Today, people are not as familiar with paper maps due to the advent of GPS and smartphones. Specifically, I have noticed that people struggle with orienting themselves on paper maps or with respect to various landmarks when in unfamiliar places and navigating without GPS. This becomes an acute problem in the air, when pilots are trying to fly visually (i.e. not in instrument conditions or when their GPS is not functioning properly). Knowing your position is critical when near controlled airspace, such as the Class B airspace, and in high air traffic density locations, such as in Boston or New York.
Worcester has an airport that is in Class D airspace, meaning that to enter, you simply need to establish two-way radio communication with the control tower. However, at night, when the tower is closed, the airspace becomes Class E, meaning that there are no specific requirements to enter, as long as you remain in visual conditions and are able to “see and avoid” other aircraft, although it is highly encouraged that you still use effective radio communication and remain extremely vigilant. Aviation maps serve to augment the visual understanding of the environment with respect to terrain, visual landmarks such as roads, rivers, and lakes, and of course help visualize the abstract airspace classifications.
As a side note, I think that it is always a good thing to be able to navigate without modern tools as a skill. This is known as “pilotage,” and was crucial before the use of GPS, radio beacons (VOR), and other modern navigation aids, to better understand how to effectively use those tools. I liken it to how it is much better to learn math first without a calculator to fully understand the conceptual aspects. This ends up making the use of a calculator more effective and allows better application of concepts, especially important in today’s world where new innovation comes primarily from the intersection of diverse disciplines and pre-existing methodologies have been exhausted, requiring a unique perspective.
But I digress. As much as I enjoy discussing philosophy, let’s go back to the maps project brainstorming. Our project is to develop a map of Worcester that presents valuable information in a unique way. After class, I spent quite some time poring over aviation maps of Worcester and as such being familiar with them and being especially interested in drones, I wanted to base something on that idea, possibly related to where drones can be flown based on terrain data. I imagined a map that showed where it would be legal to fly a drone and where it may not be, augmented with the terrain data of where it is safe to fly a drone and where it might not be.
This idea definitely needs to be refined, and may be even outside of the scope of the projected timeframe. I think it is feasible though if I use ESRI ArcGIS, something we learned about in Business Communication, taught by Professor Faber. Regardless, I will be working again with Ryan LaPointe, so we may be able to come up with a better idea. We decided to brainstorm various topics overnight independently and discuss our ideas with each other the next day. Hopefully we will have an interesting project that can be relatively simple for the limited timeframe.