OpenStreetMap
Hi! Thanks for your recent fixes!
I have a question to you as a pilot: I touched up many airports in OSM, and I was always wondering: how do real pilots use OSM if at all, what is helpful to pilots and people working airports, are there certain details that should not be posted due to security considerations, any details that are available on commercial maps that are just confusing when they present in osm?..
Would you be willing to write about this, maybe in an OSM diary entry?
Thanks!
When considering airports, you must put into account security awareness. All mappers should make sure when mapping an airport to not change any fencing prior to your edits unless it is because of new satellite imagery. Also, DO NOT publish info about codes or key locations. This can cause serious problems. Pilots do not use OSM because of the lack of measurements as pilots need them.
Discussion
Comment from Dzertanoj on 21 September 2020 at 02:55
First of all, let me point at this OSM Wiki page: https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Aviation It contains some brief but valuable information. “Real pilots”, whoever it may be, according to FAA (and other aviation authorities), must only use charts and navigation data published by authorized parties (see https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/flight_info/aeronav/digital_products/aero_guide/ and further links). Therefore, they might be using OSM only when they, for example, drive to the airport by car. Otherwise, they’d be committing a violation. Sure, they might also be checking OSM-based maps to figure out some ground features related to the flight plan, but not for the actual navigation.
I’m not sure what “codes” and “key locations” mean, but most of the navigational information is practically public, so it makes no sense to create any secrecy around it. The actual secret information is secret, so it is practically impossible that it will show up in OSM.
Comment from highflyer74 on 21 September 2020 at 06:45
I would like to confirm what @Dzertanoj pointed out. Security related infos are not mapped and “real” pilots use the officially certified sources for navigation. Have a good one!
Comment from dbqeditor on 21 September 2020 at 14:39
No when I’m talking about gate codes such as accessing aircraft or buildings.
Comment from highflyer74 on 22 September 2020 at 07:36
Well, the information you are talking about is confidential and not meant to be accessable to the public. I do not understand your motivation for this blog post to be honest. If you find such information in OSM as someone added it somewhere it has to be removed by the DWG (revert is not sufficient) and the mapper has to be informed accordingly. Should you know of any such occurence, just let me know and I will address it.
Comment from Dzertanoj on 22 September 2020 at 17:47
This reference to “gate codes” seems like a suggested solution for a non-existent problem. Because if someone wants to make confidential information public, there are millions of ways to do it and OSM is probably one of the last ones.