Chase From United States of America, joined Nov 2005, 1054 posts, RR: 0 Posted (7 years 3 months 3 weeks 4 days 21 hours ago) and read 2801 times:
I live under the approach to 23 R at IND, and am curious about "fixes" (have been since I heard that the ones at MCI are named after barbequeueing terms).
First, I wanted to see which ones were near my house, and managed to do that - I live between FUSTO and CLAPR. Check.
Second, I am wondering what exactly a fix *is*? I know it's a point on an approach and all that, but...I guess I mean, how is it physically manifested? If I drive over to a fix's location, is there a tower there or something that broadcasts "I'm the fix, here I am"? Or is some kind of signal projected from the threshold along the approach vector, or...?
Third, I was thinking this would be a neat thing to integrate with Google Maps. Something like, you type in your airport code and the page gives you back a Google Map with icons at the fixes, and lines drawn along the approaches. This would of course require a way to, given an airport:
A) find a list of its fixes
B) find each fix's latitude and longitude www.fltplan.com does A and B, but does A by means of a PDF file or GIF image. Anybody know where I can find this on the web in plain old text?
David L From United Kingdom, joined May 1999, 9242 posts, RR: 42 Reply 1, posted (7 years 3 months 3 weeks 4 days 20 hours ago) and read 2781 times:
AFAIK, the vast majority, if not all, of the 5-letter waypoints are not manifested physically, they're just defined positions. A lot of them are over the oceans - much more neatly laid out than any small islands could be.
VORs (3 letters) and NDBs (2 letters) are physical transmitters. I'm sure someone will provide photos of these (that's your job, MEL ).
Expect some, ahem, "fine-tuning" of this information from the experts.
KELPkid From United States of America, joined Nov 2005, 5962 posts, RR: 4 Reply 2, posted (7 years 3 months 3 weeks 4 days 20 hours ago) and read 2781 times:
Airspace fixes can be an intersection (defined by two radials on a VOR, or another navaid such as a localizer or NDB radial, or a DME distance and a VOR radial), a "point in space" fix, which can only be identified by a GPS or RNAV equipment, or sometimes they even overlie a navaid itself, usually an NDB (e.g. MINNE, which overlies the MM Locator/outer marker for the ILS RWY 22 at MMV ).
The FAA's only rules are that it can't be a foul word in the Engilsh language and that it must be pronouncable on the radio (although I think some of the new, computer-generated ones miss the mark by a lot on the second point ).
Some names are actually quite funny (ITAWT ITAWA PUDDY TAATT IDEED all appear, in that sequence on an approach), and we had a thread about this in Civil Aviation about 2 months ago...
[Edited 2006-02-24 22:05:48]
[Edited 2006-02-24 22:07:50]
Celebrating the birth of KELPkidJR on August 5, 2009 :-)
OPNLguy From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 3, posted (7 years 3 months 3 weeks 4 days 20 hours ago) and read 2772 times:
Airspace fixes are usually points-in-space, defined by VOR radials and DMEs, just the radials themselves, ILS DMEs, or lat lons, and thus don't have any phyiscal transmitters or other items themselves. The most convenient way for you to see where a fix is with reference to a spot on the ground is to take the fix's lat/lon and plug it into your handheld GPS.
David L From United Kingdom, joined May 1999, 9242 posts, RR: 42 Reply 4, posted (7 years 3 months 3 weeks 4 days 20 hours ago) and read 2761 times:
Quoting KELPkid (Reply 2): Some names are actually quite funny (ITAWT ITAWA PUDDY TAATT IDEED all appear, in that sequence on an approach), and we had a thread about this in Civil Aviation about 2 months ago...
Corey07850 From United States of America, joined Feb 2004, 2522 posts, RR: 5 Reply 5, posted (7 years 3 months 3 weeks 4 days 20 hours ago) and read 2745 times:
Quoting KELPkid (Reply 2):
The FAA's only rules are that it can't be a foul word in the Engilsh language and that it must be pronouncable on the radio (although I think some of the new, computer-generated ones miss the mark by a lot on the second point ).
For everyone's enjoyment, I guess the FAA determined "DONGS" to not be a foul word
KELPkid From United States of America, joined Nov 2005, 5962 posts, RR: 4 Reply 6, posted (7 years 3 months 3 weeks 4 days 20 hours ago) and read 2738 times:
RE: Approach Names (by Backfire Aug 3 2004 in Civil Aviation)#ID1681158
Nah, I was actually thinking of a much more recent discussion, the thread title was something like "The FAA's Wicked Sense of Humor", or "The FAA's evil sense of humor". I tried doing a forum search for it, but it didn't come up. Maybe the thread was deleted or moved to a different forum?
Celebrating the birth of KELPkidJR on August 5, 2009 :-)
Chase From United States of America, joined Nov 2005, 1054 posts, RR: 0 Reply 8, posted (7 years 3 months 3 weeks 4 days 18 hours ago) and read 2707 times:
Wow, thanks all for the great info. I appreciate it!
IAHFLYR From United States of America, joined Jun 2005, 4738 posts, RR: 25 Reply 9, posted (7 years 3 months 3 weeks 2 days 5 hours ago) and read 2607 times:
Looking around some times the names will have a saying to them or names that imply nothing more than what it means such as "SEEYA" way out on a downwind at IAH.
Soon there will be no more 5 letter words left that are able to be pronounced so I hope the database and FMC providers are working to fix that since I know of none that currently accept more than 5 names other than maybe for an approach name.
Any views shared are strictly my own and do not a represent those of any former employer.
3201 From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 10, posted (7 years 3 months 3 weeks 1 day 19 hours ago) and read 2556 times:
Quoting KELPkid (Reply 2): Some names are actually quite funny (ITAWT ITAWA PUDDY TAATT IDEED all appear, in that sequence on an approach)
ITAWT ITAWA PUDYE TTATT IDEED
are on a GPS approach to PSM
Quoting IAHFLYR (Reply 9): Soon there will be no more 5 letter words left that are able to be pronounced so I hope the database and FMC providers are working to fix that since I know of none that currently accept more than 5 names other than maybe for an approach name.
There are already duplicates worldwide, having duplicates in the US would work. They could also use numbers, but they already use letter/number combinations for HAR points.
IAHFLYR From United States of America, joined Jun 2005, 4738 posts, RR: 25 Reply 11, posted (7 years 3 months 3 weeks 1 day 16 hours ago) and read 2533 times:
Quoting 3201 (Reply 10): There are already duplicates worldwide, having duplicates in the US would work
Oh no don't tell AVN that they will just about SHXX. Yes there are dups however ICAO is working with the FAA to hamonize their efforts and come up with a standard.....oh yeah HAR forget about that stuff but let us say that is too hard to figure out for an old mind as mine.
Any views shared are strictly my own and do not a represent those of any former employer.
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