> You can check ourairports.com. It is a PD source that has been used for an > OSM import in the US: https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Import/Catalogue > search for airport. >
I spot checked several 'airports' on this list I am familiar with, and then stopped. Aside from the very major ones, there are serious inaccuracies. Some of this data is obviously scraped from other sources without verifying. Keep in mind that it's perfectly acceptable to set up a private > runway/airfield that isn't listed on any FAA or official source. The two > examples you give are pretty clearly airfields with runways (you can see > where the runway lights are, they have support buildings, and the first > link has a turnaround on the far end of the runway to let planes taxi back > to the hangar). > I grew up in Montana, and through high school flew as an observer on many search and rescue practice missions, some in this area. Even the presence of these features does not mean this is a viable aviation facility on an ongoing basis. Safe ingress and egress can change on a day by day, or even hour by hour basis, some places even require 'boots on the ground' to walk the field to ensure conditions, or have obstructions or wind conditions that require *very* local knowledge. There are many places that have airfield like characteristics that go back as far as the early biplane airmail routes, and the US Army also built quite a few emergency fields during WW II. Recently, because of major wild fire fighting activities, some of these have been very temporarily recommissioned, than abandoned. My recommendation is if you are going to label something as an sort of aviation facility, use the FAA data at http://www.faa.gov/airports/airport_safety/airportdata_5010/ . If it's associated with some facility like a ranch, you can add an amenity tag or some such, with an appropriate contact number. Otherwise, that 'airfield' is still just a 'field', and no different than the fact that just about any sizable lake is a seaplane runway. At the local fairgrounds, farm pastures are pressed into service during the fair as visitor parking, just because there are cars, pay booths, markers once a year doesn't make it a parking lot - it's just a field. Michael Patrick Data Ferret
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