Re: Database

["Edward A. Falk" <falk efalk org>]

On 2005.06.17 01:53, Stephen Birch wrote:
> Edward A. Falk(falk efalk org)@2005-06-17 08:01:
> > Hi; standard procedure is to purchase the CDs from the FAA for
> > $35.
> 
> How strange ... the FAA has heard of the internet, you would have
> thought they would just put it online if they are truly putting the
> information into the public domain.

Yeah, tell me about it.  You used to be able to get authorization
to download the data from their web site, but now it's CD-only.



> > There's a web site, http://aviationtoolbox.org/raw_data/FAA/ATA-100/,
> > that zips the CDs and puts them on-line as a public service, and
> > that's where I got the raw FAA database.
> 
> Nice person!  If that failed I wouldnt mind buying the CDs as they are
> published.

Yep.  Actually, I figured the latest database could be stored (compressed)
on sourceforge.  I don't know how they'd feel about the amount of disk
space involved (16M every 56 days).


> If you publish using an open source license (GPL, BSD etc) I'll be
> happy to include them with the debian package.  I may be able to helpl
> clean them up as well.  Are they in C?

Yes.


> 
> I could rewrite in python so they are easier to maintain as the FAA
> changes the format.

The http://aviationtoolbox.org site actually has some python tools
for parsing the data, but I haven't spent the time to figure them
out.  Ultimately, what we'd want to do is actually parse the
description files to get the format for the data files.  I think the
aviationtoolbox.org tools do that.



In the meantime, I'll spend a little time looking at avdbtools myself
and seeing what, if any work, will be required to make them work with the
current formats.

	-ed