[Talk-us] Where to find airport information?

Michael Patrick geodesy99 at gmail.com
Wed Mar 9 14:48:03 UTC 2016


> You can check ourairports.com. It is a PD source that has been used for an
> OSM import in the US: https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Import/Catalogue
>   search for airport.
>

I spot checked several 'airports' on this list I am familiar with, and then
stopped. Aside from the very major ones, there are serious inaccuracies.
Some of this data is obviously scraped from other sources without
verifying.

Keep in mind that it's perfectly acceptable to set up a private
> runway/airfield that isn't listed on any FAA or official source. The two
> examples you give are pretty clearly airfields with runways (you can see
> where the runway lights are, they have support buildings, and the first
> link has a turnaround on the far end of the runway to let planes taxi back
> to the hangar).
>

I grew up in Montana, and through  high school flew as an observer on many
search and rescue practice missions, some in this area. Even the presence
of these features does not mean this is a viable aviation facility on an
ongoing basis.

Safe ingress and egress can change on a day by day, or even hour by hour
basis, some places even require 'boots on the ground' to walk the field to
ensure conditions, or have obstructions or wind conditions that require
*very* local knowledge. There are many places that have airfield like
characteristics that go back as far as the early biplane airmail routes,
and the US Army also built quite a few emergency fields during WW II.
Recently, because of major wild fire fighting activities, some of these
have been very temporarily recommissioned, than abandoned.

My recommendation is if you are going to label something as an sort of
aviation facility, use the FAA data at
http://www.faa.gov/airports/airport_safety/airportdata_5010/ .

If it's associated with some facility like a ranch, you can add an amenity
tag or some such, with an appropriate contact number.

Otherwise, that 'airfield' is still just a 'field', and no different than
the fact that just about any sizable lake is a seaplane runway. At the
local fairgrounds, farm pastures are pressed into service during the fair
as visitor parking, just because there are cars, pay booths, markers once a
year doesn't make it a parking lot - it's just a field.

Michael Patrick
Data Ferret
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