AirCharts API

[Daniel Hawton]

Do you want to provide charts to your end users? Do you run a non-profit, free access website, mobile or desktop application? Then this is for you!

 

AirCharts has finished and opened its new API to allow webmasters around VATSIM to obtain information and latest charts that are supported (presently 4537 airports around the globe with plans to grow). It supports and outputs in XML and JSON, two of the most accepted data interchange formats that are supported in virtually every major language.

 

More information, including how to use it, can be found here: http://www.aircharts.org/api

 

We will not provide support for implementation or usage outside of requests for information, bug reports, and other errors pertaining to AirCharts' information and services.

[Luca Benelli]

nice!

 

Thanks!

[Kieran Hardern]

Looks excellent. Thanks Daniel.

[Even Rognlien]

Thanks alot, Daniel, this is great!

 

One thing; it looks like some charts are missing at some Norwegian airports. If I search for ENVA or ENBR there are no SID or STAR charts available. They are listed on the Norwegian AIP: https://www.ippc.no/norway_aip/current/aip/ad/enbr/enbr_en.html Is this something you could look at?

[Daniel Hawton]

I will take a look when I get home from work.

[Daniel Hawton]

Thanks alot, Daniel, this is great!

 

One thing; it looks like some charts are missing at some Norwegian airports. If I search for ENVA or ENBR there are no SID or STAR charts available. They are listed on the Norwegian AIP: https://www.ippc.no/norway_aip/current/aip/ad/enbr/enbr_en.html Is this something you could look at?

 

Thanks for the report. I have tweaked the spider and those charts appear to be inserted. When I wrote the spider I only validated 2 of the airports, guess that wasn't enough.

[Even Rognlien]

Looking good! Thanks!

 

Edit:

Found a couple of other things;

- If you search for "ENVA" it looks like it's having some trouble with special characters. There is one map listed as "Area Chart - Værnes/Ãrland/Røros TMA", and in the XML the "name" is empty for this node.

- Also; Search for "ENNO" and open "Area Chart - Oslo/Farris TMA". That gives me this link: "https://www.ippc.no/norway_aip/current/aip/ad/enno/....EN_ENR_6_3-1_en.pdf". For some reason the link has been shortened with ".....". The same chart is available if you search for "ENTO", and the link there is fine: "https://www.ippc.no/norway_aip/current/aip/EN_ENR_6_3-1_en.pdf"

[Even Rognlien]

Using Internet Explorer, most docomeents are treated and opened as PDFs inside the browser, but some docomeents (especially those from UK) are added to the download queue as unknown file types. However, they can be opened in Adobe Reader later. It works fine in Google Chrome.

 

One example is this aerodrome chart at EGKK:

EGKK: http://www.aircharts.org/data/view.php?id=57e1b2d1-b85d-5857-b58b-3871af5a977d

 

Any idea why? The reason I'm asking is that my application is using the default web browser (IE-based) in .net/C# to display your charts. It looks like the same problem applies to your Leroy program.

[Bradley Grafelman]

One example is this aerodrome chart at EGKK:

EGKK: http://www.aircharts.org/data/view.php?id=57e1b2d1-b85d-5857-b58b-3871af5a977d

 

One oddity I noticed lies in the HTTP response headers sent by the webserver:

 

Content-Type: application.pdf

Unless I missed some new RFC, shouldn't that be "application/pdf" ?

 

EDIT: Other charts, such as this one, are reporting correct content-types (i.e. with a "/" rather than a ".").

[Andrew Erhardt 963357]

Awesome! Been looking for a way to integrate charts into the ZLC Website.

[Daniel Hawton]

One example is this aerodrome chart at EGKK:

EGKK: http://www.aircharts.org/data/view.php?id=57e1b2d1-b85d-5857-b58b-3871af5a977d

 

One oddity I noticed lies in the HTTP response headers sent by the webserver:

 

Content-Type: application.pdf

Unless I missed some new RFC, shouldn't that be "application/pdf" ?

 

EDIT: Other charts, such as this one, are reporting correct content-types (i.e. with a "/" rather than a ".").

 

The first link is hosted on Amazon S3, not sure why Amazon isn't sending the correct MIME and will look into it.

[Justin Shannon]

Any chance that you could add a change notice flag (at least for FAA charts)? For instance:

 

<chart id="b64374ac-cab5-517c-9f2f-2207eb6013e1" type="General" name="AIRPORT DIAGRAM" change="C">
http://www.aircharts.org/data/view.php?id=b64374ac-cab5-517c-9f2f-2207eb6013e1
</chart>

The change attribute could have one of four values: A, C, D and NULL.

 

A=Added, C=Changed, D=Deleted and NULL=Unchanged.

[Daniel Hawton]

Any chance that you could add a change notice flag (at least for FAA charts)? For instance:

 

<chart id="b64374ac-cab5-517c-9f2f-2207eb6013e1" type="General" name="AIRPORT DIAGRAM" change="C">
http://www.aircharts.org/data/view.php?id=b64374ac-cab5-517c-9f2f-2207eb6013e1
</chart>

The change attribute could have one of four values: A, C, D and NULL.

 

A=Added, C=Changed, D=Deleted and NULL=Unchanged.

 

I'll look into adding this. Dev is running a bit behind due to my separation from the Navy and setting up my move from Japan back to the US. But I'll get her in.

[Bruno Almeida 1323876]

Is there a way to suggest a new chart for addition using th API? If not, is there a way to suggest charts to be added to the DB? I have some that are not in aircharts and I can't find a way to contact the webmasters.

[Daniel Hawton]

Is there a way to suggest a new chart for addition using th API? If not, is there a way to suggest charts to be added to the DB? I have some that are not in aircharts and I can't find a way to contact the webmasters.

 

Send me a message. So long as it doesn't violate copyright laws and there is a way to keep it updated automatically, it'll get included.

[Zach Biesse-Fitton]

Hi Daniel,

 

I just wanted to let you know that your Australian charts are out of date. I'm not sure how you source the charts, but if you index them from this page: http://www.airservicesaustralia.com/aip/pending/dap/AeroProcChartsTOC.htm you need to make sure you're not using the old DAPS146 link as they have now changed to DAPS147. The above link will change as the realworld changes are made however there was an old link online which forced the DAPS146 to be used instead of the generic one.

 

Can you please look into this as the VATPAC pilots are currently only able to search the out-of-date charts on our website.

 

Thanks

[David Zhong]

The correct index is http://www.airservicesaustralia.com/aip/current/dap/AeroProcChartsTOC.htm

 

The previous link will start indexing new charts 28 days prior to their effective date. The latter link will only switch over on the effective date.

[Martijn Rammeloo]

Hi Daniel,

 

I just found this gem

 

I notice that the charts of The Netherlands are missing. They can easily be obtained at http://www.ais-netherlands.nl/aim/index.html. I believe the actual download URL changes quite often, so beware of broken links...

 

Martijn

[Daniel Hawton]

Martijn, I am on a satellite connection for the remainder of the month so my internet access is ... spotty. There is a rewrite in progress, but that can't proceed until I'm back home and established in my new house. So there won't be any changes for a bit.

[Yanick Coulombe 965064]

http://www.aircharts.org/ or http://www.aircharts.org/api cant be reach from here. Is the source-code available, or has it been re-uploaded?

Thank you

[Rahul Parkar]

Hi Yanick,

 

AirCharts was a closed source project and the decision was taken by myself and Dan to discontinue the service.

 

As of right now there are no plans to reintroduce the service although I'm sure that someone will be able to point you in the direction of a new replacement service.

 

Many thanks

Rahul

[Jamie Davidson 1220753]

https://chartfox.org/