrected one incorrect assumption. Not all US Airports are in the western hemisphere. I assumed all longitudes were W and put a minus sign in the conversion to Google/KML decimal format from the FAA's all-seconds format. Wrong. In the updated file, MAJ (MARSHALL ISLANDS INTL) is in the right place. I'm still not sure Pago-Pago is correct, however.

The index of files is here.

Class B, C, D and experimental E Airspace KML files posted

FAA subscription data includes .shp (shape) files for ESRI products. Google Earth Pro ($400/year) is capable of opening these shape files directly, but the default setting is to make them opaque. Thus the class B airspace looks like one single area with no details. FWTools is a free open-source conversion tool to change GIS formats. It also does a much better job of converting the data, showing each individual airpspace and its low and high altitudes. The FAA marks the class E files as experimental, NOT TO BE USED FOR NAVIGATION.

The FWTools command to change from the FAA's .shp format to KML is as follows:
ogr2ogr -f "KML" C:\airports\class_b.kml C:\airports\class_b.shp The FAA lists airspace in order (e.g. Washington Class B Area A, Washington Class B Area B...), and fwtools maintains this order. When Google Earth displays this information, the last one listed goes on "top" of the area. Thus when you click on the center of a Class B zone, the widest area comes up, NOT the SFC to 10000 area. You can see the correct area when you click on the corresponding area layer, however. (I am currently working on a fix for this, but it requires some custom XML and SQL programming that's going to take some time.)

However, there is a weakness in Google Earth. The KML specification does not allow the creation of floating polygons. All non-plane polygons are extruded from the surface or ocean floor. Thus, there's no way to express in KML the upside-down-wedding-cake shape of your typical Bravo airspace. This may one day change, however, because Google is already adding its own extensions to the KML specification.

If you don't want to bother, just download the Airpspace KML files here: Archive link.The usual warning applies -- DO NOT USE FOR NAVIGATION. The KML archive is here.

Special Use Airspace in Google Earth

According to the FAA, there are 977 U.S. special use airspaces around the world. (Some are international, like the Pacific off of Guam.) By Special Use airspace, I mean the following FAA Types: ALERT AREA, MILITARY OPERATIONS AREA, PROHIBITED AREA, RESTRICTED AREA, WARNING AREA. (Another side note: It's not just the FAA that loves ALL CAPS. The Department State also uses ALL CAPS in its cables.) There are many areas of the United States, in CONUS, Alaska and Hawaii, that are special use.

The FAA flat-fixed file that is the source of this data is so convoluted that I have a new-found respect for companies like Jeppesen that produce the data in a readable format every 56-day cycle. The FAA stuffs 8 different tables into one giant flat file with a well-documented layout.

Google Earth is not perfect with its polygons, either. It's got bugs, especially when it comes to KML stylesheets. I wrote the style tags with VBScript out of SQL, so they are all the same, but in Google Earth, they don't all look the way they're supposed to. It feels like troubleshooting early versions of Netscape and IE when writing HTML. And no, I didn't use some fancy XSL to transform my queries into KML (XML). I used VBScript because it's the tool I know and it's fast.

The usual warning applies: DO NOT USE FOR NAVIGATION. My code isn't perfect, and neither is the FAA's data. There is no substitute for a pre-flight briefing. I ask about the airspace every time flying out of the ADIZ.

Download the file here: US Special Use Airspace.kml.

US Airports by Region in Google Earth & Maps via KML

Given that my other x64 4GB computer hung this morning when loading the large KML file this morning, I decided to break up the KML file into the following FAA regions:ALASKA, CENTRAL, EASTERN, GREAT LAKES, NEW ENGLAND, NORTHWEST MOUNTAIN, SOUTHERN, SOUTHWEST and WESTERN-PACIFIC. (Once again, the FAA really really likes ALL CAPS.)

I also set up a directory to hold all my KML files, including the original all US airports and the AWOS file at this location. To view in Google Maps rather than Google Earth, add "http://maps.google.com/?q=" to the front of the URL.

View all US Airports on Google Earth via KML

I finally took the time to write the script to take the raw National Flight Data Center APT.TXT file and write it straight to a Google Earth and Maps-compliant KML file. It's pretty basic XML, with a little math to convert the FAA's all-seconds format into decimal coordinates.

A word of warning: DO NOT USE FOR NAVIGATION. This is unverified data from the FAA, and my math is often accurate to about a factor of ten. Also, there are 13,569 airports, which means there are 13,569 points in this file. It's enough to max out the processor running Google Earth on your computer. However, when you zoom in to a single state, it will speed up because most points are off-screen. I filtered out non-airport landing facilities: BALLOONPORT, SEAPLANE BASE, GLIDERPORT, HELIPORT, STOLPORT, ULTRALIGHT, so you will find none of those in this file. (The FAA likes things in ALL CAPS.)

The pop-up description of each data point includes the airport code, airport name, UNICOM frequencies, CTAF, and pulic or private. Download the US Airports KML file here.

Here's a screenshot of Google Earth with the KML loaded:

Displaying FAA Airport AWOS Data in Google Earth and Google Maps with KML

The FAA releases updated Airport data every 56 days via the National Flight Data Center Portal. However, since government contracts apparently don't have any usability requirements, it's difficult to navigate, and the data is still in a fixed-field format reminiscent of cobol and mainframes. (Which, by the way, is a format that plays a huge role in banking even in 2009.)

After cleaning it up and matching airports with their AWOS data, I created a KML file. KML is simple XML -- you just need to do get the elements correct. The AWOS frequency and phone number is in the pop-up for each point.

With this file you can see all airports for which the FAA has latitude and longitude data. The FAA doesn't have coordinates for all airports, so many are missing. (Why they don't have coordinates for major airports like DCA in the AWOS file is beyond me. They have them in the airport facilities file.)

To view it in Google Maps (if you don't have Google Earth), use the
http://maps.google.com/?q=http://cw.sampas.net/kml/US_AWOS_20090827-20091022.kml format, which will pull the KML from the link after the ?q=.

Coming soon: VBScript to take the raw FAA files and produce KML. VBScript isn't the best way to export text to XML, but it is easy to write and very quick.

Circumnavigating the ADIZ

On Thursday morning, I checked the weather and headed out to Montgomery County Airpark. I had planned on encircling the Washington-Baltimore area Air Defense Identification Zone, taking the long way south of the Patuxent Restricted Areas, of which there are many.

The flight was uneventful, with the exception of a couple of F-16s heading north at my altitude just NE of Salisbury-Wicomico Municipal Airport. They were just close enough for me to be able to identify them.

Total air time was just about 4.4 hours, with fuel stops at Georgetown, Delaware, (KGED) and Frederick, Maryland (KFDK), where I had to stop and file to come back in to KGAI. I got 13 gallons at GED and 25 gallons at FDK.

The chart below shows my course in dark blue and my planned route in light blue. As you can see, I took shortcuts wherever I could do so and avoid restricted airspace.