Not existing heliports in X-Plane's default apt.dat?

Question

Hi,

 

I just checked some (ICAO code starts with "K") heliports listed in the file

Resources/default scenery/default apt dat/apt.dat

Many of them can not be found in the database of the Aeronautical Information Services - National Flight Data Center (NFDC):

https://nfdc.faa.gov/nfdcApps/services/airportLookup/airportDisplay.jsp?airportId=KCSY
https://nfdc.faa.gov/nfdcApps/services/airportLookup/airportDisplay.jsp?airportId=KFYT
https://nfdc.faa.gov/nfdcApps/services/airportLookup/airportDisplay.jsp?airportId=KJDY
https://nfdc.faa.gov/nfdcApps/services/airportLookup/airportDisplay.jsp?airportId=KLSD
https://nfdc.faa.gov/nfdcApps/services/airportLookup/airportDisplay.jsp?airportId=KNBU
https://nfdc.faa.gov/nfdcApps/services/airportLookup/airportDisplay.jsp?airportId=KNMK
https://nfdc.faa.gov/nfdcApps/services/airportLookup/airportDisplay.jsp?airportId=KNOP
https://nfdc.faa.gov/nfdcApps/services/airportLookup/airportDisplay.jsp?airportId=KY01
https://nfdc.faa.gov/nfdcApps/services/airportLookup/airportDisplay.jsp?airportId=KY36
https://nfdc.faa.gov/nfdcApps/services/airportLookup/airportDisplay.jsp?airportId=KY48
https://nfdc.faa.gov/nfdcApps/services/airportLookup/airportDisplay.jsp?airportId=KY81​

Other heliports are available:

https://nfdc.faa.gov/nfdcApps/services/airportLookup/airportDisplay.jsp?airportId=KBOF
https://nfdc.faa.gov/nfdcApps/services/airportLookup/airportDisplay.jsp?airportId=KEOD
https://nfdc.faa.gov/nfdcApps/services/airportLookup/airportDisplay.jsp?airportId=KFEW
https://nfdc.faa.gov/nfdcApps/services/airportLookup/airportDisplay.jsp?airportId=KFHK
https://nfdc.faa.gov/nfdcApps/services/airportLookup/airportDisplay.jsp?airportId=KHEY
https://nfdc.faa.gov/nfdcApps/services/airportLookup/airportDisplay.jsp?airportId=KHGT
https://nfdc.faa.gov/nfdcApps/services/airportLookup/airportDisplay.jsp?airportId=KJMC
https://nfdc.faa.gov/nfdcApps/services/airportLookup/airportDisplay.jsp?airportId=KJPN
https://nfdc.faa.gov/nfdcApps/services/airportLookup/airportDisplay.jsp?airportId=KJRA
https://nfdc.faa.gov/nfdcApps/services/airportLookup/airportDisplay.jsp?airportId=KJRB
https://nfdc.faa.gov/nfdcApps/services/airportLookup/airportDisplay.jsp?airportId=KJSD
https://nfdc.faa.gov/nfdcApps/services/airportLookup/airportDisplay.jsp?airportId=KLOR
https://nfdc.faa.gov/nfdcApps/services/airportLookup/airportDisplay.jsp?airportId=KNBV
https://nfdc.faa.gov/nfdcApps/services/airportLookup/airportDisplay.jsp?airportId=KNCL
https://nfdc.faa.gov/nfdcApps/services/airportLookup/airportDisplay.jsp?airportId=KNCY
https://nfdc.faa.gov/nfdcApps/services/airportLookup/airportDisplay.jsp?airportId=KSXS

Does anyone know why one can not find these heliports? Are they still valid?

 

Cheers,

joomie

Answer 1

If an airport/heliport does not have a real world ICAO, we use a fake one instead. In the past, X-Plane was limited to 4 characters, so there wasn't necessarily a way to tell if it was fake based on the code. Moving forward, as new codes are requested through the Gateway, we're starting them with X if they are fictitious so they're obvious.

Comments

Good to know.

I read a bit on Wikipedia and it says:

ZZZZ is a special code which is used when no ICAO code exists for the airport and is normally used in flight plans.

This is probably not possible for X-Plane since I can imagine that the software code needs unique ICAO codes?

I currently develop a new tool named XAssistant which (beside other functions) represents all airports, seaplanes and heliports the user has installed in GoogleEarth. 

Due to performance the around 40,000 entries have to be grouped in some way and I decided to group them according the defintion (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Civil_Aviation_Organization_airport_code#Prefixes) by the first letter of the ICAO code which looks like that

 

The problem is, that a fake code like CA14 makes San Francisco appearing in Canada...

 

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Would using the fields in the WED and apt.dat metadata help? The metadata includes local aviation codes, country, etc. Here's some information about how meta data was added in WED 1.5. See the section Part 2: Airport Identification Meta-Data.

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Many thanks, I had a quick look on that. Looks promising!

I hope and will check if it makes it possible to identify (for each airport/ seaplane/ heliport) if it has a fictive identifier in lines with row codes 1, 16, or 17 or not.

An installation of Prefab airports results in having around 40,000 airports/ seaplanes and heliports installed.

I gonna check all codes of them (also against the data available on https://skyvector.com/airports) and will report my result these days.

 

Cheers,

joomie