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Eurocontrol downgrades EAD Basic

When you go to the EAD (European AIS Database) Basic login page, you’re now greeted with this message:

EAD Basic is an advertisement tool showing the capabilities and functionalities of the EAD operational system (EAD Pro).
This tool is not connected to the EAD operational database and does not display the latest available information for a specific service.
Consequently, the information displayed shall not be used for operational purposes.
EAD users that wish to use EAD for operational purposes are invited to contact EUROCONTROL at ead.service [at] eurocontrol.int.

I assume Eurocontrol charges for the use of EAD Pro. Is this a move to earn more money or to avoid having to properly support EAD Basic?

ESKC (Uppsala/Sundbro), Sweden

I’ve been always going to https://www.ead.eurocontrol.int/cms-eadbasic/opencms/en/login/ead-basic/ and after login it redirects to https://www.ead.eurocontrol.int/fwf-eadbasic/public/cms/cmscontent.faces?configKey=default.home.page with following message (always the same):

“EAD Basic is EAD’s free Public Access Service application for the general public. The solution allows you to browse the European AIS Database (EAD) for a limited set of aeronautical information via the World Wide Web.”

I don’t know which link did you use…

LDZA LDVA, Croatia

The same page as you. Now there is the text I quoted which has not been there before.

ESKC (Uppsala/Sundbro), Sweden

Is it serving old AIP data? That would be an “interesting approach”, and really stupid since so many pilots have been getting AIP data from EAD.

The EuroGA airport database is still working and that gets the AD AIPs from EAD Basic.

Subscription products get Eurocontrol data via a non-free B2B API.

Years ago, Eurocontrol did release a PC executable which did airspace mapping (called something like Skyview) and that deliberately used a database which was not updated (maybe annually). They dropped that product not long ago. No idea what it was supposed to do.

There is much evidence that for many years Eurocontrol supported the Jeppesen (and others e.g. Universal, back then) monopoly for flight services, by not releasing autorouting facilities, so it would not surprise me if this is more of the same. But I still find it hard to believe. Maybe there are parts of EAD Basic which will be dropped, but not the aerodrome AIPs.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

When I go there and login, I see this

which is what I would expect. This is largely the AIP database which is around 30GB (many years ago I did a project which downloaded the whole lot, with a script, but it was abandoned for various reasons). I don’t see any statement that the data that is being provided will be somehow out of date, accidentally or intentionally.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Peter wrote:

When I go there and login, I see this

Before you login, you will see this:

ESKC (Uppsala/Sundbro), Sweden

Hmmm, yes. I have no idea what that means. It could be a disclaimer or it could be real.

From the IT system management POV it makes little sense to run a second database which is deliberately run to be partly obsolete. Especially as it looks current, so EAD would have to be clever about which bits they make go out of date.

AIP charts are AIRAC cycle based and you can check that

although I don’t know how one can check the cycle of issue. The URL is the usual EAD URL which gives no clue

And where are pilots supposed to brief from?? Presumably not by buying a £/€100/year satnav app which downloads the “real” AIP via the B2B connection! It would be ridiculous to have safety critical data having to be paid for. Hmmm, wait, ok, Germany does exactly that for its VFR charts

I went to the Contact Us link and while, predictably, there is no way I can see to contact them there there is another version of this disclaimer there

which “even less states” that the data will be deliberately or accidentally out of date.

So it could be just a “certification issue” which enables them to charge for the B2B service; a bit like the EGNOS “safety of life” certification which is 100% pure bollocks (the US GPS system doesn’t have it).

My money is on this being a disclaimer. But obviously there are people who are reading this discussion and, while not participating here, can find out more And maybe in a year’s time somebody will post it.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Update here.

Notams are being corrupted or somehow filtered to be virtually useless.

AIPs still seem to work.

Where is a private pilot supposed to get notams and AIPs (apart from a satnav app which pays money to Eurocontrol)?

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Peter wrote:

Where is a private pilot supposed to get notams and AIPs (apart from a satnav app which pays money to Eurocontrol)?

Their ARO. (I know that the UK doesn’t have one, but that’s the exception.)

ESKC (Uppsala/Sundbro), Sweden

We did the “what exactly is an ARO” debate a few times. Even ATCOs can’t agree on that.

The vast majority of airports in Europe (except Sweden ) has no briefing facilities for GA pilots.

Perhaps you mean their national ATC site, like the UK NATS one. That’s always been there in some form but few people use it, and it is practically useless on a phone (like most websites actually). A few countries do have such a website.

In practice most people sidestep this issue with a satnav app, but they all cost money. And they are not without issues. It’s just a pity that one cannot fly a plane without shoving money in every direction all the time.

I find this Eurocontrol behaviour completely bizzare because it must have been done intentionally. Somebody ordered a perfectly working (if clumsy, but carrying the best data for Europe in one place) website to be crippled, in a way which is actually dangerous, because the standard legal pilot briefing is AIP+NOTAM, and here the NOTAM has been stripped.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom
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