Finding 50 nm airports for XC

Erice

Erice

Pre-takeoff checklist
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Display name:
Erice
I am looking for a website or software that can help me find airports within a given radius from my home airport. Specifically, I need to build XC time for the instrument rating, and I'm looking for nearby airports to fly to that satisfy the 50 nm requirement for Cross-Country.

I know I can use my sectional and a plotter! But my airport (PA92) is in the southwest corner of the New York sectional, and I'd need both the Washington and Detriot sectionals to give me the entire patchwork covering this 50 nm radius. I guess I'd need these sectionals to fly there anyway :), but I'm still curious if there is someplace online that will serve this information up to me for the asking. One other complication--PA92 is a private airport, so I'm looking for a place that can use private airfields in its calculations.

I have the AOPA Real-time Flight Planner (which is a pain to run on a mac with virtual-pc, and doesn't include private airports). i've also tried Landings.com, and Airnav.com. These tell you the distances between any 2 airports, but won't give you a list of choices within a specific radius.

-Eric
________
599
 
Last edited:
The fact that you fly from a private airport creates a problem for this method. However, this should give you a list to start from:

Go to www.goflyamerica.org and input KRDG, only 11 miles from your airport. Then, use the drop box to increase the range of the search to more than 50 miles. The list that results has the distances of each of the airport to RDG. Interpolate as necessary.

-Skip
 
Why do it that way? Just think of all the places you would like to go look at, then go there. The requirement is for hours, not number of flights, isn't it. Just get the hours and enjoy the adventures.

Go to Gettysburg, Niagra, Cleveland, etc then add up the hours.
 
If you can find access to a copy of Destination Direct flight planning software it has a radius search function. BTW, there are 65 public use airports, grass and paved, >1000' runway length, within 51 nm of PA92, but unfortunately there is no convenient cut & paste method to capture the output list or I'd simply paste it here.
 
convenient capture, & paste method

Ed Guthrie said:
If you can find access to a copy of Destination Direct flight planning software it has a radius search function. BTW, there are 65 public use airports, grass and paved, >1000' runway length, within 51 nm of PA92, but unfortunately there is no convenient cut & paste method to capture the output list or I'd simply paste it here.
Click to expand...

PC Users,
To copy ANY screen content to a file:

* Press "Print Screen"... ( (top row next to "Scroll Lock, and Pause/Break on keyboard)
* Open a graphics program ( like MS Paint)
* Press (Ctrl V) to paste
* " Save As " whatever filename you want, with [easiest] a " .bmp " extension.

Then upload to PoA.


Mac Users:
UR on UR own....:dunno:
 
The Old Man said:
Why do it that way? Just think of all the places you would like to go look at, then go there. The requirement is for hours, not number of flights, isn't it. Just get the hours and enjoy the adventures.

Go to Gettysburg, Niagra, Cleveland, etc then add up the hours.
Click to expand...

Good point, Bo... The only reason for going on "short" cross countries is if he's already started on the instrument and wants to combine instrument time and cross country time while shooting approaches on both ends. Shorter flights = More approaches per hour.

But, if it's just for the hours, I wholeheartedly agree. Go somewhere and have fun! The farther away you get from the home drome, the more valuable experience you will gain.
 
Re: convenient capture, & paste method

Chache said:
PC Users,
To copy ANY screen content to a file:

* Press "Print Screen"... ( (top row next to "Scroll Lock, and Pause/Break on keyboard)
* Open a graphics program ( like MS Paint)
* Press (Ctrl V) to paste
* " Save As " whatever filename you want, with [easiest] a " .bmp " extension.

Then upload to PoA.


Mac Users:
UR on UR own....:dunno:
Click to expand...

Mac users: To grab the entire screen, press Command-Shift-3. You'll hear a camera-shutter sound, and the file will be called Picture 1.png and will be on your desktop. (Subsequent photos are Picture 2.png, etc.)

To grab a portion of the screen, press Command-Shift-4 instead. The mouse pointer will change to a pair of cross hairs and allow you to drag a selection box over whatever you want to capture. The file will be similarly named and placed.

