Airport Randomiser...is there one?

[Swanoir]

If you know the area you want to fly in, just write down the names or codes for every aerodrome in that region - or type them into a word processor and print them out - then cut them out and put them in a bowl or such like. pull out two and you have your flight.

Thanks John, that's exactly what I've had to do in the past, I just wanted a slightly more 21st Century way of doing the same thing! It's quicker and because it uses less paper, better for the environment. Everyone's a winner

[RJP]

I'm fairly sure I've got the data here to create what you want in Excel.....

Giving the facility to select a start location by ICAO / IATA / Name is no problem, likewise with limiting the results to a specific country / continent.

Presume you need to be able to select max distance (which would be great circle distance, not airways) and min runway length?

It will rely on having macros enabled in Excel. Not sure about filesize / speed at the moment. The database I have is just under 22mb but there is a link for each entry to the appropriate fsxdb page (links inflate filesize in Excel) which I can probably remove.

Not sure when I'll get a chance to create something, maybe tomorrow if it's still too damp to sort the garden out!

Best regards
Richard

[Swanoir]

Sounds intriguing Richard.

[RJP]

I've just written most of the background stuff for the menu to select the start location.

Initially I've set it up so that selecting the start location is done by selecting Country, then State, then City. There will be the facility to select an airport at random for your start location. Also for you to use the previous destination for your next start location.

I'm now working on criteria for the destination. You'll be able to select a maximum distance and minimum runway length and will get any airport off the list within that distance from your start location and with at least that runway length. Or you'll be able to select a country & get a list of all airports in the selected country, which are within the selected distance from the start location. Likewise being able to set the destination state or city.



Probably won't get much done during the week but should do next weekend.

Best regards
RJP

[Swanoir]

Wow, I'm very impressed! Please don't bust a gut on my account, this started as a hypothetical question, I wasn't expecting people to actually 'work' on it!

[RJP]

Wow, I'm very impressed! Please don't bust a gut on my account, this started as a hypothetical question, I wasn't expecting people to actually 'work' on it!

Haha, that's ok. I've been meaning to do something like this for ages.....

Most of the work is actually done, working out the distances and then filtering the results & picking a random result is the easy bit.

PM me an email address and when it's useable I'll send it to you to have a play with before I share it generally.

I discovered that there's plenty of spelling mistakes & some missing data (mainly very minor fields) which TBH I can't be bothered to spend the time correcting / adding to. If someone does want to then let me know.

Best regards
Richard

[basys]

Hi Folks

Richard -
As FSX default includes minimal 'State' data, (IIRC only USA & Canada),
would you like to populate that field ?



As part of the process of creating the FSX "Visit-Series" rewards,
I'd so far -

Assigned & verified 'State' data (State/Province/whatever),
for 22,569 of FSX's 24,490 default airports,
(actually 24,491, IIRC two were co-ID'd/located, mil & civil).

Assigned, (unverified) a further 719.

Assigned, but not decoded, a further 1,127 'State' codes.



If interested,
PM me your email address,
and I'll extract & send the data over.



HTH
ATB
Paul

[RJP]

Hi Folks

Richard -
As FSX default includes minimal 'State' data, (IIRC only USA & Canada),
would you like to populate that field ?

As part of the process of creating the FSX "Visit-Series" rewards,
I'd so far -

Assigned & verified 'State' data (State/Province/whatever),
for 22,569 of FSX's 24,490 default airports,
(actually 24,491, IIRC two were co-ID'd/located, mil & civil).

Assigned, (unverified) a further 719.

Assigned, but not decoded, a further 1,127 'State' codes.

If interested,
PM me your email address,
and I'll extract & send the data over.

HTH
ATB
Paul

Hi Paul,

Yes please, that would be very useful!

I'd included the facility to select blanks for the state but would much prefer it to be populated outside of the US / Canada / Aus..

I've got a few gaps in lat / lon data (but other data seems complete), could you perhaps check if you have lat / lon data for NZPH as an example? If you do then if I could send you identifiers for the missing data for you to extract any lat / lon for that would be much appreciated also.

Will PM an email address.

Best regards
Richard

[basys]

Hi Folks

Rich -
Please see your email, and confirm arrival/file readable.

Airport's data was script extracted directly from 'FSX default' source files,
so text spelling should be correct.

N.B.
A few airports have had their country corrected/updated,
e.g.
from Israel to Gaza
from ? to Boznia Herz.....
from Indonesia to Timor L'Este
etc.

To aid correlate, it includes Idents and ARP's coords.
Region and State were assigned by myself, (excepting USA and Australia, plus a few corrections),



re: NZPH
'Pudding Hill' is an addon airport.



HTH
ATB
Paul

[RJP]

Hi Folks

Rich -
Please see your email, and confirm arrival/file readable.

Airport's data was script extracted directly from 'FSX default' source files,
so text spelling should be correct.

N.B.
A few airports have had their country corrected/updated,
e.g.
from Israel to Gaza
from ? to Boznia Herz.....
from Indonesia to Timor L'Este
etc.

To aid correlate, it includes Idents and ARP's coords.
Region and State were assigned by myself, (excepting USA and Australia, plus a few corrections),



re: NZPH
'Pudding Hill' is an addon airport.



HTH
ATB
Paul

Hi Paul,

Thanks, file received and readable.

Need to do a proper comparison with what I already had but from a quick manual look the lat / lon info is from the same place. Might incorporate the region field too.

Will let you know when I've finished the template / added this data in.

Best regards
Richard