GNU/Linux Aviation HOWTO

Flying with GNU/Linux

Nicolas Dufour

<nicolas.dufour@nemoworld.info>

John Petterson

<jcp@eskimo.com>


  This document is intended to provide pointers to software packages that run
under GNU/Linux and are usefull to pilots (private, commercial or military),
airlines, airports or any actors in the aeronautical domain. I want to
encourage everybody to contribute to this document, either by providing
pointers to existing software, or by writing new application for GNU/Linux.

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Table of Contents
Introduction
    1. Audience
    2. Revision History
    3. Contributions
    4. Feedback
    5. Copyright information
   
   
1. Flight
    1.1. Planning
    1.2. GPS
    1.3. Soaring
    1.4. Analyzis and Logbook
    1.5. Weather
   
   
2. Airline
3. Airport
    3.1. SMS
   
   
4. Simulation
    4.1. Flight Simulators
    4.2. Navigation Helps
    4.3. Others
   
   
5. Training
    5.1. PilotPal
    5.2. NeoKit
   
   
6. Data sources
    6.1. Environment
    6.2. Dynamic streams
    6.3. Geographic sources
   
   
7. Websites and catalogs
    7.1. Open-Aero.org
   
   
A. About the author
B. Used acronyms
    Glossary
   
   

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Introduction

The business and sport of aviation is about as mission critical as any human
endeavor gets. Pilots have an implicit expectation for their aircraft to be
well designed, ergonomic, predictable, reliable, and safe to operate.
Certificated aircraft are designed and built to engineering and quality
standards that far exceed those of any other consumer product. In my opinion,
any computing environment used for aviation related applications should meet
similar high standards. I also believe that the open software development
model and the GNU/Linux operating system is the computing environment with
the greatest potential to meet such high standards.

This document is intended to provide pointers to software packages that run
under GNU/Linux and are usefull to pilots (private, commercial or military),
airlines, airports or any actors in the aeronautical domain. Most of the
software packages mentioned in this release are freely distributable, and
come with source code. However, I will gladly include entries for commercial
products from any vendors who are GNU/Linux friendly.

My own personal interests center around air traffic flow management since I
have worked almost 4 years for Eurocontrol providing simulations to increase
the safety and effeciency in the european sky. I wanted to be pilot, but with
my color-blindness I have a bit abadon it. I know work for both USA and
Europe world of traffic management, and it's exciting to see the difference
and the history which created those.

Each of the software pointers in this document consists of a brief
description of the software, information on who wrote it, where to find it,
and user comments in some cases. In the interest of brevity, I did not
include explicit pointers to source code or binaries when they are available
through reasonably obvious links on the software's home page.
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1. Audience

  This document is written for all actors in aeronautic domain : pilots
(private or pro), airlines, airports, ATC entities, etc.
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2. Revision History

 
Revision History                                                             
Revision 2.2            2006-09-27             Revised by: nd                
Updates and new applications added.                                          
Revision 2.1            2006-03-13             Revised by: nd                
Updates and new applications added.                                          
Revision 2.0            2005-05-21             Revised by: nd                
New release and rewriting of the whole document.                             
Revision 1.5            2005-01-15             Revised by: jp                
Added new entries for the Gpsdrive, GPLIGC, JFlight, and KFlog packages. Five
years between updates is rather ridiculous, time to turn this HOWTO over to  
someone with more time!                                                      
Revision 1.4            2000-10-14             Revised by: jp                
Added a new entry for the AirLog logbook package. Added some additional      
references to the section on embedded hardware, as well as a short blurb     
about the availability of GNU/Linux for the iPaq handheld. Updated the       
contact information for the author, (new e-mail address).                    
Revision 1.3                                   Revised by: jp                
Added a small section on hardware, mostly pointers to other resources. I also
added entries for several newly discovered packages; Gpsd, GPSMan, and JEEPS.
Revision 1.2                                   Revised by: jp                
I added some new and more focused application categories. For some of them, I
added pointers to other information resources that address issues related to 
that particular application area, but from a more generic, and non-Linux     
specific perspective. Also added entries for several newly discovered        
software packages. I removed the references to the Linux Documentation       
Project, the maintainers never responded in any way to my request to add this
document to the archive?                                                     
Revision 1.1                                   Revised by: jp                
Added information about the linux-aviation mailing list. Some minor changes  
in grammar, as well as a whole bunch of corrections to my consistent abuse of
punctuation. Thanks to my good friend David Moore for these corrections.     
Revision 1.0                                   Revised by: jp                
First public release.                                                        
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3. Contributions

Thanks to John C. Peterson the original author of this document and for his
support.
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4. Feedback

Missing information, missing links, missing characters? Mail it to the
maintainer of this document:

<nicolas.dufour@nemoworld.info>
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5. Copyright information

  This document, GNU/Linux Aviation HOWTO, is copyrighted (c) 2005-2006 by 
Nicolas Dufour.

  Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under
the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or any later
version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant
Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of
the license is available at [http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html]   http://
www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html.

  Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.

  Java is a registered trademark of Sun Microsystems Inc.
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Chapter 1. Flight

1.1. Planning

1.1.1. fplan

The fplan application is designed to assist general aviation pilots in
creating flight plans for cross country flights in powered aircraft. It reads
a planfile containing a description of the flight: departure and destination
airports, navigation aids, intermediate waypoints, winds aloft, fuel
consumption rates, and produces a flight plan including wind corrected
magnetic headings, distance, estimated time and fuel consumption for each
leg, latitude, longitude and VOR fixes for each checkpoint, etc. A graphical
preview of the flight is available on systems with X11 Windows and the XView
Toolkit.

  * Author: Steve Tynor
   
  * Maintainer: John C. Peterson <jcp@eskimo.com>
   
  * Latest release: 1.4.2, 1999/05/01
   
  * Copyright: GPL
   
  * Home Page: [http://www.ibiblio.org/fplan/] http://www.ibiblio.org/fplan/
   

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1.1.2. Flight Navigation Planner

Flight Navigation Planner lets you make flight plans based on known airports,
navaids, fixes, or cities. You can use the sectional charts, wacs, or the
vector/terrain planning charts. It calculates headings, winds, time, and
fuel. It features Airways-based Auto-Routing, Climb and Descent calculations
(a/c type based), Fuel Stop Planning, Auto-Route around MOAS and Restricted
Airspace, Hi-Res Weather Radar Overlay, Viewing of current sectional, wac,
and IFR charts, the ability to see a route over TFRs, detailed nexrad radar
overlays over your routes, Terrain Profiles with cloud ceilings, and the
ability to upload flight plans to GPS.

  * Author: rvsc
   
  * Latest release: 104, 2004/03/08
   
  * Copyright: Unknown
   
  * Home Page: [http://fnp.berlios.de] http://fnp.berlios.de
   

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1.1.3. FlyWay

Flyway allows the user to find and enter U.S. waypoints (airports, navaids,
and fixes), then it calculates courses, wind corrections, and travel times.
Information about the waypoints is provided (including frequencies,
elevation, fuel availability, and runway descriptions). The route data can
also be used to fill in an editable FAA Flight Plan form, fetch basic weather
information from the internet, and display a very rough map.

  * Author: Doug Bell
   
  * Latest release: 0.4.1, 2005/12/14
   
  * Copyright: GPL
   
  * Home Page: [http://www.bellz.org/flyway/] http://www.bellz.org/flyway/
   

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1.1.4. OpenFlyers

OpenFlyers is an aircrafts (airplanes, gliders, ulms, etc.) online booking
system opensource for flying clubs and more generally for everyone who need
to share one or more aircrafts planification.

This booking system is based on the PHP language and the MySQL database. It
is opensource (under GPL licence) and can be freely downloaded.

  * Author: OpenFlyers devteam <devteam@openflyers.org>
   
  * Latest release: 1.3.0, 2006/09/06
   
  * Copyright: GPL
   
  * Home Page: [http://openflyers.org] http://www.bellz.org/flyway/
   

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1.2. GPS

1.2.1. ChartPlotter

ChartPlotter is a Java based moving map program for use with GPS units that
support the NMEA communication protocol (the GPGLL sentence). ChartPlotter
can be used with user scanned charts saved in JPEG format. The program
transforms a latitude, longitude value to a position on the raster image with
the help of 2-4 known reference points.

First on the wish list of things to do is a converter program so that we can
use charts in the BSB format. As I understand there are such programs around
but I need to modify the chartplotter program so that it can read the output
from the converting program.

Second on the wish list is to read GSHHS (Global Self-consistant Hierarchical
High-resolution Shorelines) found somewere at www.ngdc.noaa.gov.