The above has worked pretty much forever. I remember using it on System 3.2 and Finder 5.3 on my Mac Plus in 1986. Pre-Mac OS X systems saved in PICT format instead of PNG.

I think PNG should be "universal" as it stands for Portable Network Graphics format. If you want to convert it to another format, just use the GraphicConverter program that's included on new Macs or is downloadable (and fully-functional) shareware for older systems. It'll read/write pretty much any graphics format known to man and is a full paint program as well.

Mac OS X users who want other capabilities besides just full-screen and selection-box grabs can use the included Grab application located in Applications/Utilities to do things like capture individual windows (without having to carefully select them with the above-mentioned target pointer).

:D
 
Eric , i just did what Ed G said from RDG and these are between 50 and 59 Nm.
THV
MD31
EVY
MPO
TTN
WBW
3NJ6
1N7
N51
VAY
AVP
Hope this helps, Dave G.
 
wow Kate is right, check it out Erice - here are the results for 20-75nm

93 airports found near BLUE MOUNTAIN ACADEMY (PRIVATE) AIRPORT, 50 closest airports shown below
ID CITY AIRPORT NAME WHERE
a 08N LEBANON, PA KELLER BROTHERS AIRPORT 20.8 nm SW
a 69N SLATINGTON, PA SLATINGTON AIRPORT 23.1 nm ENE
a 7N8 BALLY, PA BUTTER VALLEY GOLF PORT AIRPORT 23.1 nm ESE
a N47 POTTSTOWN, PA POTTSTOWN MUNICIPAL AIRPORT 24.0 nm SE
a 74N TOWER CITY, PA BENDIGO AIRPORT 24.2 nm W
a 1N9 ALLENTOWN, PA ALLENTOWN QUEEN CITY MUNICIPAL AIRPORT 24.7 nm E
a O03 MORGANTOWN, PA MORGANTOWN AIRPORT 24.8 nm SSE
a 14N LEHIGHTON, PA BELTZVILLE AIRPORT 25.0 nm NE
a HZL HAZLETON, PA HAZLETON MUNICIPAL AIRPORT 26.1 nm N
a N76 ANNVILLE, PA MILLARD AIRPORT 27.2 nm WSW
a ABE ALLENTOWN, PA LEHIGH VALLEY INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT 27.4 nm ENE
a LNS LANCASTER, PA LANCASTER AIRPORT 28.6 nm SSW
a PTW POTTSTOWN, PA POTTSTOWN LIMERICK AIRPORT 28.6 nm SE
a N79 SHAMOKIN, PA NORTHUMBERLAND COUNTY AIRPORT 29.3 nm NW
a 58N PALMYRA, PA REIGLE FIELD AIRPORT 29.7 nm WSW
a UKT QUAKERTOWN, PA QUAKERTOWN AIRPORT 30.3 nm ESE
a S37 SMOKETOWN, PA SMOKETOWN AIRPORT 31.7 nm SSW
a N13 BLOOMSBURG, PA BLOOMSBURG MUNICIPAL AIRPORT 32.5 nm NW
a N10 COLLEGEVILLE, PA PERKIOMEN VALLEY AIRPORT 34.4 nm SE
a N70 PERKASIE, PA PENNRIDGE AIRPORT 35.1 nm ESE
a 40N COATESVILLE, PA CHESTER COUNTY G O CARLSON AIRPORT 35.2 nm SSE
a 8N8 DANVILLE, PA DANVILLE AIRPORT 36.8 nm NW
a N71 MOUNT JOY/MARIETTA, PA DONEGAL SPRINGS AIRPARK AIRPORT 37.2 nm SW
a N43 EASTON, PA BRADEN AIRPARK AIRPORT 37.5 nm ENE
a 8N7 COLUMBIA, PA MC GINNESS AIRPORT 38.0 nm SSW
a N99 WEST CHESTER, PA BRANDYWINE AIRPORT 39.5 nm SSE
a 71N SUNBURY, PA SUNBURY AIRPORT 39.7 nm WNW
a MDT HARRISBURG, PA HARRISBURG INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT 39.9 nm WSW
a SEG SELINSGROVE, PA PENN VALLEY AIRPORT 41.2 nm WNW
a 9N1 ERWINNA, PA VANSANT AIRPORT 42.6 nm E
a CXY HARRISBURG, PA CAPITAL CITY AIRPORT 42.7 nm WSW
a LOM PHILADELPHIA, PA WINGS FIELD AIRPORT 42.9 nm SE
a DYL DOYLESTOWN, PA DOYLESTOWN AIRPORT 43.4 nm ESE
a N57 TOUGHKENAMON, PA NEW GARDEN AIRPORT 44.9 nm SSE
a WBW WILKES-BARRE, PA WILKES-BARRE WYOMING VALLEY AIRPORT 45.4 nm N
a MPO MOUNT POCONO, PA POCONO MOUNTAINS MUNICIPAL AIRPORT 45.8 nm NE
a N85 PITTSTOWN, NJ ALEXANDRIA AIRPORT 46.1 nm E
a 9W8 BROGUE, PA BAUBLITZ COMMERCIAL AIRPORT 47.0 nm SSW
a N40 PITTSTOWN, NJ SKY MANOR AIRPORT 47.9 nm E
a N53 EAST STROUDSBURG, PA STROUDSBURG-POCONO AIRPORT 48.9 nm NE
a AVP WILKES-BARRE/SCRANTON, PA WILKES-BARRE/SCRANTON INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT 49.1 nm NNE
a 2N5 WELLSVILLE, PA KAMPEL AIRPORT 52.9 nm SW
a 1N7 BLAIRSTOWN, NJ BLAIRSTOWN AIRPORT 53.2 nm ENE
a 8N4 CANADENSIS, PA FLYING DOLLAR AIRPORT 53.3 nm NE
a 0P2 STEWARTSTOWN, PA SHOESTRING AVIATION AIRFIELD AIRPORT 53.6 nm SSW
a THV YORK, PA YORK AIRPORT 54.3 nm SW
a PNE PHILADELPHIA, PA NORTHEAST PHILADELPHIA AIRPORT 54.5 nm ESE
a PHL PHILADELPHIA, PA PHILADELPHIA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT 54.5 nm SE
a 07N KRALLTOWN, PA BERMUDIAN VALLEY AIRPARK AIRPORT 55.0 nm SW
a 70N STERLING, PA SPRING HILL AIRPORT 55.2 nm
 
