Information Systems Grad School

Did you know you can still buy rabbit ears for your TV? My last scan through our airwaves with a $12 RCA antenna got me 33 channels to choose from. It out-performed my rooftop antenna and/or its old cabling. I think that’s more channels than used to be available on basic cable.

These listings are as-observed from my location. Your reception may vary. Getting Channel 26 required some micro-adjustment of antenna.

Given an Internet connection and an antenna, will cable maintain its relevance? Cable’s value proposition is dwindling as other programming options increase and the population ages.

Unlike the FAA, the NTSB permits anyone on the Internet to download their entire database of aircraft incidents and accidents. The NTSB's file is simple: one table contains all fields, and their data dictionary explains the fields. The URL to the narrative at the NTSB's site is included for quick report access. I downloaded that file and converted it into a KML file for Google Earth. The event icons are color-coded: blue for incidents, orange for non-fatal accidents, and red for fatal accidents. Unknown events get the default GE pushpin.

CLICK ON THE ICONS IN GOOGLE EARTH FOR MORE INFORMATION. (Seriously, a lot of people miss this and don't get most of the information.)

I did not have to do any geographic math on latitude and longitude. It's in decimal format in the NTSB downloadable, unlike the FAA which has at least two different lat/lon formats in every file. Not all location information is correct, but most of it is. (An example is N6ZV.)

Unfortunately, not all events have been geocoded. Twenty-seven percent, or 19,706 of the total 72,571 events in the NTSB database do have latitude and longitude, and those are contained in the KML file along with other details of the event. Please note that in Google Earth, you need to click on the icon to get the details. (Some people just look at all the items but do not click and miss most of the useful information.)

Looking at the file in Google Earth, the obvious becomes apparent: Most incidents and accidents take place at airports. Out west, a planes don't always make it over mountains. Looking at red sites is also a little creepy.

The idea to map aircraft accidents into a KML file grew out of my imperfect recollection of accidents at nearby airports. I remembered one accident at a nearby airport (ANP), but not the details. If you're going to use all available information to brief yourself, then NTSB accident information for an unfamiliar destination airport might prove useful. You don't need this file and Google Earth to do it -- you can use the NTSB's site. Using the GE, however, might help you identify problem areas.

If I update the KML file (NTSB data is updated monthly), it will go into the KML archive.

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.

I use David Flater's Xtide tide prediction software to view tide levels when I go to the beach. His updates the tide database periodically, and when that file is updated, the location numbers can change. Thus, I need to update the Xtide KML file that displays those locations. There are 4,527 locations (both reference and sub) in the latest harmonics file, dated March 2, 2012. The file contains locations both north and south of the equator.

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.

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.

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