RunwayFinder.com is a flight planning resource for U.S. pilots, showing current weather conditions for airports in an area at a glance displayed on seamless sectional and terminal charts. In addition, routes, range circles, and temporary flight restrictions (TFRs) can be plotted.
There are two versions of this site. www.RunwayFinder.com is the current stable version of the web site. beta.RunwayFinder.com is a preview of new features being added to the site. If you see any problems with the preview/beta site, please send me an email outlining the problem, and then use the stable site.
The satellite view allows a pilot to see the layout of the runways, taxiways, and buildings (depending on the quality of the satellite images) before arriving at the airport. The age of the satellite images varies quite a bit, but they seem to be at least a few years old. Don't be surprised if some things have changed. A chart data view has been added to Google Map's default views to show aeronautical chart information such as obstructions and special use airspace.
Donations are accepted via PayPal. Funds will be used to further develop the site.
Please contact me if you find any problems or have suggestions for new features.
Dave Parsons ()
This site is for information purposes only. Official FAA-sanctioned sources
should be consulted prior to flight.
The chart data has been transformed from its original
projection to closely match
the Mercator projection that Google Maps uses. In particular distances and great circle
paths are not preserved. The charts should not be used for navigation.
For those interested in the technical nitty-gritty, this site uses the Google Map API. The user interface is supplied with the help of the Javascript library ExtJS. Feel free to look at the non-minified Javascript. Airport, runway, TFR, and other information is stored in a MySQL database that is processed via PHP scripts. Plotting of markers on the map is accomplished via AJAX communications in the JSON format with the PHP scripts. We use custom-developed C++ programs to transform the chart data to the correct projection and tiling to match Google Maps.