Aviation Chart Server

A Python service for processing and serving FAA aviation charts as tile pyramids.

Objective

The Aviation Chart Server was originally created for displaying FAA aeronautical charts in the National General Aviation Flight Information Database (NGAFID) https://ngafid.org

Aviation applications require the ability to overlay aeronautical charts to visualize flight paths and airspace information. However, when charts are combined into a single raster covering the entire United States territory, they become extremely large files that are impractical to render in web browsers or mobile applications. The Aviation Chart Server solves this by implementing a tile pyramid system that breaks large charts into manageable, zoomable tiles for efficient web delivery.

The FAA publishes digital aeronautical charts on a regular schedule (every 28/56 days) at: https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/flight_info/aeronav/digital_products/vfr/

This server automates the update process to ensure charts are always current.

Chart Source and Processing

The Aviation Chart Server

1. Downloads individual chart files from FAA servers according to the published schedule
2. Combines multiple individual charts into unified chart layers
3. Processes the combined charts into optimized tile pyramids for web serving
4. Serves the processed tiles through standard web mapping APIs
5. Checks for Updates nightly and if an update is due, downloads new chart files from the FAA's website.

Consuming tiles:

To consume tiles,use the url with z x y arguments as below: E.g: http://localhost:8187/terminal-area/{z}/{x}/{-y}.png (host and port are configurable values, see below)

Chart Types Supported:

Sectional Charts

Terminal Area Charts (TAC)

IFR Enroute Charts(Low and High)

Helicopter Charts

Installation

Prerequisites: GDAL Installation

This package requires GDAL to be installed first. GDAL is a geospatial library used for processing aviation charts.

macOS

The easiest way to install gdal for mac is Homebrew

brew install gdal
pip install aviation-chart-server

Using Conda

Step 1: Install Miniconda Download and install Miniconda from: https://docs.conda.io/en/latest/miniconda.html

Step 2: Install GDAL and the package

# Create a new environment with GDAL
conda create -n aviation-charts -c conda-forge python gdal
conda activate aviation-charts

# Install the package
pip install aviation-chart-server

Alternative: If you already have conda

# Just install GDAL in your current environment
conda install -c conda-forge gdal
pip install aviation-chart-server

Ubuntu/Debian:

sudo apt-get install gdal-bin libgdal-dev python3-gdal
pip install aviation-chart-server

CentOS/RHEL:

sudo yum install gdal-devel python3-gdal
pip install aviation-chart-server

Windows: For Windows, we strongly recommend using conda as system GDAL installation is complex. If you must use system GDAL:

1. Download GDAL from: https://gdal.org/download.html#windows
2. Install OSGeo4W or use pre-compiled binaries
3. Add GDAL to your PATH
4. Run: pip install aviation-chart-server

Quick Start

Building the Package

Run the installation command from terminal:

pip install aviation-chart-server

After installing GDAL and the package, you can start the server:

# Start the server (default: localhost:8187)
aviation-chart-server

# Custom port and host
aviation-chart-server --port 3000 --host 0.0.0.0

# Test mode for a specific date
aviation-chart-server --test-date 12-26-2024

# Process with custom zoom level (default: 8)
aviation-chart-server --zoom 10

# Process specific chart types only
aviation-chart-server --chart-type sectional terminal-area

# Combined options
aviation-chart-server --port 3000 --zoom 12 --chart-type helicopter ifr-enroute-low

The server will start and be available at http://localhost:8187 (or your specified port).

Instalation guide for developers who want to build the package from source or contribute to the project.

Getting the Source Code

git clone https://github.com/eightspokes/chart_processor_package.git

Prerequisites

• Python 3.8 or higher
• build package: pip install build

Build Commands

# Clean previous builds
rm -rf dist/ aviation_chart_server.egg-info/ build/

# Build both wheel and source distributions
python -m build

# Install locally for development
pip install -e .

# Or install the built wheel
pip install dist/aviation_chart_server-1.0.0-py3-none-any.whl

Rebuilding After Changes

# Clean and rebuild
rm -rf dist/ aviation_chart_server.egg-info/ build/
python -m build

# Force reinstall the updated package
pip install --force-reinstall dist/aviation_chart_server-1.0.0-py3-none-any.whl

Publishing New Version to PyPI

1. Update Version Number

Edit the version in pyproject.toml:

[project]
name = "aviation-chart-server"
version = "1.0.5"  # Bump version here

2. Clean and Build

# Clean previous builds
rm -rf dist/ aviation_chart_server.egg-info/ build/

# Build the package
python -m build

3. Install Required Tools

# Install twine for uploading to PyPI
pip install twine

4. Upload to PyPI

# Test upload to TestPyPI first (optional but recommended)
twine upload --repository testpypi dist/*

# Upload to production PyPI
twine upload dist/*

5. Verify Installation

# Test the new version installs correctly
pip install --upgrade aviation-chart-server

Version Numbering Guide

• Patch version (1.0.4 → 1.0.5): Bug fixes, small improvements
• Minor version (1.0.5 → 1.1.0): New features, backward compatible
• Major version (1.1.0 → 2.0.0): Breaking changes