RunwayFinder 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 widely and changes periodically. 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.
Please contact me if you find any problems or have suggestions for new features: Dave Parsons (dave@runwayfinder.com)
See our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy for other important information about this site.
For those interested in the technical details, this site uses the Google Map API. The entire site runs on the Django framework, coded in Python. The user interface is supplied with the help of the Javascript library ExtJS. Airport, runway, TFR, and other information is gathered from the FAA and stored in a PostgreSQL/PostGIS database. Plotting of markers on the map is accomplished via AJAX communications in the JSON format with the Django framework. We use custom-developed C++ programs to transform the aeronautical charts to the correct projection and tiling to match Google Maps.
See our API page for more information about linking to this site and embedding chart images on your web site.
Thanks to Brenor Brophy for the TFR processing code, and Christopher Weiss for the magnetic variation calculation code.
Return to RunwayFinder start page.