The Airport/Facility Directory (abbreviated A/FD), now identified as Chart Supplement in the U.S., is a pilot's manual that provides comprehensive information on airports, large and small, and other aviation facilities and procedures.
The directory is published in seven volumes that cover the continental United States, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Each volume is updated every 56 days by the United States Department of Transportation (DOT) with information from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the National Aviation Charting Office (NACO). Information is provided on public-use and joint-use airports, heliports, and seaplane bases. The directory includes data that cannot be readily depicted in graphic form, including airport hours. In addition, each A/FD contains information such as parachute jumping areas and facility telephone numbers.
The Airport/Facility Directory also provides a means for the FAA to communicate, in text form, updates to visual navigation charts between their revision dates — VFR Sectional and Terminal Area Charts are generally revised every six months.
Volumes are side-bound at 5+3⁄8 by 8+1⁄4 inches (140 mm × 210 mm), and colored a distinctive green.
As technology has improved, several vendors have started to offer some or all of the information from these guides in electronic form (see links below).
The seven volumes the A/FD is published in are:
The facility descriptions in each book are ordered by state, and then by city within the state. Separate A/FDs are contained in the Alaska Supplement and the Pacific Chart Supplement.
This sample page shows the entry for a small airport, Forrest City Municipal, in Arkansas (click on the image for a clearer view).
The airport's FAA location identifier is FCY. It is 4 nautical miles (7.4 km) south of the city, its time zone is UTC-6 (UTC−5 in summer), and the geographical coordinates of its Airport Reference Point (ARP) are 34°56.52′N90°46.50′W / 34.94200°N 90.77500°W . It can be found on the Memphis VFR Sectional chart, and the low-level en route chart 14F. It has at least one Instrument Approach Procedure, which is described elsewhere.
The airport's elevation (at the ARP) is 249 feet (76 m), it has a rotating beacon at night ("B"), and both 100-octane avgas ("100LL") and jet fuel are available although there is no mechanical servicing facility. There is one runway, 18–36 (that is, approximately magnetic north–south); it is hard-surfaced using asphalt, 3,014 feet (919 m) long and 50 feet (15 m) wide, and can bear aircraft with single-wheel landing gear up to 20,000 pounds. There is medium intensity runway lighting. Runway 36 (oriented north) has trees obstructing its approach. Free-text remarks follow.
There is no control tower; the common communications frequency is 122.8 MHz. The associated Flight Service Station is Jonesboro, with the telephone number and "Notices to Airmen" file code noted. Radar-assisted approach and departure control are provided by Memphis Center on 135.3 MHz.
Associated navigational installations are the Gilmore low-altitude VOR on 113.0 MHz (channel 77 for military operations), with an identifier of GQE, at the location indicated, and a non-directional beacon on 332 kHz, identified by FCY, on the airfield. This beacon is not monitored by the FAA for continuous operation during the hours shown.
Finally a sketch map provides a visual orientation of the airport's layout and nearby obstructions, primarily trees.
This article contains text taken from public-domain from the National Aeronautical Charting Office and FAA-H-8083-25, the Pilot’s Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge.
In aviation, the instrument landing system (ILS) is a precision radio navigation system that provides short-range guidance to aircraft to allow them to approach a runway at night or in bad weather. In its original form, it allows an aircraft to approach until it is 200 feet (61 m) over the ground, within a 1⁄2 mile (800 m) of the runway. At that point the runway should be visible to the pilot; if it is not, they perform a missed approach. Bringing the aircraft this close to the runway dramatically increases the range of weather conditions in which a safe landing can be made. Other versions of the system, or "categories", have further reduced the minimum altitudes, runway visual ranges (RVRs), and transmitter and monitoring configurations designed depending on the normal expected weather patterns and airport safety requirements.
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A flight service station (FSS) is an air traffic facility that provides information and services to aircraft pilots before, during, and after flights, but unlike air traffic control (ATC), is not responsible for giving instructions or clearances or providing separation. They do, however, relay clearances from ATC for departure or approaches. The people who communicate with pilots from an FSS are referred to as flight service specialists.
