dhaluza wrote:
Unfortunately, I have not found a good tool for maintaining a turnpoint
database. John does have conversion routines that can be run on an
existing database, but periodic updates are problematic. And which
format to use for the master data?

I have the same problem. I've switched from Glide Navigator to SeeYou
Mobile, but all my airport/landing place databases (mostly the 9 Western
states) are in the "legacy" Cambridge DAT format. SeeYou reads them, but
things like runway descriptions in the comments field don't get put in
the correct cup field. It's good enough I've continued to maintain the
databases (one for each state) in the DAT format.

Here's a potential approach that (mostly) addresses the problem, at
least for my situation:

1) "Charted" airfields would be maintained with a program that inhales
one of the FAA airport databases containing the public and private
airports, then lets you choose the output format (dat, cup, etc). This
would allow routine updating of the major part of the database.

2) A pilot's collection of uncharted airstrips, other landing places,
and things like contest turnpoints would be kept in one or more separate
databases. SeeYou owners would use cup format, for example.

3) The "charted" and "uncharted" databases are then easily read into
SeeYou, which combines all of them for display. Pilots using SeeYou
Mobile would find the integration seamless, since they produce mapsets
for Mobile from SeeYou just by drawing rectangles on the area they want
to use in the glider.

I've used SeeYou in the example, but I assume the other flight display
programs have similar abilities.

John Liebacher (and perhaps some other pilots) has some scripts that can
do at least part of #1, so maybe it wouldn't be much work to go the
final step. I know of a comprehensive database on the FCC site (!) that
is text, so that might be an easy one to do.

Taking care of #2 would be some (one-time) work as pilots converted
their present databases to another format, but in my case (dat to cup)
the current conversion done by SeeYou is good enough so it doesn't
really HAVE to cleaned up. Ideally, a simple conversion program would
extract the runway length and width data I've put in the comments
section. My main problem would be culling out the "charted" airfields to
leave only the "uncharted" landing places and other features.

For me, new entries would go directly into the cup format, of course.
The ICAO identifier isn't something I use, but perhaps those that wanted
it could put in the Code or Description box. If prefaced with a code
like ICAO, it could be easily extracted at a latter date for an
updated cup format or conversion to something else entirely.


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Eric Greenwell
Washington State
USA