about airplane maps.

The good news is yes, there is such a map.  My recollection is that it is
basically a series of three fairly-large (not real convenient to open in a
crowded airplane) conventional road maps that cover the USA and have the jet
airways superimposed.  These airways have numbers and a pilot may give you
the numbers he or she intends to follow during the flight (a pilot friend
tells me he talks to the pilots as he boards and often gets tours of the
cockpit but he may fly first class...).  In some cases it shouldn't be too
hard to figure which ones are being used as they tend to take the shortest
route.

At one time I bought two sets of these maps (intending to give one set to a
friend who was taking a crosscountry trip) and haven't flown commercial
since!  They were available from Sporty's Pilot Shop
(http://www.sportys-catalogs.com/pilot/pilot.html) and I can check my
catalog at home to see if they still offer them (I checked their web site
but it seems to assume you have a catalog).  Cost is about $8 as I recall.

The airways are defined by radio navigation beacons known generically as
VOR's (these can often be seen at the airports or on hilltops--they are
round, usually white, buildings maybe thirty feet in diameter and have an
upside down ice cream cone-like tower maybe twenty feet tall).  The airways
go between them in a sort of a spider web-like pattern.

The bad news is that with the introduction of GPS navigation planes are
tending to fly "direct" meaning they don't need to follow the airways which
can take them a little out of the way.

One thing you could do in lieu of the maps mentioned above is to take a
conventional atlas and using the pages up front that have the entire USA on
two pages draw a straight line between your departure and destination
cities.  Then once you get in the air you can use the individual state maps
to decide where you are (this would best be done if you have a fairly
continuous view of the ground).  The easiest landmarks to use are the
interstate highways and large rivers which are pretty easy to pick out on
atlases and from the air.

Pilots use two or three other sets of maps.  One is for VFR (visual flight
rules) flight and shows a lot of ground detail so they would be the most
useful.  These are published every six months so there are a lot of used
ones lying around (if you're like me and don't throw things out) or going
into the trash.  The bad news here is that is takes seven or eight maps to
fly from coast to coast, more if the flight is NE to SW or NW to SE (37 to
cover the entire USA) and they cost about $7.50 each.  They are also
available from Sporty's--the local ones are usually available at the
"general aviation" "fixed base operator" (FBO--the place where the small
planes hang out and fuel up) of the airport.

Happy flying and may you always get a window seat...

-----Original Message-----
From: Met History [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Thursday, September 30, 1999 8:45 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Seen in and around Portland, Oregon

<snip>

8.  Air views were terrific, but road atlases are poor for such uses - is
there an "aerial atlas" of the US specifically for air passengers?

Sign me,  Lewis N. Clark