AIP Data Project

As many of you are no doubt aware, the database supplied with your GPS is sourced predominantly from existing Jeppesen aviation data. It's good, is certified and is in wide use... but it's not the be-all and end-all. Many of you will be aware of:

* Published AIP airports that do not appear in your GPS database,
* Airport reference points that are at the wrong coordinates -NZWF's used to locate the airport somewhere in the Clutha River about a mile to the East of the actual coordinates!
* Other published AIP data that is either in error or just missing altogether.

Add to this the fact that your database probably contains thousands of pieces of data that you will never, ever use whilst missing out on thousands of others that would be of huge benefit within your geographical area of operations -if they were in your database, and you have some idea of where we would like to go with this.

What we would like to achieve is:

• A more geographically-specific database -get rid of the Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan data that is not relevant, creating a wealth of room in the database for information that is relevant... things like:
• Complete AIP data for all published airfields in your country
• Helipads and Heliports... something that has needed doing for a long time.
• Water airports, mooring points and locations for the web-footed!
• Visual Reporting Points (VRP's) added -possibly in the existing NDB database area, as many of these are being decommissioned. Also add "standard visual arrivals" at major airports as a route which you can add to your flight-plan or select as/when they are assigned.
• Add public and Private (non-AIP) airports and strips to the database -it's good to know where they are when the going gets tough! May help prevent a hull-loss or fatalities.
• Wire hazards -created in much the same manner as airspace is handled now. This would enable "wire alerts" to be displayed on the GPS if you were within say, 1NM laterally and/or 1,000' vertically of such a hazard.

There will be others, but that's quite an undertaking just there even for a start!!! I'm open to suggestions. If you can think of anything you'd like to see, please add it.

The point of all this is if course to make the GPS the truly indispensable resource it should already be. But the regulators ain't exactly tripping over themselves to make this information available, are they? Further, we're all well aware of the potentials when entering data manually. Why not be a part of an effort to make life better for us all?

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