Airfield Directory FAQ

General Questions

What is Airfield Directory?

Airfield Directory is a free, non-commercial and open database for Airfield Pilot Landing Reports (PIREPs), landing fees and fuel prices, powered by the general aviation community. Our goal is to provide free, community-driven aviation information to pilots worldwide. Think of it as Wikipedia for GA airfields.

Is Airfield Directory free to use?

Yes! Airfield Directory is completely free to use and will always be ad- and tracking-free. We believe aviation data should be accessible to everyone in the pilot community.

Features you might want to try

You can log in with Google or Amazon to create and/or like PIREPs.
Your PIREPs will be auto-translated to at least German and English. The original version will be kept.
You can set a language in your profile to see PIREPs in your preferred language.
You can set a Aerops-registered tailsign in your profile to see personalized landing fees.
You can even set custom arrival and departure dates for even more exact pricing information
Scroll through the Map on the Browse page to explore airfields. Try full screen mode on mobile.

Why do the markers on the map have different colors?

Green: Average rating 4-5 stars AND last PIREP < 12 months old
Yellow: Average rating >2 - <4 stars AND/OR last PIREP > 12 months old
Red: Average rating ≤ 2 stars
Blue: No PIREPs or only AI-generated summaries

Contributing

How can I contribute PIREPs?

Simply create an account via logging in with Google or Amazon and visit any airfield page to submit your pilot report. Your contributions help other pilots make informed decisions!

What happens to my contributions?

All PIREPs and comments you submit are:

Published publicly under CC BY-SA 4.0 license, meaning by posting, you grant everyone a permanent, worldwide license under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Available for others to use, share, and adapt with proper attribution and resharing under the same license.
This license is irrevocable – even if you later delete your PIREP, existing copies remain usable under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Can I delete or modify my PIREPs?

Yes, you can delete or change your PIREPs through the website interface anytime. However, please note that:

The CC BY-SA 4.0 license is irrevocable
Copies already made by others may persist
The license remains valid for any copies made before deletion

What about the "AI-generated, may contain errors" badge?

To have an initial set of PIREPs, we used AI to generate some starter reports. These are clearly marked with an "AI-generated, may contain errors" badge. We encourage the community to submit real PIREPs to replace or supplement these AI-generated ones. As soon as the first PIREP has been submitted, the AI-generated on will disappear.

Who is responsible for PIREPs and comments?

The respective author. You are legally responsible for the content you submit (e.g., PIREPs, comments). Please post only lawful, factual information and do not include personal data of third parties. We moderate after the fact and may remove content, but we do not conduct general pre-moderation.

How can I report problematic content?

Email info@airfield.directory with the link to the content, a brief explanation, and your contact details. We will review promptly (notice & takedown).

Technical Questions

Is there an API?

Yes! You can access airfield data in JSON format by adding .json to any airfield URL.

Example: https://airfield.directory/airfield/EDAZ.json ... Please notice the licensing terms in the JSON result.

If you need to bulk download, you will find full exports of all PIREPs as JSON in our S3 Bucket "airfield-directory-pirep-export":

aws s3api list-objects-v2 --bucket airfield-directory-pirep-export --no-sign-request
curl -LO "https://airfield-directory-pirep-export.s3.amazonaws.com/airfield-directory-pireps-export-latest.json.gz"

# And to filter out AI-generated PIREPs, you can use jq:
gunzip -c airfield-directory-pireps-export-latest.json.gz | jq '.pireps
  | with_entries(
      .value |= (
        to_entries
        | map(select(.value.ai_generated != true))
        | from_entries
      )
    )
  | with_entries(select(.value != {}))'

# Count total number of current pireps
gunzip -c airfield-directory-pireps-export-latest.json.gz | jq '
  .pireps
  | [ .[]
      | .[]
      | select(.ai_generated != true)
    ]
  | length'

What data is included in the JSON API?

Airfield information (from OpenAIP)
Aerops data (when available): Fuel prices, landing fees, parking fees
Community PIREPs
Proper license information for each data section

What data is included in the S3 Export?

Community PIREPs including license information

Is personal data exposed in the API?

No, we take privacy seriously:

Email addresses are never exposed
Only SHA256 hashes and display names are included
For Gravatar, also SHA256 hashes are used

Contact

How can I report issues or suggest features?

Please use our GitHub issue tracker to report issues or suggest new features. We welcome community feedback!

I found incorrect data. What should I do?

For airfield data errors: Report them to OpenAIP at https://www.openaip.net
For pricing errors: Contact the FBO directly (prices shown are cached and may be outdated).
For PIREP issues: Just submit a new PIREP with the correct information - we typically delete AI-autogenerated PIREPs as soon as a first community-driven PIREP is coming in.
For any other issues: Just send us an email.

Data Sources & Licensing

Where does the data come from?

Our data comes from three main sources:

Airfield data - From OpenAIP (licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0)
Pricing data - From Aerops (proprietary, not for redistribution)
PIREPs - From our community of pilots (licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0)

Can I use the data for my own projects?

The answer depends on which data you want to use:

OpenAIP Airfield Data (CC BY-NC 4.0)

✅ Free for non-commercial use
❌ Not for commercial use
Required attribution: "Data used comes from OpenAIP and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. Visit https://www.openaip.net and contribute to better aviation data, free for everyone to use and share.". Check their site before you reuse the data.

Aerops Pricing Data

❌ Not for redistribution (commercial or non-commercial)
Always contact the FBO directly for current pricing

Community PIREPs (CC BY-SA 4.0)

✅ Free for any use (including commercial)
✅ Can be modified and redistributed
Required attribution: "Community contributions from Airfield Directory (https://airfield.directory), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made."
Important: If you modify or build upon PIREPs, you must distribute your work under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 license

How should I attribute Airfield Directory data?

If you use data from our JSON API, S3 Bucket or website, please use this attribution:

Full attribution (recommended): "Data from Airfield Directory (https://airfield.directory) and community contributors. Includes: OpenAIP data (CC BY-NC 4.0, https://www.openaip.net), and community PIREPs (CC BY-SA 4.0)."

Short attribution (if space is limited): "Data: Airfield Directory, OpenAIP (CC BY-NC 4.0), Aerops, Community (CC BY-SA 4.0)"