BILL’S AERONAUTICAL PAGES AND LINKS

 

This is a temporary jump-off page leading to my aero pages and links.   Many of my individual pages do require updating and consolidation.  In the meantime I present them as is.    My rebuilding process is ongoing but hopefully will be done from February to May of 2016.

 

Back to Main opening page:  www.marscan.com

 

A particular welcome is extended to the members of the Halifax Airport Watch group, who are aircraft enthusiasts joined together in an HIAA-sanctioned security-assistance organization.

 

My aeronautical interest is centered on communications and ATC, i.e. listening to aircraft on the radio and understanding where they are being sent, but also to actually see them and identify them flying overhead, low or high, and to watch them land and takeoff at the airport.   I also from time to time keep track of things via the on-line position reporting websites.   While I am not particularly a photographer myself I am very much a follower of the professional quality aero photographers of our region whose work is linked here.

 

I have been interested in aircraft and flying since the 50’s!   I can well remember seeing Expeditors, Neptunes, CF-100’s, Dakotas and Lancasters flying around my childhood home on Vancouver Island, and I have flown on such aircraft as the Viscount, Super Constellation and DC-7C!   I would have liked to be a pilot or air traffic controller and still feel that way!  My aircraft interest is mainly aligned towards airliners and cargo aircraft, unlike many who think fighter planes are where it’s at!

 

As a side note I am also interested in a rudimentary way in flight simulation, and am in the middle of a trip around North America in a Cessna 172.   I started in Inuvik, NWT and have covered Alaska (with a side trip to Siberia) and all of the western part of the USA and Canada, and am now entering the east.  My interest is in “seeing” the land and following radio beacons and VOR’s, and using ILS systems.  Complicated piloting is not my thing, hence I am not flying a 737 or a fighter jet, and besides I am visiting many small airports along the way, as I am trying to take in every airport in Canada and the USA that has tower or is or was a military field during or since World War II.

 

AERONAUTICAL PAGES

 

My high level map and notes for Moncton Centre and surrounding area.

My low level map and brief notes for Moncton Centre and surrounding area.

 

General outline of the Aero Scene in the Halifax area and the Maritimes.

Aero Radio  
   
Aero Radio Bands and An Aero Frequency List for the Maritimes. Notes revised August 2015.

Controlled Airspace and Sectors.  This page briefly outlines tower control zones and terminal control areas but mostly focuses on the area control centre sectors and frequencies in this region. This is where you can see which centre frequencies are used where in our region.   You need to get a handle on this if you want to listen effectively, or want to watch on the computer.  But you may want to read about aero radio first.  Revised August 2015

Listening to and Observing High-Flying Aircraft Passing over Nova Scotia. This is where you go if you want to know about the multitude of aircraft flying over our area on their way to and from Europe.   REQUIRES RE-WRITING.

Stanfield International: Listening and Watching   Essentially this is your guide to low-level flights and how they work, but centers on theHalifax Airport. This gives the lowdown on what is there, where to go, what the frequencies are, and the whole cycle of aircraft movements beginning with pushback at the terminal, to the time the aircraft goes out of range of your scanner several hundred miles away, and again as aircraft arrive, make their approach, and eventually taxi to the gate.  A comprehensive guide.  REQUIRES RE-WRITING.

   Identifying Places
Codes and Abbreviations for Airports, Radio Aids and Reporting Points.
Revised August 21, 2015

Identifying Aircraft
Guide to Aircraft Registration Marks, Call Signs and Airline Codes

Observing on Your Computer
 
(with FlightAware, planefinder, etc.)    REQUIRES RE-WRITING

U.S. Military Aerial Refueling over Nova Scotia 

Runway designations.   What does “Runway 35” really mean?   And why did the designations at Halifax change a while back? 


 

AERO EXTERNAL PAGES

 

www.planefinder.net  www.flightradar24  www.flightaware.com (see aircraft positions local or worldwide, use in conjunction with radio monitoring.  Each has its own strong points and additional features.  Flightaware is in my opinion the best for listing what is going on at specific airports.  I like the other two for depictions of what is going on in the air.)

Airnav.com  Get info on airports, navaids, reporting points, etc.

Airportnavfinder  is where I go to get info on airports and relationship to navaids and adjacent airports.  I use this in my Flight Simulation grand tour of North America.

VFRMAP - Digital Aeronautical Charts

SkyVector: Flight Planning / Aeronautical Charts

        www. aviation.ca

Canadian Airport Weather Cameras   

Nav Canada's Notices to Airmen (NOTAMS)

Transport Canada's North Atlantic Operating Regulations

Rockwell Collins (AIRINC) page

GlobalAir.com an eclectic aero website including aircraft sales and a listing of airspace fixes in the USA 

VATCAN Moncton This is one of many sites from around the world established for the benefit of serious flight simulation enthusiasts.  This site provides airport maps, along with diagrams of standard approaches and departures at the major airports in the Maritimes, all of which originate in Nav Canada publications and reproduced superbly at the simulator site

Official airport sites: Charlottetown Airport     Moncton Airport   
 
Fredericton Airport     Yarmouth airport         Sydney airport    Saint John airport  Bangor International Airport

 

 

Halifax Stanfield International Airport (CYHZ) official website

Flightaware’s page on Activity at Hfx Stanfield A/P

CYHZ A/P cam: view from the terminal towards Jct Runways 05 and 14 

 Professional quality
photos of aircraft at CYHZ  (on the airliners.net website)

Canairradio   -- for info on Canadian aero frequencies

Nav Canada's Airport Diagram Site
This page will also link to Nav Canada’s chart sales if you want the real thing, 

FAA Site for USA Airport Diagrams and Terminal Procedures (Arrivals and Departures) Search by State

Milcom Monitoring Blogspot 

www.planespotters.net (Lists of current and historic aircraft types, deliveries, etc)

NTSB (United States National Transportation Safety Board) reports on incidents.  This has reports on all aviation incidents that the NTSB has been involved in since 1962.  This includes some incidents outside the USA in which for some reason the NTSB played an official role. Very interesting as it gives more details on accidents and incidents than you would find in the press.

Aviation Safety Network (descriptions & photos of air crashes and incidents)

See current location of Lifeflight air ambulance