Why AeroPlanner.com?
The FAA has airspace data and charts. So does the DoD. It seemed like a good idea to make this data
available in a reliable, easy to use format on the internet. Most people agreed. It's less expensive that buying all
the charts to browse, and certainly more fun to click on the charts and get interactive information. Although
some would argue, that it's not as fun as getting all the charts spread out on the living room floor and popping
chalk lines or cutting and piecing them together with tape or glue. There are probably more interesting ways to impress your friends than AeroPlanner.com -
but we built AeroPlanner.com because we thought the world needed a fast, convenient way to look at airspace data for fun and for function.
Who is behind AeroPlanner.com?
The two guys that started AeroPlanner.com are Mark Munsell and Jim Lewis. Both have developed national level systems for both NOAA (NOS) and NGA (DoD).
Mark helped develop NOAA's automated chart production system that currenly produces the paper and digital raster charts, and Jim and Mark both
helped develop the Aeronautical Digital Data Environment for NGA. ADDE is the system that the DoD uses to produce all of the aeronautical navigation data
for flight crews and mission planning.
Where do you get your data? How often is it updated?
As stated before, we get our data from the FAA and DoD. The FAA data comes from ATA-100. The description on their website reads like this:
AeronauticalInformation Services (ATA-100) is the single authoritative government source for collecting, validating, storing, maintaining and disseminating aeronautical data concerning the United States and its territories to support real-time aviation activities.
I'd say this a pretty good source for the data. We also use NGA's DAFIF. This is what it says about DAFIF on their site:
The Digital Aeronautical Flight Information File (DAFIF®) is an unclassified flight information database incorporating U.S. Military-selected aeronautical data similar to that published in the DoD Flight Information Publications (FLIP).
How often is the data updated?
The DAFIF data is updated every 28 days. Here is the AIRAC cycle information associated with the product.
The distribution of this product is based on the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Aeronautical Information Regulation and Control (AIRAC) cycle of every 28 days. Use of this product outside of its specified 28 day window is not authorized and could result in Air Traffic Control violations and international airspace/procedural violations. Its inappropriate use could cause serious concerns for Safety of Flight
The FAA data is updated every 56 days.
Where do you get the charts?
We order the charts from NACO, The National Aeronautical Charting Office (which used to be NOS) and is now under the FAA. These guys are responsible for all the aeronautical charts (good guys too). We scan them. We apply processes
to the images so that they will load faster in your web browser. We try to compress the resolution and reduce the number of colors to make the files smaller. The sectional and wac charts are updated every 6 months and the IFR charts
are updated every 56 days. We get the charts a few days before their effective date so that we may scan them and put them onto
the website.
How does the site work (you know, behind the scenes - wink wink)
It's a closey guarded secret but it works something like this:
1) One of our users starts a trip plan.
2) Keys in departure airport.
3) Jim, our Chief Technology Officer yelps really loud and blurts out the airport ID.
4) One of our other guys, Greg, runs really fast to the chart section in the office, scans it, and puts it on the web
server
5) Greg's really good, because he can clip out only the part of the chart just around the airport.
6) We do this about 20,000 times a day and we can get really cranky.
7) I make sure nobody quits.
Can I use these charts legally?
Of course.
Can I throw away my paper charts?
I don't think that's a good idea. Having a set of up-to-date charts of the area that you fly in your airplane is a good idea. A prudent pilot never relies on one source of information on anything concerning
a particular flight and will gather from a variety of sources. Also remember, these are copies of the 'official' charts and although they might have exactly the same information on them, they should be considered another source of this information - not the only source.
Consider these statemenst from the FAR.
FAR 91.503 - Flying equipment and operating information.
(a) The pilot in command of an airplane shall ensure that the following
flying equipment and aeronautical charts and data, in current and
appropriate form, are accessible for each flight at the pilot
station of the airplane:
(1) A flashlight having at least two size "D" cells, or the equivalent, that is in good working order.
(2) A cockpit checklist containing the procedures required by paragraph (b) of this section.
(3) Pertinent aeronautical charts.
(4) For IFR, VFR over-the-top, or night operations, each pertinent navigational en route, terminal area, and approach and letdown chart.
The whole point of providing the charts in a preformatted strip
was so that it would be more convenient to you to have someone else plot
your course over the chart, and cut it out for you. Not to replace the
chart. It also means that you don't have to destroy your chart to
accomplish a kneeboard size viewing and paging of the chart. That's the
service we provide.
What services do you provide?
Many. Charts, trip planning, weather, airport info,
etc... Check out this faq on services.
Where do you get your weather data?
From the National Weather service. We retrieve METARS every 20 minutes. That doesn't mean that the METAR is 20 minutes old. It only means that we check for new METARS every twenty minutes. METARS are supposed to be
published once an hour, between 15 minutes before the hour, to 15 minutes after the hour. This is not always the case. Sometimes they are reported late, sometimes they skip an hour
and sometimes they're never reported again. Or they might start up again a week from now. If it's longer than 3 hours old we nix it. You should always look
at the timestamp and be aware of this possibility. The AIRMETS and SIGMETS are retrieved every 30 minutes. National precipiation radar once an hour, and
convective radar every 10 minutes. Dopplar Radar is updated about every 5 minutes. TAFS are retrieved every 2 hours. Again, that doesn't mean that they are more current, they are published every 4 hours from the weather service.
How do you make money?
We have advertisers that want to market their products to people that use aeroplanner.com. You might have noticed the advertisements on the
top and bottom of each page. Sometimes square banners on the sides of pages. Click on these banners. Buy their products. It's one way that we can continue to provide
a certain amount of free services. The other way we make money is to team up with other companies and provide content for their services. Like tracking and shipping companies that
want to show where a vehicle is over a map on the internet. We charge a small fee for premium PDF TripTicks, and the advanced trip planning features of
the site.
What's the future of the AeroPlanner.com?
Our approach so far has been a combination of old products delivered by new methods. I think pilots really enjoy printing the charts out and taking them with them. Those pieces of paper are really reassuring and with all of the great gadgets that you might have, it's nice to see your course plotted over something that your pretty sure won't break. They make handy sheets to write on too!
But I think their is much more to what can happen with this technology.
Eventually, we see this kind of data being delivered enroute, whether in
the air, on the water or land. And we are positioning ourselves to be the
data source for aviators and mariners. While bandwith challenged methods
currently exist, we know that is changing. But we need to keep that in
mind as we evolve our methods of delivery.
Click here to read
the FAQ about the services on Aeroplanner.com
