Turnpoint lists have become a necessity.

This past year when crossing several state borders (or at least planning to do so), I culled various turnpoints from the See You GPS Program files.  They were helpful, and I couldn't have flown with the degree of safety I had, without those lists.

I have made revision "umpteen eleven" times to the William's database.  In past years I have conferred with several/ many, many others trying my best to get everyone to agree on at least the same lat/long for various points, and to try to get some agreement on standardization of the name of each turnpoint.

Jim Darke has invested lots of time on graphics relating to the Truckee database, and it took lots of revisions to decide on the points to include in that set of turnpoints.

Bob Seamans has used various points in his "Standardized Courses", and I have reviewed most of those points.

I created a data base for use at Truckee, Minden, and Air Sailing with the help of many others when GPS was first getting started, and I did lots of revisions to those sets.

Carl Herold and many others have spent an incredible amount of time and energy attempting to survey suitable points, especially those to use as emergency landing points.

Ramy Y. along with others was working up a set for Hollister and Avenal.

Jim Conger is now embarked on a revision of points to use at Crazy Creek.

Chad Moore has also embarked on a mission - that of establishing a set of turnpoints for Air Sailing.

What needs to be done is that there should be a definitive set of points near each gliderport, that have been deemed accurate by the local pilots.  These points should include points that would be used for starting points for record flying, and IF necessary, additional points for the center of start cylinders.  In any case, local pilots need to make public, the accepted names for the local points (preferable names that come from the navigation charts), and the accurate lat long in degrees and minutes, using two decimal places. ( e.g. 39:25.760  -- we never need that third digit- thus a zero is used to satisy the place requirements in some programs).  The local pilots should also agree on the altitude of each point - and it should agree with the sectional chart if the point has a spot elevation.

As for turnpoints that are to be used more than 25 miles from any given gliderport, those names and coordinates should be the same in adjacent gliderport's databases.

For example, if Air Sailing is creating a database, which contains points that pass north and south of Truckee, then the Air Sailing data base should simply use the points that have been proven to be accurate, and are that are already known to a large segment of the glider pilot population.  The last thing we need are turnpoints from various databases that are just a little bit apart.  I didn't fly at Truckee as much as many others, but for some reason the local pilots never had the White House on the top of the hill NW of Stampeded Reservoir as a tirnpoint.  I put it in there, and now everyone uses it - just like they did before, but now it is in the data base.  And now, there is some discussion about needing a turnpoint in that area for races from Air Sailing.  What's the question?  There are only two points in that area that have already been established - the White House and Verdi Peak.  Just pick one - don't make up a new point.

Another example, is a William's data base that is using points that are located near Crazy Creek, but are different than points used by the Crazy Creek local pilots.

Same is true for pilots from Minden or Truckee who are traveling near Air Sailing. They should be using points in their respective data bases that are known to, and that have been proven to be accurate, by the local pilots at Air Sailing.

As for turnpoints that are well removed from the vicinity of gliderports, we just need to coordinate with each other, and continually revise those points that have proven to be most accurate and most useful.

It would be nice if we had a single spreadsheet with all of the points listed.  I have been trying to promulgate such a list for years , but to no avail.

John Leibacher has published various lists on the SSA web site, but there is no one taking responsibility for each site- certainy not with any sense of standardazation.  And we do need the standardization!  Many ego maniac pilots refuse to accept the fact that others from outside their little circle just don't know the historical significance of some obscure name or location, AND, those local pilots refuse to be helpful to others by identifying useful and accurate points.

We need to agree that, "cutesy" names, or places that are historiaclly significant only to to poor pilot who crash landed there, or places named after infamous jeks or saints  just are not suitable for a data base.

The point should be useful as an emergency landing site, or as a place where you often will find lift, or a place that is easily identified on the aviation chart, or a place that is easily identified visually.  Optimumly, the turnpoint location will satisfy several of these criteria if it is to be listed at all .

The following was the original info on this page, before I entered the above current events of this subject matter.

After you've flown several times from a gliderport, you learn and aquire common reference points which you and other pilots refer to inflight, both for local flying and long distance cross country flights. When you visit a new flying location, wouldn't it be helpful if you had at least an approximate list of reference points for the that new site as well? The purpose of this web page is to help you create your list of such reference points for gliderports in Northern California and Nevada.

There are multiple challenges in creating a list of reference points.  Depending on the GPS navigation system you are using you will be physically constrained by several factors, and you are also constrained because too many points in one list becomes unmanageable in the cockpit.  Here are some concerns:

• How many data points can your equipment handle at one time?
• How many characters can be used to describe or identify the name of each point?
• Do you wish to differentiate between runway types (hard surface, sod, dirt, control towers)?
• How do you wish to describe emergency landing sites that are private property?
• Do you wish to include landmarks along common flight routes?
• Do you wish to identify known thermal spots as turnpoints?
• Do you wish to identify low points (passes) for use when crossing over mountains?
  
• How far apart must you have the sites?
• How far from the home field should you range when including the points?

**++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
**          Control Points for William's, California 
**      This file is in the Cambridge.dat file format
**             Contributed by Peter Kelly           
** -- TP's are located w/n the following extemes    
**                     42 deg north Lat.            
**         122 deg west Long.          121 deg west Long.
**                     38 deg north Lat.                
**                                              
** -- * at beginning of the TP name keeps       
**      that name at the top of the list        
** -- All other TP's are alphabetical           
** -- The Name of Each TP is somewhat constant  
** -- The number associated with each               
**         TP varies with each revision of this file
** -- Most altitudes are rounded to nearest ten feet
** -- Elevations are rounded                        
** -- Last 3 characters of each TP is classification
**        -R = Runway on sectional                 
**        -E = Emergency Landing area              
**        -U = Unlandable area                     
** --- After the letter is a qualification number  
**         1, 2, or 3 is good                      
**         7, 8, or 9 is bad                       
** -- Comments at end of line may include:         
**        - Runway direction e.g. 14/32, N/S, 16/34
**        - Length in hundreds e.g. 25=2500 ft, 30=3000 ft
**        - Type of runway surface e.g.                  
**                H=Hard (concrete, asphalt),            
**                S=Soft or other (sod, dirt, gravel)    
**        - Radio frequency                              
**        - UNICOM e.g. 22.9=122.9 at private fields     
**                     22.7=122.7 UNICOM, etc            
**        - ATIS OR AWOS weather e.g. WX24.5=124.5      
**        - Control Tower Freq e.g. CT18.7=118.7        
**  --  There are Three Sections in this file           
**        -  Section 1 = Primary Turnpoints             
**        -  Section 2 = TP's OUT OF THE AREA           
**        -  Section 3 = LANDING AREAS THAT ARE NOT TP's
**                                                      
**  <<>> UNOFFICIAL, USE AT YOUR OWN RISK <<>>
**                                                     
**           Always consult the relevant publications  
**           for current and correct information. This 
**           service is provided free of charge with   
**           no warrantees, expressed or implied.      
**               User assumes all risk of use.         
**                                                     

Applicable to all points on all lists. Accuracy of info is unverified. Do Not Use these points for Navigation. Do Not use for Landings. Assume that every point listed is full of hazards and is unlandable. Do not fly out of gliding range of a useable airport unless you are competent at flying cross-country, and all it entails.