Introduction

If such a diversion becomes necessary, the first port of call in most modern airliners would be blue circles on the HSI moving map display with ICAO 4 letter codes. On types such as the 757 these merely indicate the presence of a runway in excess of 1500m. No other information is given. Also, the coverage is probably less than 70% of what is really down there. Items we would like to know about would include the length, number and bearing strength of runways. Also what type of instrument approach is available. Is the airport open? Does it have fuel and/or customs? Other factors which are more operator specific, but no less important, would include availability of airfield charts and airfield performance data on board. To this it would also be advantageous if one's own airline, or alliance member (eg oneworld) was a regular visitor.

To answer all these questions could involve reaching for a multitude of manuals at a time of probable high workload. Hence these maps. All these questions are answered by referring to this one document. These maps cover the entire globe, and are grouped into areas, namely Europe, Americas, Asia, Australia/Pacific and Africa. Each map is paired with a table which gives secondary data.

The author, Neil Scarrow has been a Pilot with a major European airline for 17 years. Captain for 9 years.

Currently the presentation of the maps and tables are tailored towards the author's current airline. This tailoring is reflected by the coloured boxes on the maps, and part of the contents of the tables. This is, perhaps, a little distracting to pilots of other companies. It is, however, possible to have the maps altered to reflect differing requirements. All the coloured boxes on the charts exist as an overlay and can easily be removed or substituted. For the author's airline, the boxes indicate the presence of specific airport approach charts on the aircraft. This implies a preference towards these airports as alternates from the airline management.

The tables can contain any of the data within the airport database. Information not currently displayed, but available include the following:

1) Max operating weight for any aircraft type - derived from PCN/ACN etc

2) IATA Code

3) Airport Location as Lat Long

4) Airport Elevation

It is possible to add other operator criteria to the database - some of the check boxes currently shown are specific to the author's airline.

The cost of map tailoring depends upon the amount of work required - please email for a quotation.

Major amendments, typically taking place twice a year will increment the issue number. Minor amendments will add a suffix to the issue, ie 5 becomes 5A, 5B etc.

January 2012 Issues - Summary of changes

This is a major revision, which includes six new maps, and a renumbering of the maps pages from 15 onwards. The new maps are as follows:

1. The Gulf. The Middle East map was becoming increasingly cluttered around the Gulf Area, due to new airports and expansion of existing ones.

2. Morocco and Algeria (North). The North Africa Map was becoming increasingly cluttered due to the large number of suitable airports in Morocco reflecting is status as popular tourist destination.

3. China Central, China South East and Burma China South. The proliferation of new airports in China required the breaking up of the main China map into three parts.

4. Canada North. This map replaces Canada North East. It was felt that the present Canada North East map was not particularly useful, and that there was also a gap in the regular routings for Europe to Western Canada.

The following airports have been added: OMAD, FNCT, FNXA, ZLZY, WADL, VYKU, ZBES, ZBNY, ZBCF, ZBSN, ZBUL, ZGCJ, ZGFS, ZGMX, ZGWZ, ZGZH, ZLJC, ZLGY, ZLHZ, ZLQY, ZLWW, ZPLC, ZPWS, ZSJU, ZSSH, ZULB, ZULP, ZUNP, ZUYI, ZWCM, ZWKC, ZWNL, ZWTP, ZYJX, ZYMH, ZLTS, ZGBS.

There has been work undertaken on the African maps to verify runway width. The border between Sudan (North) and South Sudan has been added.

The IPAD version of these maps which comprises a single PDF with linked pages. Due to an ongoing issue with the IPAD regarding the rendering of complex PDFs, these maps are of lower resolution and are not suitable for printing. For printed versions of the maps, use the original files available from this site. To access the IPad version, please send an email.