How to find airports for flight planning?

G-Man

G-Man

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AirmanG
Wondering the best way to find airports and thought I'd post for suggestions.

This morning I was looking around the internet and found out about the Strategic Air and Space Museum in Ashland, NE. Looks neat, I think, and it would be fun to fly to; I wonder what is the closest paved public General Aviation airport?

What's the best way to do this? I'm using this an as example, but the question applies to all airports in all states.

Airnav.com - plug in Ashland, NE and get a long list of airports (all types) in several states. No info on how far they are.
FAA's Digital Airport/Facility Directory - no real search function.
ForeFlight - search shows 53NE (Private).
http://www.city-data.com/airports/ - A Google search found this site which showed 53NE (Private).
SkyVector.com - love the site, but airport search doesn't include States so info is hard to work through.

If I know the city I want, what's the best way to find the airports near there?
Thanks!
 
That long list only has one in the town (and state) you seek - 53NE, Starns Bros. It's private. Open the sectional chart on that AirNav page for 53NE and you'll see all the airports nearby with a scale at the bottom to help.
 
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Looks like KMLE Millard Airport in Omaha is the easiest and closest access. You can just go to Google Maps and type in "Strategic Air and Space Museum,Ashland, NE" and it will locate the museum for you. From there I could tell that Omaha is a close city. You can either look around that area in Google Maps until you see a nearby airport or go to Airnav.com and look at a sectional of that area to locate the closest airport.

I have WingX and it was easier to search for Omaha and see the local airports on the sectional map in WingX.
WingX has a neat measuring feature where you can line up the crosshairs symbol at the center of the screen over your target, which was Ashland in this case. Tap the crosshair symbol to start measuring then drag the sectional around and it will show me the distance to whatever is under the center crosshairs. I moved the sectional to each of the nearby airports. KMLE was the nearest paved runway airport. It is 14 nm away from the museum.
 
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My question was more general than just for this location: I'm surprised there isn't a more automated Internet way to enter a town and get a list of airports and distances.

Goofy's suggestion to use Airnav in a several step process worked well, and may be the best option.
 
The closest airport might not be the best. You need ground transportation, calling a few in the area is the best way to locate an airport that will give you the best service. AirNav is the best at providing info on services, but calling ahead reduces disappointments. ;)
 
G-Man said:
My question was more general than just for this location: I'm surprised there isn't a more automated Internet way to enter a town and get a list of airports and distances.
Click to expand...
There are sites like iFly.com that does this but they are looking at commercial airports, not all GA airports. Your example provided an additional wrinkle since there is no GA airport in Ashland, only private turf strips. I imagine most towns with museums and other attractions that you would want to visit like this would have a local airport which would be easier to find. If that were the case it is easy to go to airnav.com and pull up the list of airports by state and look for the desired town.

Also +1 to Geico's comments above.
 
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Wow, it's not nearly that hard.

Google "airports near city, state." You'll get a few false hits, but those can be investigated with airnav.
 
Airnav's airports nearby with instrument approaches usually can get you to a possibly better list once you've identified any airport in the vicinity.
 
I use air nav,when you open an airport page,it will give you points of interest,and closest airports.try opening air nav for Dayton Ohio.
 
A papyrus sectional for the area you're looking at, a plotter and an AF/D?:wink2:
 
Howard Wilson said:
A papyrus sectional for the area you're looking at, a plotter and an AF/D?:wink2:
Click to expand...

Hate to say it, but that's usually my starting point.

Except of course when my papyrus doesn't cover the intended route. Sky vector is good for that.

But honestly, Foreflight gives me little reason to relegate to the desktop for skyvector, airnav, or other similar sites.
 
MAKG1 said:
Wow, it's not nearly that hard.

Google "airports near city, state." You'll get a few false hits, but those can be investigated with airnav.
Click to expand...

Even easier: Open Google Maps, find the place you want to visit, zoom out to whatever radius seems reasonable to you, and in the search box, type "airports".

You'll generally get everything from the smallest grass strips up to the intercontinental airports laid out on your map. (Using the Satellite / Earth view can give you an idea at a glance of how big the field is...i.e., does it look like a municipal field or someone's back yard.)

That's where I always start. Depending on how big the airport is, you can often just click on the airport name on the map and Google jump straight to an airport page. Alternately, once you've got a candidate airport identified, you can go to Airnav.com and get everything you'd need for planning purposes.

Here's an example using the OP's museum: http://goo.gl/mz36aO
 
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