Transport Canada, 5 nautical miles, and Google Earth

Posted by George Kelly on March 18, 2015 at 1:25pm

I'm finding this app useful. Others (in Canada) might as well (apologies if it's already been posted):

http://www.metzgerwillard.us/rings/rings.html

It's a KMZ file for Google Earth. After a bit of familiarization, it makes it quick and easy to place circles or discs of any desired radius around towns, airports, etc. You can adjust the colours and opacity of the discs.

Relevant because of the all-important 5 nautical mile/ 9 km threshold recently imposed by Transport Canada for triggering an SFOC requirement.

3691189480?profile=original 

Two caveats based on use so far:

1) Following the procedure given for saving a session doesn't work well for me. If you have trouble saving, move all your rings at the end of your session completely out of the Range Rings folder in My Places and into a dedicated folder, then Save My Places.

2) Centering a 5 nm ring inside a bigger city like Toronto obviously isn't going to be useful. Estimate the radius of the city and add it to radius of the ring. 

Good luck.

George Kelly

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Replies

  • Rob_Lefebvre March 18, 2015 at 1:44pm

    Is the intent of this for checking radius to airports, or radius to "built up areas".  If you're checking for built up areas, you can get a head start by just blanking off everything within 200 miles of the southern border.

    • George Kelly > Rob_Lefebvre March 18, 2015 at 3:44pm

      I hear you, Rob.

      But for some people and applications (mine, for example), it's proving useful (even within 200 miles of the border).

      One example might be SFOC-exempt small spaces where development work could be done prior to pursuing SFOCs.

      And of course, lots of opportunities north of 200 miles (for me, anyway).

      But, certainly, a 5 mile radius circle looks scarily big.

      George

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