71–80 of 113 posts
For some reason it couldn't find LAX's full designation, KLAX. Also, just realized SNA, an tiny local airport, has a whopping 5000+ft runway, longer than some major ones like SFO or BOS.
Did that site just completely highjack my back button to the point that I had to kill the browser tab to get out of it?
Also the whole asking for location unprompted, and not respecting a refusal... dumb.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I’m sorry but as a pilot who routinely uses airport diagrams what specific weakness are you seeing? As you are probably aware, not all maps are intended to have some beautiful aesthetic. This map is quite akin in style to the layout of airport maps (diagrams) published for actual pilot use.
Well for one thing the taxiway letters and runway markings are missing. If it’s a “map” I would expect to use it for directions.
Very little airport surface data is made available in an open and machine-readable format (aerial navigation data is available openly in the US at least). Because of this only the big players (e.g., Boeing) have this data. OpenStreetMap users who contribute this data are democratizing access for anyone who wants to work with airport data in the same way global map data is democratized.
At the same time, data is only useful if you can make sense of it, and the first task towards being able to work with this data is visualizing it. A specialized mapping tool helps a lot here. Props to the author for making it!
One example use case: citizen scientists could develop and test new planning algorithms for airplane taxiing that are resistant to blockages and availability problems. This is science you could do right now only because data like this is available.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
As a frequent flyer on small aircraft (nearly all of one side of my family has worked in aviation: cessna, boeing, piper, beech, embraer) - this looks nothing like the charts I'm used to viewing.
That doesn’t answer the question: what is wrong with the map? As a non pilot I can’t say that I find an airport diagram from the FAA more insightful: https://aeronav.faa.gov/d-tpp/2302/00375AD.PDF
* Taxiway labels aren't very readable, and I need to zoom in quite a bit for them to even be consistently displayed.
* For that matter, the yellow lines seem to cover a lot of things that aren't taxiways, and seem to extend into non-movement areas (areas outside the purview of ground control/tower), and for that reason, they make the actual taxyways harder to see.
* The runways are labled in a way that requires consulting the compass rose to interpret - "10L/28R". "10L/28R" is the name for that strip of tarmac, but when you're landing with a heading of 284º, it's called "28R" and when you're landing the other way, it's called "10L". Compare that with the FAA diagram, which labels them clearly at the landing side of the runway, the same way the numbers are painted on the ground.
* The openairportmap diagram lacks runway length and width.
* OpenAirportMap lacks the location of the displaced thresholds on the 28 and 1 runways.
* OpenAirportMap lacks the location of the runaway airplane catchers (EMAS) at the ends of the 1/19 runways.
* OpenAirportMap lacks any field elevation information
* OpenAirportMap doesn't have an indication of north, or of the magnetic variance.
* SFO doesn't have a VOR on-field, but if it did, it's location would be printed on FAA map, but not openairport
* The FAA map has the ATIS (weather), Tower, Ground Control, and Approach Control frequencies listed on it.
Overall, I would say the openairport map is not useful to a pilot. Which I think goes to the GP's point: "what is the goal of this map?" It's not to help a pilot.
Did that site just completely highjack my back button to the point that I had to kill the browser tab to get out of it?
For some reason it couldn't find LAX's full designation, KLAX. Also, just realized SNA, an tiny local airport, has a whopping 5000+ft runway, longer than some major ones like SFO or BOS.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I’m sorry but as a pilot who routinely uses airport diagrams what specific weakness are you seeing? As you are probably aware, not all maps are intended to have some beautiful aesthetic. This map is quite akin in style to the layout of airport maps (diagrams) published for actual pilot use.
Well for one thing the taxiway letters and runway markings are missing. If it’s a “map” I would expect to use it for directions.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
That doesn’t answer the question: what is wrong with the map? As a non pilot I can’t say that I find an airport diagram from the FAA more insightful: https://aeronav.faa.gov/d-tpp/2302/00375AD.PDF
I am a pilot, and I compared the FAA diagram of SFO that you pointed out with the openairportmap.org one. Looking at the map itself: * Taxiway labels aren't very readable, and I need to zoom in quite a bit for them to even be consistently displayed. * For that matter, the yellow lines seem to cover a lot of things that aren't taxiways, and seem to extend into non-movement areas (areas outside the purview of ground co…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I’m sorry but as a pilot who routinely uses airport diagrams what specific weakness are you seeing? As you are probably aware, not all maps are intended to have some beautiful aesthetic. This map is quite akin in style to the layout of airport maps (diagrams) published for actual pilot use.
I'm confused why it shows detail like holding position markings, but not taxiways or hot spots. And it conflates locations using different hold short markings (ILS and runway).