Please, oh my how many times do I have to say this… Use the SEARCH feature. (You might not have been aware of this but you do now.) Your question has already been answered many times. So, please search for your questions. It saves us time, you time, and FA forum doesn’t become a clutter posting place. Thank you
I’m not trying to be hard on you even though I might be. No hard feelings. But people sometimes (usually most the time) just don’t get this.
dand, you’ve come to the greastest flight tracking place! (except the FAA.)
What he is implying is that this is brought up at least once every few days, and people can’t spend the time explaining it every time it is brought up.
I got it from Atlas Aviation. I understand that you guys are skeptical about numbers in a ICAO code. I am too. Go Atlas Aviation (google it to get the link. For some reason it won’t let me give you a clickable.), then to Flight Planing, then Calculators, then to Time and Distance. Punch in KF17 for the ICAO code. That’s where I got it. I think its wierd to see numbers in an ICAO code. See this thread.
My conclusion is that airports like F17/N14 etc. have no official ICAO code but that some web sites (like Atlas Aviation) throw in a ‘K’ prefix for convenience. FlightAware does that for some airports, too, but not for all airports.
That makes a lot more sense to me. The convenience thing sounds right. I’m really surprised Altas would do something like that! Wouldn’t they know that ICAO code for F17 is n/a?
Sure Atlas would know that the ICAO code for F17 is n/a. However, site users probably don’t and “n/a” generates complaints to their webmaster. I called the automated ‘K’ prefix addition “convenience”. Atlas would probably call it “customer service”. You really can’t second guess them on issues like this.
I am also an AOPA member… I know there are lots of airports with numbers in their FAA identifiers. We’re talking about ICAO codes here. (I assume you’re talking about FAA identifiers though.)
Picking one at random: KU78
Punching it into the web pulls up the airport, the FAA ID is U78.
Punching it into the NOAA Aviation Digital Data Service (requires a 4 digit ICAO code) works also. Funny, I also thought that when an airport got an AWOS or ASOS that they went to all letters.
We are apparently having some difficulty distinguishing between the convenient use of the ‘K’ prefix on very many web sites and the official use of the ‘K’ prefix as defined by ICAO.
Try this quote on the matter:
If the airport also has an ICAO code, then the ICAO code can usually be created by prefixing the FAA code with a “K” (in the contiguous states) but in such cases the FAA code must consist of three letters (such as GTU, Georgetown, Texas) - no numeric characters are allowed in ICAO codes. [my emphasis] x-plane.org/home/robinp/FileDef.htm
NO NO NO NO NO NO! Any airport ident beginning with K and with numbers in it is an FAA ident. All ICAO airport codes are 4 letters long. Letters, not numbers.