  * Author: Rikard and Henrik Bjorkman <hb3@eit.se>
   
  * Latest release: 0.46, September 2005
   
  * Copyright: GPL
   
  * Home Page: [http://www.eit.se/chartplotter/] http://www.eit.se/
    chartplotter/
   
  * Roadmap:
   
    First on the wish list of things to do is a converter program so that we
    can use charts in the BSB format. As I understand there are such programs
    around but I need to modify the chartplotter program so that it can read
    the output from the converting program.
   
    Second on the wish list is to read GSHHS (Global Self-consistant
    Hierarchical High-resolution Shorelines) found somewere at [http://
    www.ngdc.noaa.gov/] www.ngdc.noaa.gov.
   

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1.2.2. GPSd

gpsd is a service daemon that monitors a GPS attached to a host computer
through a serial or USB port, making its data on the location/course/velocity
of the sensor available to be queried on TCP port 2947 of the host computer.
With gpsd, multiple GPS client applications (such as navigational and
wardriving software) can share access to a GPS without contention or loss of
data. Also, gpsd responds to queries with a format that is substantially
easier to parse than the NMEA 0183 emitted by most GPSes. The gpsd
distribution includes a linkable C service library and a Python module that
developers of gpsd-aware applications can use to encapsulate all
communication with gpsd.

  * Author: Eric S. Raymond <esr@snark.thyrsus.com>
   
  * Latest release: 2.33, 2006/06/09
   
  * Copyright: BSD
   
  * Home Page: [http://gpsd.berlios.de/] http://gpsd.berlios.de/
   

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1.2.3. GpsDrive

GpsDrive is a car (bike, ship, plane) navigation system. GpsDrive displays
your position provided from your NMEA capable GPS receiver on a zoomable map,
the map file is autoselected depending of the position and prefered scale.
Speech output is supported if the "festival" software is running. The maps
are autoselected for best resolution depending of your position and can be
downloaded from Internet. All Garmin GPS reveiver with a serial output should
be usable, also other GPS receiver which supports NMEA protocol.

GpsDrive is written in C with use of the GTK+ graphic toolkit and runs with
Linux and FreeBSD.

  * Author:Friedrich Ganter <ganter@ganter.at>
   
  * Latest release: 2.10pre3, 2006/03/10
   
  * Copyright: GPL
   
  * Home Page: [http://www.gpsdrive.cc/] http://www.gpsdrive.cc/
   

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1.2.4. GPSMan

GPS Manager (GPSMan) is a graphical geographic data manager that provides a
user friendly graphical environment for the preparation, inspection and
editing of waypoint, route and track data for use in GPS receivers. GPSMan
supports a variety of derived computations such as distance and bearing from
one waypoint to another, course and distance between waypoints in a track,
etc. GPSMan can make cartographic maps to scale, using one of several
projections with over plotting of waypoint, route and track data. The map can
be saved in Postscript format for printing. GPSMan is a stand-alone Tcl/Tk
program that was designed for use at home (as opposed to real-time use).
GPSMan currently supports communication with both Garmin and Lowrance
receivers.

  * Author: Miguel Filgueiras <mig@ncc.up.pt>
   
  * Latest release: 6.3.1, 2006/07/25
   
  * Copyright: GPL
   
  * Home Page: [http://www.ncc.up.pt/gpsman/] http://www.ncc.up.pt/gpsman/
   

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1.2.5. Elgaard Positioning System

The Elgaard Positioning System is a Java based application designed for use
with GPS receivers. It provides an interface capability: tracks can be saved
from units with NMEA format output. For units that support the proprietary
Garmin protocol, EPS can upload and download waypoints, routes, and tracks.
It can also display user scanned charts with interactive zooming, scrolling,
over plotting of tracks, and can compute distances and speeds. EPS runs on
any platform with a JVM compatible with the 1.1 version of the Java API.

  * Author: Niels Elgaard Larsen
   
  * Latest release: 0.9.2beta, 2003/02/07
   
  * Copyright: GPL
   
  * Home Page: [http://eps.sourceforge.net/] http://eps.sourceforge.net/
   

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1.3. Soaring

1.3.1. GPLIGC

  GPLIGC is an application licensed under the GNU General Public License for
the analysis of IGC data files, such as those produced by the GNSS flight
data recorder. (Downloading of the data from logger devices and/or conversion
to IGC format has to be done with other software). GPLIGC can compute a
variety of statistics such as thermal climb rates and glide ratios. Plotting
of raw data or derived statistics is done through the Gnuplot application.

