Saturday 8 June 2013

iNavCalc now includes NAVCOM frequencies

I'm delighted to announce that iNavCalc now includes en route frequencies for airports and navaids. You don't need to do anything to enable this functionality. The FREQS will automatically appear in a PDF attachment (alongside the others) in your PLOG email generated via the iNavCalc mobile appemail app, or web app.

The frequencies included in the PDF report for your specified route are summarised as follows:
  • COM frequencies for all airfields along your route. Only airfields within 15nm of your desired (great circle) track are included, on the basis that these are close enough that you would likely enter their control zones (and therefore have to call them), or even if you remain outside their zone, you would likely make a traffic info call as you pass them on a typical VFR flight. The airfields are listed in the order in which you first encounter them.
  • NAV frequencies for all navaids along your route. Only navaids within 65nm of your desired (great circle) track are included on the basis that this is the approximate upper range of a VOR navaid you would use on typical  VFR flight at 3,000 ft. The navaids are listed in the order in which you first encounter them.


Acknowledgements

Let me take the opportunity to say a big "thank you" to the free internet resource ourairports.com from where I obtained the source database of airports and navaids.


Updates and Corrections

In order for this iNavCalc FREQS feature to be truly useful, it needs to be kept current. Since (at least as far as I can tell) there is no global, central database of official NAVCOM data available for free via the internet, and since iNavCalc is a free service (and therefore cannot incur the costs of licensing data from commercial sources), it relies on you (the users) to keep it fresh. This potential for staleness has been the reason why I've so far held-off from including the FREQS functionality. However, by popular demand, I've now relented, and put it in. I therefore encourage you to submit change-requests for any inaccuracies you discover (e.g., incorrect COM or NAV frequencies, missing airports or navaids, or airports or navaids which are now disused and should therefore be deleted from the database). I've created a web-form where you may submit your corrections. Here it is:   


I will undertake to verify and implement any amendments submitted via this form. For convenience, the corrections form URL is also included in the SYSTEM MESSAGES section of each PLOG email you receive from FlyLogical. 

[Note: although ourairports.com has a facility for users to provide corrections to airfield data, it does not (at the time of writing) have a similar facility for navaids. Therefore I've provided this single form for both.]


I hope you enjoy this new addition to the FREE iNavCalc toolkit.