3-d airspace chart

B

Brad W

Pattern Altitude
PoA Supporter
Joined
Nov 19, 2019
Messages
2,229
Location
NE Florida
Display Name
Display name:
BLW2
know of any good online 3-D airspace charts that show the various controlled airspace, shelves, restricted areas, etc....
so you can virtually see how you can go over, under, or through various areas... a chart like Skyvector except 3-d?
 
There’s a system..STK… that you can use to do this. The 2D version is free, but not the 3D version. Students at the aviation dept at Metro State used it to create a 3D picture of the area around Denver,CO when it was proposing to the FAA to become a spaceport. Not that easy to use but incredibly powerful.

https://www.agi.com/products
 
There's a Google Earth overlay that shows airspace in 3D. Don't have a link handy but a search should find it.
 
Looking at it in correctly-scaled 3D is much different than you’d expect because the lateral confines are WAY wider than the vertical. The standard “upside-down-wedding-cake” diagrams in the textbooks often greatly exaggerate the height, showing maybe a 3:1 width to height ratio, whereas a class C in the real world is closer to 30:1 and a class B up to 36:1.

So when you zoom in close enough in 3D to actually see the airspace below the shelf, the airspace at and above the shelf almost looks like a solid block. It can still be useful, but if nothing else, it’s an interesting exercise in perspective and scale.
 
that 3dairspace file looks like it might be fun to look at but just far too laggy on my chromebook for me to really explore it.
I guess I'm not willing to pay for that other one not know how it would work
Guess I was hoping for something fully just online, like skyvector for example.

I like maps & just thought it would be both fun and enlightening.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top