  Also included in the distribution is openGLIGCexplorer, an openGL
application for visualization of flight tracks in 3 dimensions against a
shaded terrain map (assuming digital elevation data is available).

  * Author: Hannes Krüger <Hannes.Krueger@uibk.ac.at>
   
  * Latest release: 1.5, 2005/06/14
   
  * Copyright: GPL
   
  * Home Page: [http://pc12-c714.uibk.ac.at/GPLIGC/GPLIGC.php] http://
    pc12-c714.uibk.ac.at/GPLIGC/GPLIGC.php
   

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1.3.2. IGCview

IGCview is a Java application designed for soaring pilots who want to display
and analyze GPS log files in the [http://www.fai.org/gliding/] FAI IGC or
Gardown formats. Both formats contain simple ASCII records of time stamped
latitude and longitude values. The IGC format also contains altitude
information (pressure and/or GPS) and the task (route). IGCview can also
import Gardown format files and export them in IGC format.

The program is oriented wholly towards looking at the GPS log traces produced
by glider flights. You can examine other traces, but the analysis will not be
particularly useful. It can compute quantities such as: start to finish,
average task and individual leg speeds, climb rates, L/D, etc. It can also
read and compare multiple flights in detail making it a very useful learning
tool for cross country and competition oriented soaring pilots.

  * Author: Ian Forster-Lewis <igcview@forsterlewis.com>
   
  * Latest release: 3.12, 2003/04/24
   
  * Copyright: Freely Distribuable
   
  * Home Page: [http://www.forsterlewis.com/soaring/igcview/
    igcview_home.html] http://www.forsterlewis.com/soaring/igcview/
    igcview_home.html
   

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1.3.3. JFlight

JFlight is a Java based application developed for Hang-glider and Para-glider
pilots to assist with pre-flight task planning and post-flight analysis of
GPS, Barogram, Vario data. (It should prove useful to full scale glider
pilots as well). The flightbook feature provides a mechanism for waypoint and
route management. Flight tracks can be viewed on a simple display.

  * Author: Rüdiger Bien <ruedbi@users.sourceforge.net>
   
  * Latest release: 0.9, 2003/07/16
   
  * Copyright: GPL
   
  * Home Page: [http://jflight.sourceforge.net/] http://
    jflight.sourceforge.net/
   

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1.3.4. KFLog

KFLog is an OpenSource program aimed at glider pilots. It gives You a
powerfull tool to plan You flight tasks and analyse Your flights afterwards.

KFLog is the only flight analyser program available for GNU/Linux to be
recognized by the [http://www.fai.org/gliding/] FAI IGC.

KFLog projects the flights on a digital vectormap, that contains not only
airfields and airspaces, but a complete elevation-map, roads, cities, rivers,
and lots of other interesting objects.

  *   Authors:
   
      + Heiner Lamprecht <heiner@kflog.org>
       
      + Florian Ehinger <florian@kflog.org>
       
   
  * Latest release: 2.1.1, 2003/07/17
   
  * Copyright: GPL
   
  * Home Page:[http://www.kflog.org/] http://www.kflog.org/
   

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1.4. Analyzis and Logbook

1.4.1. Airlog

Airlog is a flight logging system designed to meet the unique needs of glider
pilots and students. The Java based client allows multiple users to access a
common database (interface drivers are provided for the Instant DB,
PostgreSQL, and Oracle database systems). Referential integrity is used to
insure valid data. When multi user functionality is enabled, user access to
the common database is authenticated using a login, password form that is
presented at startup.

Airlog also supports searches of the common database, as well as a report
generation capability. The "Training Barometer" and "Speed Input" reports are
designed to assist both instructors and students in the training process. A
"Fit for Flight, Instruction" report is planned for a future release.

Airlog was developed in Denmark with an emphasis on Danish regulations, but
was localized from the ground up. Other languages can be supported by simply
providing a "message text catalog" for the desired language (catalogs are
provided for both Danish and English).

  * Authors:
   
      + Ken Andersen <kentan@get2net.dk>
       
      + Frederik Hansen <roirex@users.sourceforge.net>
       
      + Steve Brown <delancie@users.sourceforge.net>
       
   
  * Latest release: alpha-0.53-2, 2000/11/25
   
  * Copyright: GPL
   
  * Home Page: [http://airlog.sourceforge.net/] http://airlog.sourceforge.net
    /
   

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1.5. Weather

1.5.1. pyRadar

pyRadar is retrieves and displays radar images from NOAA's NEXRAD radar
stations, which are located around the United States and its territories.
These images are released into the public domain on behalf of the American
public.