The Canada Flight Supplement (CFS) is a joint civil/military publication and is a supplement of the Aeronautical Information Publication. It is the nation's official airport directory. It contains information on all registered Canadian and certain Atlantic aerodromes and certified airports.
A UNICOM station is an air-ground communication facility operated by a non-air traffic control private agency to provide advisory service at uncontrolled aerodromes and airports and to provide various non-flight services, such as requesting a taxi, even at towered airports. It is also known as an aeronautical advisory station, with these terms being used mostly in the Americas. The equivalent European/ICAO service is known as (aerodrome) flight information service, abbreviated as AFIS or FIS. From an ICAO perspective, UNICOM, historically most commonly provided by flight service stations, is an implementation of FIS.
West Bend Municipal Airport is a city-owned public-use airport located three nautical miles (6 km) east of the central business district of West Bend, a city in Washington County, Wisconsin, United States. It is included in the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2023–2027, in which it is categorized as a regional reliever airport facility.
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Stevens Field is a public-use, general aviation airport located three miles northwest of the central business district of Pagosa Springs in Archuleta County, Colorado, United States. It is publicly owned by Archuleta County. It has no air traffic control tower or commercial passenger services, but it does have a fixed base operator (FBO), and it is popular among light sport and general aviation aircraft doing cross country flights, where the airport serves as an GA-friendly waypoint, refueling stop, and pilot rest/sleep opportunity. Its address is 61 Aviation Ct, Pagosa Springs, CO.
Griffing Sandusky Airport was a public airport in Erie County, Ohio, next to Sandusky Bay three miles southeast of Sandusky. The airport permanently closed on December 31, 2013 and the FAA A/FD and VFR sectional charts no longer show the airport as open or operational. Instrument approach procedures are no longer available from the FAA's website. All hangars and the entrance were demolished in April, 2016. The Sandusky Register confirmed that the city announced that a sports park will replace the airport and now has opened in spring 2017 called the Cedar Point Sports Center.
Bentonville Municipal Airport is a city-owned, public-use airport located two nautical miles (3.7 km) south of the central business district of Bentonville, a city in Benton County, Arkansas, United States. It is also known as Louise M. Thaden Field or Louise Thaden Field, a name it was given in 1951 to honor Louise McPhetridge Thaden (1905–1979), an aviation pioneer from Bentonville.
Hamilton Municipal Airport, opened in 1963, is a village-owned, public-use airport located one nautical mile (1.85 km) northeast of the central business district of Hamilton, a village in the Town of Hamilton, Madison County, New York, United States.
Forrest City Municipal Airport is a city-owned public-use airport located four nautical miles south of the central business district of Forrest City, in St. Francis County, Arkansas, United States. This airport is included in the FAA's National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2011–2015, which categorized it as a general aviation facility.
Westport Airport is a privately owned, public use airport located three nautical miles (6 km) southwest of the central business district of Wichita, a city in Sedgwick County, Kansas, United States. It is in the Class C airspace of neighboring Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport.
James Tucker Airport is a county-owned, public-use airport located three nautical miles (6 km) southwest of the central business district of Linden, a town in Perry County, Tennessee, United States. The airport is located on the Atlanta and Memphis sectional charts. Opened in October, 1962, the airport was originally known as Perry County Airport prior to being renamed in honor of a local citizen in 2016. Efforts to bring an airport to Perry County date back to 1946. A group of students from a local high school petitioned the county to construct a public airport after having been introduced to aviation through the donation of a Link Trainer to the school.
Aztec Municipal Airport is a public-use airport located two nautical miles northwest of the central business district of Aztec, in San Juan County, New Mexico, United States. It is a general aviation airport with no tower, fixed base operator (FBO), or commercial services, but which is popular among smaller light sport and general aviation aircraft doing cross country flights, where the airport serves as a GA-friendly waypoint, refueling stop, and overnight layover stop.