SnF VFR Arrival in Google Maps/Earth

Scott Will · #1 04-14-2007, 05:19 PM

Good news for me. Looks like I'll get to come down to SnF on Saturday! Can't wait to fly to my first major event and can't wait to meet the other RVers from around the country.

Anyway, was playing around with the new "my maps" feature on maps.google.com and decided to try and plot the VFR arrival into SnF. Have a look and see what you think. Tried to interpret the notam ... you guys that have been there/done that, see if it looks OK and if I need to change anything. Here's the link:

2007 SnF VFR arrival

disclaimer: read the NOTAM for yourself! not responsible for navigational errors... this is just me trying to interpret the NOTAM

Thought of putting the turn waypoint coordinates into the GPS just for fun. I help design RNAV arrivals/departures at work - why not try it for my own plane!

Also put the kml file on the server to play around in Google Earth.

Hope to see you next weekend!

mannanj · #2 04-14-2007, 06:42 PM

Scott:

Looks like the Notam to me. The Notam had pretty good pics of the route. Another person (preferably a pilot) with you to watch for traffic will be extremly helpful. I personally consider another pair of eyes an almost mandatory requirement for flying into SnF or Airventure!

Met you at Habersham County Airport when you were flying off your phase one hours. Come on over for another visit. I'm ususlly at the "port" most every day in the afternoons

MSFT-1 · #3 04-15-2007, 07:36 AM

It is a pretty easy arrival because the landmarks they call out in the NOTAM are super easy to pick out on the ground.

One thing to be careful of is the sea plane traffic which will be just off the nose to the left when you are flying past the powerplant in a westerly direction. You will hear lots of comments from the controller about different planes and it is easy to get that traffic mixed up with other traffic he is calling out.

Another thing to be aware of is that in past years they have used a parallel taxiway as a runway. Sounds worse than it is since the taxiway is pretty wide.

They will expect you to land on the big colored dots (you won't know which one until they call it on final). Just be ready on the throttle to motor down the runway fairly slow and low if they give you the last dot.

The need for the big sign is overblown. You will be taxiing a long way and mostly they will be directing you to follow the guy in front of you. My sign blew out in the wind when I opened the canopy last year right after landing. Never was an issue.

I recommend you buy fuel somewhere else. The fuel trucks are usually pretty slow.

When you depart, make sure you do your run up before you get in the taxi line. There is no place to check mags etc. and they will keep the line moving. Before you know it you will be lined up and they will expect you to immediately accelerate.

This year a friend of mine and I are going to fly into Zephyr Hills and then rent a car to go to SnF. No particular reason other than my friend doesn't want to sleep on the ground and hotels are much cheaper a few miles away from Lakeland.

It would be nice to have a VAF meet and greet. I would like to put some faces to the names on this list.

Bruce
N297NW
RV-8 (427 Hrs)