  * Authors: John Diaz
   
  * Latest release: 0.4, 2005/08/22
   
  * Copyright: GPL
   
  * Home Page: [http://pyradar.sourceforge.net/] http://
    pyradar.sourceforge.net/
   

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1.5.2. WeatherCheck

WeatherCheck is a program that uses Java Swing to prompt for a US zip code
and display the local forecast from the National Weather Service. It also
provides the extended forecast and dBZ radar information.

  * Authors: Teri Solow
   
  * Latest release: 0.5, 2002/08/10
   
  * Copyright: GPL
   
  * Home Page: [http://www.terisolow.com/programs.php#WeatherCheck] http://
    www.terisolow.com/programs.php#WeatherCheck
   

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Chapter 2. Airline

To be completed.
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Chapter 3. Airport

3.1. SMS

The Surface Management System (SMS) increases shared situational awareness of
airport surface operations between the Air Traffic Control Tower (ATCT), the
Ramp Tower, the air carriers that operate at an airport, and the various
airport authorities and other ATC facilities. By increasing situational
awareness and providing tools for airport surface traffic management, SMS
improves the efficiency and flexibility of airport surface operations.

  * Author: Metron Aviation Inc. <bizdevelopment@metronaviation.com>
   
  * Latest release: Unknown
   
  * Copyright: Commercial
   
  * Home Page: [http://www.metronaviation.com/sms_overview.php] http://
    www.metronaviation.com/sms_overview.php
   

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Chapter 4. Simulation

4.1. Flight Simulators

4.1.1. FlightGear

The FlightGear flight simulator project is an open-source, multi-platform,
cooperative flight simulator development project. Source code for the entire
project is available and licensed under the GNU General Public License.

The goal of the FlightGear project is to create a sophisticated flight
simulator framework for use in research or academic environments, for the
development and pursuit of other interesting flight simulation ideas, and as
an end-user application.

  * Author: Curtis L. Olson <curt0001@flightgear.org>
   
  * Latest release: 0.9.10, 2006/04/05
   
  * Copyright: GPL
   
  * Home Page: [http://www.flightgear.org/] http://www.flightgear.org/
   

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4.1.2. X-Plane

X-Plane is a flight simulator that reads in the geometric shape of any
aircraft and then figures out how that aircraft will fly. It does this via an
engineering process called "blade element theory", which involves breaking
the aircraft down into many small elements and then finding the forces on
each little element many times per second. These forces are then converted
into accelerations, which are then integrated to velocities and positions.
This gives X-Plane the most realistic flight model available for personal
computers.

  * Author: Austin Meyer <austin@x-plane.com>
   
  * Latest release: 8.50 RC1, 2006/08/21
   
  * Copyright: Proprietary with Free Trial
   
  * Home Page: [http://x-plane.com/] http://x-plane.com/
   

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4.1.3. JSBSim Flight Dynamics Model

JSBSim is an object-oriented (C++), multi-platform, 6-DOF, Flight Dynamics
Model (FDM). It can be run as a standalone, batch-mode flight simulator (no
graphical displays), or integrated with FlightGear or other flight simulator.

  * Author: Jon S. Berndt <jsb@hal-pc.org>
   
  * Latest release: 0.9.9, 2005/08/10
   
  * Copyright: GPL
   
  * Home Page: [http://jsbsim.sourceforge.net/] http://jsbsim.sourceforge.net
    /
   

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4.1.4. IFT

IFT is a small flight simulator written for the purpose of training pilots
not experienced in instrument flight. It includes a couple of VOR and NDB
stations and displays. These can be used to exercise basic radio navigation
skills.

It's made and tested on GNU/Linux, but it should work on all Unices, since
all it uses is the X11 library.

  * Author: Sukru Cinar <vantadu@email.com>
   
  * Latest release: 1.0, 2005/07/22
   
  * Copyright: GPL
   
  * Home Page: [http://geocities.com/cinarus/IFT.txt] http://geocities.com/
    cinarus/IFT.txt
   

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4.2. Navigation Helps

4.2.1. Atlas

Atlas aims to produce and display high quality charts of the world for users
of FlightGear, an open source flight simulator. This is achieved through two
main parts: The map creator (simply called Map) and the Atlas viewer.

