Windosocks locations

WorldHub Discussions
1

Hello everyone!

Maybe it’s a dumb question, but I’d like to know, how do you know the proper locations of windsocks in airports? I can’t see them on Google maps (But I know it’s there) I can’t see it in charts (mb looking the wrong one)
Thanks in advance and sorry if my question is too dumb :sweat_smile:

2

Not at all a dumb question!

Two ways:

  1. Find current charts. Look up the country plus the word “AIP” in your favorite search engine (e.g. “Australia AIP”) and you will probably find the portal where you can find the official charts for an airport. (The US is always an exception to everything…use this URL for charts: https://www.faa.gov/airports/runway_safety/diagrams/ and this URL for information about airports: https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/flight_info/aeronav/digital_products/dafd/search/.) If those don’t work, type in the name of the airport plus “aerodrome chart” in your image search and you may find something. Note that usually, only larger airports get charts.

Note that even current charts are not always accurate. They should be, but they aren’t. So, the next thing I do is:

  1. Scour the Internet for videos and and photo references. For large airports, passengers love to film their takeoffs and landings, and if you’re lucky, there are a handful of users who love to film everything from pushback to takeoff or landing to the gate. I use those videos to verify proper taxiway signs. For smaller airports, pilots love to film themselves flying into and out of various airports. From there, you can often see windsocks in them, and if charts exist, I will verify them against the charts. (Note that when looking up video references, I usually filter by the past year first and get all the videos I can find, and only then remove the filter and look at previous years’ content.)

    Only after I have done both of those things will I then go into Bing Maps and Google Maps and try to find it based on knowledge gained from the charts and the videos. Then, you can find telltale signs like shadows:

    Windsock

    I then grab the coordinates and paste those into the windsock’s coordinates in the sim.

This is my methodology. Other people may have other ways of doing things, of course.

3 Likes
3

Thank you!
That’s great advices IMO.
I’ve set Solution mark, but I forgot that prevents others to comment, so I unchecked it. If no one will give any other answers I’ll set it back :sweat_smile: :slightly_smiling_face:

1 Like