For the past two-and-a-half-months, I have been adding or updating all but the largest of the public and registered private airports in Ohio. (Being both my home state and the home of flight, I felt it only appropriate that it have good representation on OSM. Furthermore, as a result of former Governor Jim Rhode’s efforts, Ohio has at least one public use airport in almost every county – offering a representative sample of airports.) As part of the process, I began noticing places where types of features or tags could be improved (or were simply nonexistent) and started compiling a list of these deficiencies. They are as follows:
Additions
- Add
aeroway=tetrahedronandaeroway=wind_teefor wind tetrahedron and wind tees (illustration)- Could be considered types of
aeroway=windsock
- Could be considered types of
- Add
aeroway=segmented_circlefor segmented circles (illustration)- Often feature a windsock at the center, so could be considered a subtype as well.
- Note that these include pattern indicating arrows.
- Add
type=AWOSand/ortype=ASOStoman_made=monitoring_stationfor automated weather observing system/automated surface observing system- I’m not sure how to handle this one as the documentation for
man_made=monitoring_stationdoesn’t have a tag for purpose and seems to focus on the type of phenomena. The suggestion here was inspired byaeroway=navigationaid.
- I’m not sure how to handle this one as the documentation for
- Add
beacon:airportandbeacon:airwaytonavigationaid=beaconto distinguish between airport beacons and airway beacons- This may be a moot distinction as, although a few still remain, almost all airway beacons have been removed.
- Add
type=aerialtoemergency=ambulance_stationfor air medical services- This would be useful for sorting out aerial ambulances from the ground-based type.
- Add
surface=emastoaeroway=stopwayfor engineered materials arrestor system - Add
type=t-hangartobuilding=hangarfor t-hangars - Add
building=hangar_homefor hangar homes- Based on the specific building tags in the documentation for
building=house
- Based on the specific building tags in the documentation for
- Add
office=fixed-base_operatorfor fixed-base operators- Note that
office=airlineandoffice=transportalready exist. However, the former is not useful for maintenance, sales or airport services (e.g. fuel) and the latter is used for shipping companies.
- Note that
- Add
model_aerodrome:control_lineandmodel_aerodrome:radio_controltosport=model_aerodromefor control line and radio control models- The layout of the facility is difference between the types, with the former being circular (picture) and the latter being traditional runways.
- Add
brand=Civil Air Patrolandbrand=Experimental Aircraft Associationfor CAP Squadrons and EAA Chapters- As inspired by
brand=Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United Statesandbrand=Fraternal Order of Eagles - For use with
amenity=social_centreorclub(I am unclear as to the difference between the two.) - If these organizations are included as part of the building that they occupy, should said building list their parent organizations or the airport as the operator?
- As inspired by
- Add a mention of
key:fuel:*to the documentation ofcontent=fuel- There is currently no way to go from
building=storage_tankorman_made=storage_tankusing only links, leading to people not realizing thatkey:fuel:*exists.
- There is currently no way to go from
- Add a mention of
leisure=slipwayto the documentation on the Aeroways page to represent a seaplane ramp- Also add mention of seaplane ramps to the documentation of
leisure=slipway.
- Also add mention of seaplane ramps to the documentation of
Questions
- Should closed runways and taxiways be identified with
ref=X?- I’ve encountered this on a number of occasions, but don’t see any mention of it in the documentation for
aeroway=runwayoraeroway=taxiway. It is my understanding is that lifecycle prefixes should be used instead. - This is based on the way out of service runways/taxiways are physically marked in real life.
- I’ve encountered this on a number of occasions, but don’t see any mention of it in the documentation for
- Should lines for taxiways follow the painted centerlines exactly, or abstractly represent them?
- For example, many taxiway intersections form a concave circular diamond (illustration). Should the lines follow the gentle curving painted centerlines or meet at 90 degree angles?
- Note that the former would create more lines than the former.
- Should there be a standard for leading zeroes in airport runway numbers?
- e.g. “9/27” or “09/27”
- The documentation for
aeroway=runwayonly notes that there exists a different between the United States (does not use leading zero) and remainder of the world (uses leading zero) and does not prescribe a standard on OSM.
- How should runway turnarounds and run-up areas be mapped?
- It seems to be unclear what the official name for these areas is. I have encountered “turnarounds”, “turnouts” and “turn pads”.
- I’ve encountered a few cases of them being mapped as
aeroway=apron, but I’m not sure this is appropriate.
- Should airport owners be included under
operatorfor the feature?- Many smaller airports, while technically owned by a local municipality, leave the actual day to day operation of the facility up to a fixe-base operator. (e.g. The Clermont County Airport is owned by the Clermont County Commissioners, but run by Eastern Cincinnati Aviation.)
- How should the paths that lead from a runway or taxiway to a beacon or navigation aid on airport grounds be tagged?
- Using
highway=serviceis not ideal, as it leads to a “disconnected from other roads and paths” warning.
- Using
- How should the electrical/service cabinets adjacent to beacons or navigation aids on airport grounds be tagged?
- These are the structures often painted with a red and white checkerboard pattern.
Advisories
- Hangars are somewhat infrequently mapped with their open hangar doors as part of the roof, creating an incorrect footprint. A note in the documentation for
aeroway=hangarsimilar to the suggestion to remember to square the feature may be helpful in preventing this. - Active hangars are often incorrectly tagged only as
building=hangarwithout alsoaeroway=hangar.- It seems that users may not realize that the latter is necessary for hangars currently used to store airplanes.
- Runways are periodically incorrectly tagged with their numbers in the name, rather than the ref field.
- This mistake not specifically mentioned in the documentation for
aeroway=runway, but it does include an explanation of each field that notes the numbers go in the ref field.
- This mistake not specifically mentioned in the documentation for
- Similar to the mention of squaring hangars above, it might be useful to add an advisory to the documentation for
aeroway=runwayto straighten the feature. - The explanation of whether to use
man_made:beacon,airmark_beaconoraeroway=navigationaidis confusing. So much so, that even though I know the difference between them, I temporarily find myself forgetting which one is which.- Unfortunately, this seems in part to be the result of the use of the term “beacon” to refer to both visual and radio frequency navigation devices in aviation generally.
- The documentation for
aerodrome:typementions its use is not well defined. The National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems offers one framework (illustration).- It is of course only verbatim useful for the United States, but could inform further discussions.
Visualization
- Multiple features do not appear on the Transport Map when they likely should.
- e.g. windsocks, beacons, navigation aids
- Lines tagged aeroway=taxilane do not appear on the Standard layer. This is particularly egregious, as converting a taxiway to a taxilane leaves large blank areas and therefore promotes tagging for the renderer.
- Multiple features would benefit from custom icons
- e.g.
sport=parachutingwith a parachute icon,navigationaid=beaconwith a lighthouse light icon
- e.g.
As a final note, please excuse me if this is the wrong place for this discussion. I wasn’t sure whether this should be posted on the OSM Wiki or here. (In any event, I didn’t feel like creating an account on the former for such a limited purpose.) I also checked if there was a more appropriate subforum, but didn’t find one. I figured someone more experienced might able to shepherd them through whatever approval process there is. Also, some of these aren’t really proposals as much as seeking clarification of existing policies. Furthermore, others I’m not really sure what the best approach is to handle the idea and am looking for suggestions.