  * Author: David Luff <daveluff@users.sourceforge.net>
   
  * Latest release: 0.3.0, 2005/07/28
   
  * Copyright: GPL
   
  * Home Page: [http://atlas.sourceforge.net/] http://atlas.sourceforge.net/
   

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4.2.2. OpenGC

OpenGC is a multi-platform, multi-simulator, open-source C++ tool for
developing and implementing high quality glass cockpit displays for simulated
flightdecks. Our goal is simple: support all widely available flight
simulators, all widely available operating systems, and provide a selection
of gauges that mirrors the diversity of interests within the flightsimming
community. I hope you enjoy OpenGC, and encourage you to contribute in any
way possible!

  * Author: Damion Shelton <damion@opengc.org>
   
  * Latest release: 0.57, 2006/04/24
   
  * Copyright: BSD
   
  * Home Page: [http://www.opengc.org/] http://www.opengc.org/
   

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4.2.3. A340GC

The Glass Cockpit Library (libGC) is created for the Airbus A340 Glass
Cockpit (a340gc) which is an Open Source project. The a340gc project is part
of the Airbus A340 simulator project of the IRADIS Foundation. The goal of
libGC and a340gc is to create a free framework that can be used to build a
glass cockpit upon.

This is only a part of a bigger project carried by Iradis to create a
realistic A340 cockpit with a full view. See this [http://www.iradis.org/]
website for more details.

  * Author: Iradis <info@iradis.fat.org>
   
  * Latest release: 0.3, 2002/05/19
   
  * Copyright: GPL
   
  * Home Page: [http://a340gc.iradis.org/] http://a340gc.iradis.org/
   

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4.3. Others

4.3.1. Tim's Air Navigation Simulator

This is a Java applet that simulates the operation of ADF and VOR
instruments. A canvas shows the position of a hypothetical aircraft and two
ground based navigational aids, (which can be dragged to arbitrary positions
with the mouse). The instrument display shows what the pilot would see in the
corresponding situation. The applet code is available for download if you
want to install it on your own machine.

  * Author: Tim Carlson <mim@visi.com>
   
  * Latest release: 19981015, 1998/10/15
   
  * Copyright: Freely Distribuable
   
  * Home Page: [http://www.visi.com/~mim/nav/index.html] http://www.visi.com/
    ~mim/nav/index.html
   

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Chapter 5. Training

5.1. PilotPal

PilotPal is a Java applet designed to assist (student) pilots studying for
the US FAA written examinations. The latest version provides study questions
for both the Private Pilot and Instrument examinations. If you don't have a
high bandwidth connection to the Internet, you may want to download the
applet and install it on your own machine.

  * Author: PilotPal.com <info@pilotpal.com>
   
  * Latest release: 2006/08/23
   
  * Copyright: Freely Distributable
   
  * Home Page: [http://www.pilotpal.com/] http://www.pilotpal.com/
   

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5.2. NeoKit

Description:

  * NeoKit © is a Computer Based Training environment dedicated to initial
    training to Air Traffic Control and Management software,
   
  * The NeoKit © tools covers the whole training cycle: scenarios
    preparation, dynamic and interactive training with Record and Replay
    capabilities and customizable reporting tool for analysis and debriefing,
   
  * NeoKit © is developped on the Java platform environment and is so fully
    interoperable on any operating system (GNU/Linux, Windows, etc.),
   
  * Specific plugins dedicated to other Business Domain (e.g. Marine,
    Military) are easy to develop through the complete set of the Java APIs
    of NeoKit ©.
   

Features:

  * Computer Based Training tool.
   
  * Lightweight ATC and ATM simulation platform.
   
  * Distributed event-based discret simulation engine.
   
  * MCQ-SQC dialog engine.
   
  * Custom reporting for trainee progress tracking.
   
  * Java based.
   
  * XML data input and output.
   

  * Author: NeoSYS <info@neosys.fr>
   
  * Latest release: 0.4, Jan 2004
   
  * Copyright: Commercial
   
  * Home Page: [http://www.neosys.fr/neokit] http://www.neosys.fr/neokit
   

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Chapter 6. Data sources

Data sources are of course more important that the tools you can use. And
specially the quality of those data.

We can classify two big types of data here :

  * Environment data
   
    Data which dont change often like airport position (even if I have see
    airport jumps in data sometimes ;-). It's called also static or
    semi-static data.
   
