AF/D Organization

jsstevens

jsstevens

Final Approach
PoA Supporter
Joined
May 18, 2007
Messages
6,836
Display Name
Display name:
jsstevens
So as to not hijack another thread:

There has been some discussion on looking up information in the AF/D during flight.

Does anyone know why the AF/D is organized by city and has no cross reference for identifier? Just in the central Florida area there are some that would be hard for a non-local to find by city, and based on the other thread that's not unique to here. With EFBs it's not much of an issue: touch the airport on the chart and pull up the AF/D (and other) information. But the actual book: not so much.

How come?
John
 
I think it's simply because there are so many airports in it that the theory is you know what you're looking for. If you were looking for airports near you, you'd use a chart. An AF/D's real value (in my opinion) is as a preflight document.
 
If you look up the name of the airport on the chart in the A/FD, it will say see [city name] for that airport. They had to pick a way to organize it - either by city, field name, or identifier. Unless they made the book 120% thicker to organize it by all three. If they did do it by identifier people would probably complain that it's a pain in the butt to go all over the book looking for airports in/near a city.

I look at the A/FD as a 99.9% pre-flight planning tool. So say I want to plan a flight to Columbus, OH. I don't know why the hell I would ever want to do that, but lets say I do. I go to Columbus under Ohio in my A/FD and all six Columbus airports are all next to each other. If organized by identifier I would have look under T, 0, 6, O, C, and L.

However, I see no reason why in the first 2-3 pages of the book they couldn't have listed all the identifiers in order with the page number they were on. That would be a big help for inflight. But with EFB here, I don't expect the A/FD to make any changes.
 
Last edited:
ISaidRightTurns said:
I think it's simply because there are so many airports in it that the theory is you know what you're looking for. If you were looking for airports near you, you'd use a chart. An AF/D's real value (in my opinion) is as a preflight document.
Click to expand...

I agree with the chart being the best source for airports near you. But even when flight planning for a new area, I start with the chart and then there is info in the AF/D that's important, but not on the chart (TPA for one). And sometimes it's hard to get from the ID on the chart to the airport in the AF/D, particularly if the city name is not on the chart.

John
 
Good explanation Ed, did your AF/D just fall open to Columbus, must be fate LOL.

Have a great day.
 
tmyers said:
Good explanation Ed, did your AF/D just fall open to Columbus, must be fate LOL.

Have a great day.
Click to expand...

No, I actually knew that Columbus had 6 airports listed under the city name - well, I thought it was 5, I forgot about Darby Dan. Detroit, even with all of its reliever airports only has three listed under the city, and the rest of the listed under various suburb names.
 
EdFred said:
No, I actually knew that Columbus had 6 airports listed under the city name - well, I thought it was 5, I forgot about Darby Dan. Detroit, even with all of its reliever airports only has three listed under the city, and the rest of the listed under various suburb names.
Click to expand...

So, is Metro listed under D for Detroit or R for Romulus?
 
MAKG1 said:
So, is Metro listed under D for Detroit or R for Romulus?
Click to expand...

The "Detroit" airports are
DET - in Detroit.
DTW - in Romulus
YIP - in Ypsilanti - which is quite a ways from Detroit, it's far enough away I don't think it could even be considered a suburb.

The others that crack me up about being "in" a city

DCA, IAD, HEF - all listed as District of Columbia airports, when not even in the District of Columbia.
 
EdFred said:
The others that crack me up about being "in" a city
Click to expand...
I remember when Rockford, IL, stopped being in Rockford and started being part of Chicago. I thought I was missing some charts. These were Jepp charts but they use the same city names as the government charts.
 
Everskyward said:
I remember when Rockford, IL, stopped being in Rockford and started being part of Chicago. I thought I was missing some charts. These were Jepp charts but they use the same city names as the government charts.
Click to expand...


That's crazy considering RFD is over 50nm from ORD. It's a freaking cross country for logging purposes, and they call it in the same city?!?!?
 
Just curious...

...is the A/FD available in electronic format?

I've been getting my airport data from Airnav.com and WingXPro7 and my Garmin 496 database, but some of you guys seem to think that might be inaccurate.
 
FastEddieB said:
Just curious...

...is the A/FD available in electronic format?

I've been getting my airport data from Airnav.com and WingXPro7 and my Garmin 496 database, but some of you guys seem to think that might be inaccurate.
Click to expand...

Why would they be inaccurate?
 
I've seen some data sources(GPS Navigators) missing pattern directions, some with wrong TPA based on aircraft type. One other one I see often is that we have some Bravo here with multiple layers(1800-3200 and 6800-10000) but often a GPS database will just list it as 1800-10000 although an A/FD won't help with that one.
 
EdFred said:
The "Detroit" airports are
DET - in Detroit.
DTW - in Romulus
YIP - in Ypsilanti - which is quite a ways from Detroit, it's far enough away I don't think it could even be considered a suburb.
.
Click to expand...
And, Grosse Ile Municipal airport. Also listed under "Detroit" - Not Grosse Ile.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top