Change Pages

["THOMAS A. JOHNSON" <am312 -at- TRAVERSE -dot- LIB -dot- MI -dot- US>]

Regarding Bill's remarks about never using change pages, anyone who flies
on commercial aircraft should know that pilots routinely rely on change
pages.  That's right. Most pilots use approach plates for their landing
approach.  Approach plates contain all the information a pilot needs to
know about radio frequencies, navigation aids, glide paths, minimum
descent altitudes and other stuff.  Any time a radio frequency is changed,
a television tower is built, or anything else changes that could affect an
airplane landing at a nearby airport, a new approach plate must be issued.
(Sorry about the passive voice.) Somebody has to take the old pages out of
the binder and put the new pages in.  I can't remember is the changes come
monthly or every two weeks. Sometimes the packet of changes will include
dozens of change pages.  If I remember correctly, an obstacle within a
certain distance of the airport, if above a certain height, will affect
every approach plate for the airport. The medium-sized airport near me has
more than a dozen different instrument approaches.

To make this relevant to the list, somebody has to track all of those
changes and come up with a very good distribution system, revision history
and instructions for replacing pages. It can be and is done, millions of
people rely on it every day. Think about it the next time you see
another one of those cellular telephone towers going up near an airport.

Tom Johnson

am312 -at- traverse -dot- lib -dot- mi -dot- us

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