Re: convenient capture, & paste method

Chache said:
PC Users,
To copy ANY screen content to a file:

* Press "Print Screen"... ( (top row next to "Scroll Lock, and Pause/Break on keyboard)
* Open a graphics program ( like MS Paint)
* Press (Ctrl V) to paste
* " Save As " whatever filename you want, with [easiest] a " .bmp " extension.

Then upload to PoA.


Mac Users:
UR on UR own....:dunno:
Click to expand...

That's all well and good, but the in this case the screen shows ~4 of the 65 airports; to see the rest you need to scroll a sub-window.
 
Erice said:
I need to build XC time for the instrument rating,
Click to expand...
When doing this, keep in mind that the #1 barrier to instrument training is weak basic stick-and-rudder skills. Hand-fly these flights as much as possible, and make every landing a precision landing (i.e., pick a spot on the runway and try to touch down on it). Also, throw in a few steep turns and some S-turns across a road during the flights -- remember, no matter how much you dawdle around, it all counts as XC time as long as somewhere on the flight there is a landing more 50nm from the original point of departure.
 
1) Buy the sectionals, yer gonna need them anyway

2) For more coverage, try a WAC chart
 
Re: convenient capture, & paste method

Ed Guthrie said:
That's all well and good, but the in this case the screen shows ~4 of the 65 airports; to see the rest you need to scroll a sub-window.
Click to expand...

As LUCY RICARDO might say:

Ugggggggggggggggggggggggggrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!
 
You want some suggestions?

Flying W - N14 - great restaurant. Uncontrolled 3500' runway. Good for crosswind practice. A little tough to find if you aren't sure of the area.

Millville - KMIV - also great restaurant. Uncontrolled 2 runways.

