Airport Planning Decision Engine
The authoritative planning layer between FAA standards and CAD production.
AvPlot is not a calculator. It is not a CAD tool. It converts FAA standards, airport data, aircraft characteristics, and your planning assumptions into defensible decisions, geometry, and deliverables — with the controlling citation attached to every value.
AvPlot accelerates expertise. It does not replace expertise.
01
What is AvPlot?
AvPlot is an Airport Planning Decision Engine — a web-based system built for senior airport planners and the engineering consulting firms that produce master plans, ALPs, and design reports under FAA AIP grants.
FAA standards are the source. CAD is the production layer. AvPlot is the decision engine that sits between them: it reads the governing standard, applies your design criteria, and returns the planning dimension, the geometry, and the reasoning — ready to drop into your deliverable. The planner remains the professional responsible for final judgment.
Where competitors produce a number, AvPlot produces a number and the trail that defends it.
02
The problem AvPlot solves
Answering a single design question — "what RSA do I need for an AAC-C runway with a ¾-mile approach?" — means running the same manual loop, on every project, for every dimension:
- 1Open the relevant FAA Advisory Circular — often 400+ pages.
- 2Search for the applicable table among dozens.
- 3Cross-reference the footnotes that modify it.
- 4Verify the controlling criteria for your design group and visibility tier.
- 5Apply elevation and other adjustments by hand.
- 6Build the spreadsheet calculation.
- 7Draft the geometry in CAD.
- 8Document every assumption manually — then defend all of it in FAA review.
A senior planner bills $150–250/hr and can spend 4–6 hours per task on standards research and drafting prep that AvPlot completes in minutes — and every manual transcription is an error that surfaces months later in review.
Then the cycle repeats — for RSA, ROFA, RPZ, Part 77 surfaces, declared distances, obstruction analysis, fillet design, forecasting, and every other dimension the project touches.
03
How AvPlot works
Enter your airport
Facility data — ARP, elevation, runway dimensions, declared distances — auto-populates from the FAA NASR subscription, refreshed on the 28-day data cycle. Every record carries its cycle date.
Select your design criteria
Choose the AAC, ADG/TDG, visibility minimums, and approach type. Dimensions are computed per AC 150/5300-13B — never hardcoded, never recalled from memory.
Read the full decision
Every output answers five questions: the result, the controlling standard, the assumptions applied, the logic that produced it, and the data vintage behind it. The reasoning path is always visible.
Export to your deliverable
DXF (AutoCAD-ready linework), KMZ (Google Earth), and XLSX (Excel data tables) — layered, convention-named, and carrying the citation trail that survives FAA review.
Every major output answers five questions — so you never have to independently verify how AvPlot reached an answer:
04
What planners use it for
Master plan updates
Design-standard determination, activity forecasting, and Exhibit A property inventory support across the full plan.
ALP production
Airport Layout Plan linework and ALP data tables per ARP SOP 2.00, with AUTO/MANUAL source stamps.
Runway & taxiway design
RSA, ROFA, RPZ, OFZ, separations, holding positions, and design-group geometry from the governing standard.
Obstruction evaluation
Part 77 imaginary surfaces, OCS, and AC 13B approach surfaces, with layered obstruction DXF output.
ATCT siting studies
Air Traffic Control Tower line-of-sight analysis per FAA Order 6480.4C — incidence, shadowing, minimum cab height.
Fillet & exit geometry
Taxiway fillet design and acute-angle high-speed exit geometry per AC 13B Appendix J.
Forecasting
Aviation activity forecasts per AC 150/5070-6B and the APP-400 memo, with TAF consistency checks.
Justification & BCA support
Defensible, citation-backed dimensions and analysis that hold up through FAA review and project justification.
05
Why consulting firms love it
Billable-hour efficiency
Hours of standards research collapse to minutes — the planner's time moves from lookup to judgment.
Margin improvement
Junior staff produce senior-quality work because the standards engine, not experience, supplies the dimensions.
Error reduction
No transposed table values, no missed footnotes, no stale elevation adjustment carried forward by hand.
Consistency
Every project across the firm runs on the same verified standards engine — not one analyst's spreadsheet from 2014.
Defensibility
The citation trail is built in, so the work product survives FAA review without a scramble to reconstruct sources.
Speed to proposal
Scope and price projects faster, and deliver faster — the standards work is no longer the bottleneck.
06
The AvPlot difference
Sourced, never recalled
Every regulatory value enters the system from a current FAA publication — never from memory or a generic AI guess.
Newest-guidance rule
When two cited FAA sources disagree, the most recent release governs — and the dated basis is stated in the citation.
Data freshness is defensibility
NASR cycle dates, TAF publication dates, and AC change numbers travel with the result, because freshness is part of the proof.
Built by planners, for planners
Terminology, workflows, and output conventions match how airport planning work is actually produced and reviewed.
07
What AvPlot does not do
Honesty about scope is part of being defensible. AvPlot is planning-production support — not a replacement for engineering. It does not:
- ×Replace professional planning and engineering judgment.
- ×Produce construction-ready or stamped engineering drawings.
- ×Generate NEPA or other environmental documents.
- ×Substitute for site-specific engineering and survey analysis.
- ×Make the final decision — the planner remains responsible for every value relied upon.
AvPlot is accurate enough for design reports, planning studies, and ALP narratives. Always verify against the current FAA publications before relying on any value — the citation trail exists to make that verification fast.
Made for the people who plan airports.
Precision, then defensibility, then clarity, then control. AvPlot is currently in invite-only beta.
AvPlot is an independent product and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by the Federal Aviation Administration. FAA publications are referenced only as the public standards the software consults.