By Kevin Psutka
Through the lobbying efforts of COPA to help prevent runway incursions, we are pleased to announce that Canadian airport diagrams (referred to as the Canada Airport Manoeuvring Surfaces (CAMS) by NAV CANADA) are now available on the web for free.
Where to find them: http://www.navcanada.ca/NavCanada.asp?Language=en&Content=ContentDefinitionFiles\Publications\AeronauticalInfoProducts\default.xml or click on the “Airport Diagrams” button in either the “Flying in Canada” or “COPA Links” section of our web site. You will be linked to the NAV CANADA publications page where the diagrams can be viewed and downloaded as needed. Click on the CAMS link near the bottom of the page.
What are they:
The diagrams are detailed airport runway, taxi and ramp layouts that were, until now, only available by purchasing the Canada Air Pilot (CAP) IFR publications for instrument approaches.
They are far more detailed, including taxiway designations, than the diagrams that are contained in the Canada Flight Supplement. Diagrams are available only for those airports that have instrument approaches.
Where to find U.S. airport diagrams: http://www.naco.faa.gov/ap_diagrams.asp
Why they are available online: These diagrams previously were only available through the purchase of the CAPs. The closest alternative is the small diagrams in the Canada Flight Supplement which provides insufficient detail.
Since most VFR pilots have no need for approach plates, it was necessary to find another way to get this information out. In order to keep costs down, it was decided not to publish the diagrams in hard copy. This is also what was decided in the U.S., where online availability has been proven to be effective by the statistics since its introduction.
Where they came from: As with many issues, this is a good news, bad news story. COPA is actively participating in efforts to reduce runway incursions, including helping to develop and disseminate a series of runway incursion posters that we are pleased to see posted across the country.
These posters remind pilots to be very careful around any entrance to a runway, including making sure that they have clearance to cross or enter.
But what about the confusion that can occur at unfamiliar airports regarding where you are on the airport and in particular, relative to the runways?
Signage is nice, but it can be very confusing at times. As soon as airport diagrams became available in the U.S., COPA began pushing for the release of airport diagrams here.
The delay in bringing free airport diagrams to Canada was and is our government’s user-pay, cost recovery effort, which puts everything for sale. In the U.S., this sort of information is considered public data.
Although the provision of aeronautical information is NAVCAN's responsibility, it is provided to them under contract by NRCAN, a government agency who collects the aeronautical data and produces various publications under contract to NAV CANADA. COPA emphasized to the government that the only way to make a significant dent (pardon the pun) in the number of incursions would be to make the diagrams available for free, so they should provide the diagrams free of charge to NAV CANADA. The government did not agree.
Providing the airport diagrams to NAV CANADA is a no-cost item for NRCAN and the taxpayer because they are already in digitized format at NRCAN for the production of the CAPs.
But the government insists (user-pay, cost recovery) that NAVCAN has to pay for everything it receives from NRCAN. So, although there is virtually no work involved, except for electronically bundling the diagrams, NAV CANADA has to pay tens of thousands of dollars per year to get these diagrams.
And since NAVCAN has to recover all of its costs from its users, you can be assured that it will show up in a future fee increase. Plain and simple, it is a rip-off.
Where to from here: The immediate priority is to get the word out that the diagrams are available. Tell your pilot friends and consider making it part of your pre-flight planning to download diagrams for any unfamiliar airport.
COPA has made several suggestions to NAV CANADA for improving the format of the product, including dealing with the size of the file for downloading, and using a more user-friendly look-up method such as is used by the FAA. If you have suggestions for improvement, please send them to service@navcanada.ca.
If you have comments to make about the sale of public safety data, we encourage you to contact your Member of Parliament, and explain how this is not in the best interest of safety. You can find how to contact your MP by clicking on “Feedback to Feds” on our web site.