Can you see my main criteria? :)
 
Oh, and if you want to do approaches:

KMIV (listed above) - NDB and ILS

KWWD - Cape May NJ - LOC untowered

KMJX - Thomas J. Miller, Toms River NJ - Untowered ILS

Blairstown is also good - it's fun to watch the gliders come and go while you eat lunch outside. Tucked between hills and a bit hard to find
 
Thanks for all the advice, everyone!

I ended taking my wife and going from my home field PA92 to Robbinsville (N87), NJ (Trenton area). The AOPA airport directory talked about antique airplanes on the field, but I never saw any. I had a great tailwind on the way there (135-kt groundspeed in a C-150!)--got there in 0.7 hrs, but fought for every knot on the way home. I could see the NYC skyline to the north, and Philladelphia to the south. I went out over the Atlantic and cruised along the Jersey shore for a few minutes before heading back home. Total XC flight time: 2.8 hrs.

And as far as using the trips to also accomplish practice on "stick and rudder" stuff--I got some good crosswind practice on that landing at N87. I also got a workout with ATC flight following. That was good practice for gaining comfort talking with busy controllers.

The AirNav airport search gives me what I was looking for. However, the advice about just picking somewhere I want to go and SEE something or DO something is also great advice. I think I may cruise up to Lock Haven to see the old Piper museum, take a safety pilot and shoot some approaches on either end, and maybe go back over to NJ or Delaware. I could use more practice talking on the radio in that busy airspace.

-Eric
________
Honda NT700V
 
Last edited:
Erice said:
The AirNav airport search gives me what I was looking for. However, the advice about just picking somewhere I want to go and SEE something or DO something is also great advice.
Click to expand...

Don't forget http://www.goflyamerica.org/ both for finding cool things to do as well as motivation to explore unclaimed fields.

That site has a range search too...
 
Erice said:
Thanks for all the advice, everyone!

I ended taking my wife and going from my home field PA92 to Robbinsville (N87), NJ (Trenton area). The AOPA airport directory talked about antique airplanes on the field, but I never saw any.
Click to expand...

If you're after a cool airfield with lots of older aircraft, check out van Sant in PA on a sunny afternoon. It sounds like it may be >50nm from you, but I haven't checked. It's more of a summer airport, but is a great place to hang out on a sunny day. They have a BBQ set up selling burgers and there's plenty of antique action and gliders. The place is crowded with locals out to watch the action.

If you go, just keep your head on a swivel. Most of the aircraft are NORDO and you can't see one end of the strip from the other due to the hill.

Chris
 
Are you registered for CSC Duats? If not, do so because it's free, and you can download the free Golden Eagle flight planner. That has a nice ruler function that acts as a plotter, just drag it out 50nm and swing it around your home drome. I used to use Golden Eagle a lot before I found Voyager (also free, but requires Duat, not DuatS, to get weather downloads).
 
Load up the AOPA Real-Time Online Flight Planner. You can select any flight desination and get a navigation log, and see what the distance is. You can also get a route briefing.
 
(nugggggh, necroposting)

I took a compass and a pen to an old sectional last night, but you can also use adventurepilot to make a list of airports sorted by distance from your home drome.
 
a compass and a pen to an old sectional
Click to expand...

Can't beat simple and I've always got that picture to go back to. I did mine with 50nm, 75nm, and 100nm rings.
 
The Old Man said:
Why do it that way? Just think of all the places you would like to go look at, then go there. The requirement is for hours, not number of flights, isn't it. Just get the hours and enjoy the adventures.
Click to expand...

Yep, That's it right there. You need to get the time to put the right checks in the boxes, but who says you can't have a blast and see cool stuff on the ground, while doing it as well

MSmith said:
You want some suggestions?

Flying W - N14 - great restaurant. Uncontrolled 3500' runway. Good for crosswind practice. A little tough to find if you aren't sure of the area.

Millville - KMIV - also great restaurant. Uncontrolled 2 runways.

Can you see my main criteria?
Click to expand...

That is also one of my main criteria. :) Sad to see that there seems to be fewer and fewer on field restaurants
 
Being in a similar situation, I have planned local flights >50nm only to plot them and discover they are 46-49nm (straight line distance) and I then have to choose another 'fun' place to go. Doesn't matter if I have to dodge MOAs or the FRZ (adding distance - and hobbs time), it doesn't count.

