Federal Aviation Administration database of Terrain and Obstacles (FAA Obstructions)

Modified on 2014/08/12 21:43 by Adam — Categorized as: Uncategorized

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) provides a database of Terrain and Obstacles that are possibly hazardous to safe flight navigation. This data is updated every day and released.

Go to http://tod.faa.gov/tod/public/index.html to find out more on the FAA Terrain and Obstacles Team.

We have implemented this data into the Surety mapping systems as a resource to our users to view and add known obstructions/hazards to.

View FAA Obstacles on the Map¶

After logging into Surety or Surety Pro zoom down to the area of interest then click on the layers button.

Now place a check mark next to the FAA Obstructions section.

A Disclaimer will appear. After reading the disclaimer, press the OK button.

You will now see a small disclaimer as well as blue points on the map indicating the obstructions.

Add an obstacle to the FAA Obstacle Layer¶

NOTE: Any point saved will only be available to your company and will not be added to the FAA database.

Locate the precise point where the unmarked obstacle exists and place an "X" on that location by using the select tool.

Now click on the FAA Obstacles button in the report/form list.

A small form will appear to allow the opportunity to fill necessary data on that obstruction then click Save.

A dot will be added to the map indicating the obstruction.

View Details, Modify, or Delete a Saved Obstruction¶

Hover over Tools and click on Manage all Forms

Narrow your list to just FAA Obstacles by selecting it from the form dropdown.

None of the current columns apply to what we have saved so click choose columns.

First remove the current columns by clicking on trash can icons (this will only remove these columns for when you select FAA Obstructions from the form dropdown)

Then add any applicable columns that you would like to sort with by selecting them one at a time from the selection list.

Once done click save.

Now with more information we can open the desired saved obstruction and by clicking on that row.

Once the form opens it can be modified and resaved or deleted from the database entirely.

Add a Label to the Obstacle¶

Add a label for an easy visual obstruction description.

Click Layers

Click FAA obstructions blue link

Click the labels tab

use the arrow to expand the dropdown beside Label

You can choose any of these characteristics to label by but perhaps the most descriptive one is "ObstacleType"

Label

Click save

Make sure that the layer is checked and you will see the labels appear on the map next to the obstruction.