Australian VFR Waypoints

[Mega]

Petr,

I have checked with ASA and they do not distinguish kinds of VFR points except on VTC charts. Data available online does not distinguish kinds of VFR points and so I guess they should be imported only as VFR waypoints (I see that FIF does not have such type of data at all). Can you make VFR waypoint type and show it as square outline? Then I will provide you with up-to-date file similar to Steve's one.

In which format do you want to have Australian VFR waypoints? How do you want them to be delivered? As they may be amended every 28 days I will get my system to send it out every 28 days. It may be too much for you to handle manually and so we should make some sort of automatic system importing this data to your DB.

About ALAs: they generally not registered and therefore no official list does exist. In general anyone may setup ALA and offer it for other people to use. Some of them may get ICAO code, some of them not. Services available information also may differ: from full description and phone numbers to nothing. Say for example look at -35.70 139.35. Only information available about this ALA is that toilets, water and accommodation is available, nearest town is Meningie and ALA is pilot friendly (meaning can be used by public). Usually no RWY direction is provided as overflying is required before landing on ALAs.

I think having ALAs listed in FIF is good as it provides additional information for pilots flying VFR (in Australia it means Very FaR ) in case of diversion. And because this information is not available from ERSA and presence of this information in FIF makes it REALLY good companion for flying in Australia.

Again we need to settle on format in which you want to have it: each record will have LAT/LON, ICAO code or ALA if no code, name, nearest town name, information (plain text) containing facilities and contact details. And again I may supply this data to you regularly - so we need to make some sort of automation.

As to maps: I used incorrect term. They are not TERRAIN but TOPO. I pulled them out of Virtual Earth. But please be mindful that Australia is HUGE and so the files. Say South Australian map is 3.7 GB, for whole Australia you looking for around 20GB. I can host these files locally in Australia instead of keeping them on your server. Do you want to download them or just link them in FIF?

Regards,
Vladimir

[kitercuda]

Hi Vladimir

- I will implement possibility of more kinds for WPTs. Can you send me picure (part of chart) to see how squere shape looks (size and color). What about the name for this kind of WPTs?

- Format of WPTS. Text file, one WPT - one line, among fields are semicolon.

Example
BALTU;LK;50.0894611;13.3265222;E0010;BALTU;;1312;IFR

- Name
- RegionCode (Australia YB, YM) - one of the, does not matter wich one
- Latitude
- Longitude
- MagVar - ignore, use E0000
- Ignore
- Ignore
- Cycle (effective date 1312 is 14th of November 2013)
- IFR or VFR
- The last field will be abbreviation of WPT type name.

Airport file

LKZA;LK;A;ZBE;49.64305556;18.35166667;E0041;-1000000;Baska;1305;5;

- ICAO
- RegionCode
- A
- IATA code (here you can put name of the nearest town)
- Latitude
- Longitude
- MagVar - ignore, use E0000
- Elevation, ignore put -1000000
- This name is stored like Notes
- Cycle
- Type (we must create new, probably for ALA will be 8)

I understood your maps are topo, because of you wrote abot RMap .
I think - better will be link only, but I must rewrite some code (not so much)

[kabong.steve]

Petr,

Here is the latest VFR waypoints for Australia (14-Nov-2013)

Thanks
Steve

EDIT: Updated file format to that mentioned above (differs to original format I'd sent)

[kitercuda]

Thanks Steve,
I will add them to database. I should create new WPT type.
Which kind of wpts are in the file?

[kabong.steve]

Hi Petr,

Unfortunately, the source file does not designate the type of WPT they are, it simply states VFR Waypoints and lists them all.

The IFR Waypoints source file also doesn't have any designation for them.

As far as I'm concerned they're all Tracking Points, as I fly LSA or Recreational Aviation and we have don't have any reporting requirements.

Perhaps Vladimir has more details

Steve

[Desmond]

Hello Guys,

I just bought the App, just registered in the Forum. Although I might be quite good with computers when compared general population I would just be making coffee for many of you guys. Added to that I'm quite new to flying.

Forgive me if I mention that which was already considered and rejected before I arrived.

Do the Aussie guys understand what John is saying here?
[link inserted here] http://www.recreationalflying.com/tutor ... vfr_charts

Its just that I hate the idea of owning an Ipad but blokes at my airfield have either of the 2 CASA certified Apple apps and they both have scalable, VTC and VNC maps. I know that at least one of them does full live navigation off and map type.

Even if I could buy them myself and then upload them to my device, I think I would.

[kabong.steve]

Hi Desmond,

What John is saying is that the Maps and other details are available from Air Services Australia under license.

Current costs are around $3,095 pa for the charts, which are updated bi annually.
$1240pa for the datasets (VHF frequiences, waypoints, aiports etc etc etc)

So if you're happy to pay that sort of money, then you can get the charts and data and use them here or elsewhere.

I'd assume OzRunways and AirNav VFR both pay at least this much or more to be able to supply it to you. And their license says they MUST only allow the "current"maps to be used, so you haveto update them ever 6 months to the latest release, and continue to pay ongoing fees.

You can get the Geoscience maps for ~$100 for a dvd of them and use them

Or you can use RMaps or other tools and öffline" any of google maps, bing maps google satellite etc etc.

[Desmond]

steve,

I think the way I wrote "Do you guys understand . . " it sounded insulting, sorry. I wasn't assuming you won't or didn't understand. What I could have said is 'see what he's saying about this and that, have you done any of this? Are the maps at Geoscience really old or in a terrible format? Or are they even close to substituting for a VNC? Are they really just digital photographs of maps?'

I must admit, I completely missed where John says that individuals can't buy Airservices VNC/VTC digital format maps and there are a only few special deals with certain companies. I had/have the most tenuous grip on almost everything he is saying.

Thanks for your help, I suppose I'll just try to set aside some time during my next annual holiday to really get to grips with what all the different file formats are and do etc. As I more flying hours in I should become more relaxed about all this anyway.

I have recently engaged a new, complicated specialist area at work and I think the part of my brain that needs to sort this stuff out is saying go away I'm tired.

Cheers,