Oh, man. AirCharts has sent me a renewal reminder. I ordered their VFR East book at the beginning of the cycle last year, and overall I guess I’m happy with it. Some of the pages are printed too dark—they need a better color management process. But overall, I’ve liked it. I didn’t get as much use of it as I expected since I flew less than I expected. It would have been cheaper for me to simply purchase sectionals whenever I needed them.
Except that I don’t always know when I’ll need them. On a Thursday night I’ll look at the weekend’s weather and ask Amy if she wants to go flying on Saturday. Except… it’s been a while since I last flew, so my sectionals are all out of date and it can be a crap shoot whether Midway Aviators (or even other area FBOs) will have non-Chicago sectionals when I show up to go flying. Sometimes I rent the plane before business hours in the morning—no chance of picking up any sectionals then. So AirChart provides me an easy way to stay current, legal, and never needing a sectional. And it lets me scan around all over the eastern U.S. for destinations and routes. Of course, Sky Vector and Runway Finder let me do the same thing, but there is something about the tactile sensation of paper…
Still, I’ve almost always purchased sectionals in addition to having the AirChart. Maybe it’s because I’m a new pilot and new to AirChart—I don’t trust AirChart completely somehow. What if I missed one of the changes when I went over the last update, or there is some other breakdown in the system? Better to have a current sectional on hand in case I need it.
And then there is my AeroPlanner subscription. I plan every trip on AeroPlanner and print PDF TripTicks that I bring along during the flight. (I have a color laser printer, so printing 60 page TripTicks is fast and cheap—it wouldn’t be a tolerable solution for InkJet owners.) The TripTick contains all the charts (TACs, Sectionals, WACs, and Low-Altitude IFR) with a nice overlay of the planned route on each. It also includes extensive airport information about all airports included in the flight plan and six alternates. Radar, METARS and TAFs for area airports along the route, NOTAMs along the route. Really, if the AeroPlanner printouts made me VFR legal (and, eventually, IFR legal), I’d be a happy camper and pass on NACO’s charts and AirChart.
All of this comes up because I’m contemplating my IFR charting solution. Jepp: expensive, a total pain to keep updated in paper form, but the best charts out there. Whether they are so much better than NACO charts to warrant the cost and headache is open to debate. Airchart is an interesting twist on the NACO charts for updates. Hmph. Why oh why doesn’t someone have a really good EFB yet? (And “good” strongly includes not being based on Windows Tablet Edition. Ew.)
Monday, January 22, 2007
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2 comments:
Sectionals are cheap. I'm not sure how many you are talking about, but I fly with three sectionals and three terminal areas (Los Angeles, SF, Las Vegas).
I'm fortunate, because there is a great pilot shop on the field and they are always stocked (and there are two other places to check on the field if they are out of one).
I am pretty sure there's a subscription service that will mail you the charts as they are updated.
When I was instrument training there were only two low altitude en route charts I needed. Now I fly with three (I added Vegas). I also bought the IFR Atlas from the same people you bought the VFR atlas from, but that's really for general planning, because I can't do all the updates they send weekly.
KLOT always has out of area charts. They have a huge display which has all of them. It's a pretty quick detour if you're flying and need a chart. :)
Personally, I like charts... real charts. They're big, bulky and they tear at the folds but the smell of chart ink just wakes you up to the fact that you're going flying tomorrow morning. :)
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