Description

Various types of air navigation aids are in use today, each serving a special purpose. Nav Canada has the statutory authority to establish, operate, maintain air navigation facilities and to prescribe standards for the operation of any of these aids which are used for instrument flight in federally controlled airspace. These aids are tabulated in the Canada Flight Supplement. Good pilots use all means available to help navigate. NavAid are categorized as follows:

• Nondirectional Radio Beacon (NDB) - A low or medium frequency radio beacon transmits nondirectional signals whereby the pilot of an aircraft properly equipped can determine bearings and “home” on the station.

• VHF Omni-directional Range (VOR) - VORs operate within the 108.0 to 117.95 MHz frequency band and have a power output necessary to provide coverage within their assigned operational service volume. They are subject to line-of-sight restrictions, and the range varies proportionally to the altitude of the receiving equipment.

• Tactical Air Navigation (TACAN) - It was specifically developed by the military and naval forces to more readily lend itself to military and naval requirements.

• VHF Omni-directional Range/Tactical Air Navigation (VORTAC) - It is a facility consisting of two components, VOR and TACAN, which provides three individual services: VOR azimuth, TACAN azimuth and TACAN distance (DME) at one site.
  Distance Measuring Equipment (DME) - It is a radio navigation technology that measures the slant range (distance) between an aircraft and a ground station by timing the propagation delay of radio signals in the frequency band between 960 and 1215 megahertz (MHz). Line-of-visibility between the aircraft and ground station is required.

Originator

1. NavCanada

2. OurAirports.com

Use Cases

Source(s)

Process for EGIS integration

NavAid Database Options:

Option 1: CSV file from Nav Canada (Most desirable)

Pro: Updated bi-monthly

Con: $22,750/year/license

Option 2: ePub or eCFS PDF Subscription from NavCan

Pro: Updated bi-monthly

Con 1: Requires data extraction from PDF file, a complex and labour intensive process.

Con 2: Requires subscription

CSV File:

1. CSV can be integrated directly into ArcMap and ArcGIS.

2. In FME, transform Lat/Long to point.

3. Output to KML, SHP or GDB as required

4. Import into EGIS

TC Smart Maps:

1. Not all GIS applications can consume KML file directly due to its unique data structures such as networklinks, folders, models etc.

2. Please contact Lawrence Chong, Digital Services Directorate for TC Smart Maps KML dataset and format translation.

3. TC Smart Maps KML link: \tc.gc.ca\tcgis\GISData\Google Mashup\Aerodrome\NavAid\NavAid.kmz

Customization:

• Schema transformation: As required

• Denormalization: Not required

• Value coding: Not required

• Attribute renaming: As required to improve readability

• Attribute removal: It is highly recommended as some fields are unnecessary, this will also reduce file size and improve performance

• Geoenrichment: Feature symbolization is recommended to improve visualization.

-Symbolize airport by Category

• Format translation: As needed

• Language translation: French version not available

• Update frequency: As identified