IIRC skyvector has a circle draw feature that for the life of me, I can't recall the command to use it. What we need is a circle drawn on a chart at 50nm from home and then fly to any airport OUTSIDE of that circle.
 
Jaybird180 said:
Being in a similar situation, I have planned local flights >50nm only to plot them and discover they are 46-49nm (straight line distance) and I then have to choose another 'fun' place to go. Doesn't matter if I have to dodge MOAs or the FRZ (adding distance - and hobbs time), it doesn't count.

IIRC skyvector has a circle draw feature that for the life of me, I can't recall the command to use it. What we need is a circle drawn on a chart at 50nm from home and then fly to any airport OUTSIDE of that circle.
Click to expand...

If you live in a place with distinctive geography, GCMAP can do this for you. Here's an example at W29. It's not drawn on a sectional, so the functionality is very limited, but if you fly in a place where the geography is pretty distinct (like the Chesapeake Bay) it's pretty easy to figure out what's inside and outside the circle. The website is www.gcmap.com, and the syntax is 50nm@W29. Or whatever distance and airport.
 
Do you have a chart and a compass? Set the compass to 50NM using the scale along the edge of the chart, then scribe a circle with the center being your airport.

In Foreflight you can do this with two fingers starting with the version that came out about six months ago.
 
Jaybird180 said:
IIRC skyvector has a circle draw feature that for the life of me, I can't recall the command to use it. What we need is a circle drawn on a chart at 50nm from home and then fly to any airport OUTSIDE of that circle.
Click to expand...

That's because it was the now-dead RunwayFinder that had that feature. :(

I don't know of anything else that would plot a circle on a sectional.
 
jpower said:
If you live in a place with distinctive geography, GCMAP can do this for you. Here's an example at W29. It's not drawn on a sectional, so the functionality is very limited, but if you fly in a place where the geography is pretty distinct (like the Chesapeake Bay) it's pretty easy to figure out what's inside and outside the circle. The website is www.gcmap.com, and the syntax is 50nm@W29. Or whatever distance and airport.
Click to expand...
It's a partial solution :redface:
 
Re: convenient capture, & paste method

flyingcheesehead said:
Mac users: To grab the entire screen, press Command-Shift-3. You'll hear a camera-shutter sound, and the file will be called Picture 1.png and will be on your desktop. (Subsequent photos are Picture 2.png, etc.)

To grab a portion of the screen, press Command-Shift-4 instead. The mouse pointer will change to a pair of cross hairs and allow you to drag a selection box over whatever you want to capture. The file will be similarly named and placed.

The above has worked pretty much forever. I remember using it on System 3.2 and Finder 5.3 on my Mac Plus in 1986. Pre-Mac OS X systems saved in PICT format instead of PNG.

I think PNG should be "universal" as it stands for Portable Network Graphics format. If you want to convert it to another format, just use the GraphicConverter program that's included on new Macs or is downloadable (and fully-functional) shareware for older systems. It'll read/write pretty much any graphics format known to man and is a full paint program as well.

Mac OS X users who want other capabilities besides just full-screen and selection-box grabs can use the included Grab application located in Applications/Utilities to do things like capture individual windows (without having to carefully select them with the above-mentioned target pointer).

:D
Click to expand...


You can even change the output to Jpeg file!
 
The Old Man said:
Why do it that way? Just think of all the places you would like to go look at, then go there. The requirement is for hours, not number of flights, isn't it. Just get the hours and enjoy the adventures.

Go to Gettysburg, Niagra, Cleveland, etc then add up the hours.
Click to expand...


If he’s working on his instrument rating he won’t be doing much sightseeing. I suggest he do what I did and schedule all your flights at night, smoother flights, aircraft were always available, and the instructor was available.
 
rainsux said:
http://www.avnwx.com

The site will draw a circle around the airport of your choice.
Click to expand...

Dude!!!!!

This site claims it will show stadium TFRs for today, next three days, and next week. I'll have to try and see if it really works. Where is there a baseball game coming up?

It shows "regular" TFRs but the circle is light grey until you mouse over it so they are easy to miss.
 
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