  * Dynamic data
   
    Data which change very often like flight position or traffic load in a
    controlled sector.
   

Usually, the second type is computed with the help of the first one, so it's
very important to take care of the accuracy of the environment data : right
geographic location (lat,long), up-to-date semi-static data according to an
activity (current capacity of an airport), or even new performance data for a
new aircraft.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

6.1. Environment

6.1.1. DAFIF

The Digital Aeronautical Flight Information File (or DAFIF) is a set of files
that contain data on airports, navaids, waypoints, special use airspace and
other facts relevant to flying in the entire world. This data is provided by
the US military, through the [http://www.nga.mil] National Geospatial
Intelligence Agency (NGA), and is primarily developed for the benefit of
military aeronautical operations, but was made available to the general
public.

Except for the United States, which is also covered by data provided by the 
FAA, it is usually the ONLY comprehensive digital data available for pilots.
Other countries either don't provide digital data at all, or they do it
through a proprietary web interface or in non-reusable formats (like PDF
files of scans of paper documents). Even within the US, there is data that is
available in the DAFIF which is not in the FAA data. For instance, the
navaid.com database generators use the DAFIF data to find ICAO identifiers
for airports in Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and other places where there 3
letter FAA id is not enough data to generate the ICAO id.

Attention! This source will be removed at october 2006 of the public access
for several reasons. Look [http://www.navaid.com/dafif.html] here for more
details and support the existence of DAFIF. You can also help creating a
replacement solution [http://xcski.com/navdata/bin/view/NavData/WebHome]
here.

  * Home Page: [https://164.214.2.62/products/digitalaero/index.cfm] https://
    164.214.2.62/products/digitalaero/index.cfm
   

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
6.2. Dynamic streams

6.2.1. LiveATC

This site was launched as a resource for those who enjoy listening to live
Air Traffic Control (ATC)...aviation enthusiasts, student pilots, student air
traffic controllers, flight simulation enthusiasts, FBO operators, airline
operators, and anyone with an interest in aviation communications.

A good site to listen, discover and perhaps also learn the language. They
propose several live feeds in USA, Canada, Mexico, Europe, Australia,
Columbia, or even Dutch caribean !

  * Home Page: [http://www.liveatc.net/] http://www.liveatc.net/
   

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
6.3. Geographic sources

To be completed.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 7. Websites and catalogs

7.1. Open-Aero.org

This new website is designed to maintain an up-to-date list of opensource
projects for the aeronautic world, and help the maintenance of the this
current howto.

  * Home Page: [http://www.open-aero.org/] http://www.open-aero.org/
   

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Appendix A. About the author

I was born in 1973 in the little town of [http://
www.ville-mont-saint-aignan.fr/] Mont St. Aignan near [http://
www.rouentourisme.com/] Rouen in [http://www.normandy-tourism.org/] Normandie
(France). I grow up in the south of Ile-de-France (region near Paris)
surrounded by wheat and corn fields :-) and a sugar factory where I used to
walk in it, smelling and eating sugar.

Always attracted by sciences and particularly geology, I got a degree (BA) of
Geophysic/Geochemistry and try to get the next degree but fall back to
another direction : computer science. I got my master of computer science
applied to geosciences in 1998 at [http://www.upmc.fr] Paris.

I got my first job at [http://www.eurocontrol.int/eec/public/subsite_homepage
/homepage.html] Eurocontrol and it changes a lot my life. Even if I worked
for Schlumberger for 6 months (big oil service company), I now work for 6
years for a little french company ([http://www.neometsys.fr/] Neometsys) in
aeronautic.

  * Home Page: [http://nemoworld.info/] http://nemoworld.info/
   
  * Email: <nicolas.dufour@nemoworld.info>
   

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Appendix B. Used acronyms

Used acronyms in the current document and explanations.

Glossary

A

ADF
    Automatic Direction Finder
   
    Navigation instrument that receives and interprets the NDB signal.
   
ATC
    Air Traffic Control
   
ATM
    Air Traffic Management
   

B

BSD
    BSD license
   
    See [http://www.opensource.org/licenses/bsd-license.php] here for
    details.
   

F

FAA
    Federal Aviation Administration
   
    See [http://www.faa.gov/] here for details.
   

G

GPL
    GNU Public License
   
    See [http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html] here for details.
   

N

NDB
    Non-Directional Beacon
   

V

VOR
    Very-high-frequency Omni Range
   
    Beacon very usefull to navigation.
   

