FLIP and DAFIF gone as of Oct 2006

I just came across this yesterday and wondered if (or how badly) it affects the modern nav/EFIS situation for homebuilders.

https://164.214.2.62/products/digitalaero/index.cfm
https://164.214.2.62/products/digitalaero/flip.cfm

Basically, all the flight information and airport information that the NGA collects, worldwide, at taxpayers' expense, is being pulled from the pubic domain as of Oct 1 of this year. The reasons they give is that people who "wish to do us harm" could use this navigational info against us, and also, the navigational information of other nations is sometimes considered by those nations to be "intellectual property" and they're getting upset about the DoD just giving it out to everyone royalty-free. AOPA is not happy about it, and according to them, we lose 77% of the domestic navigational information currently available, especially critical data for US borders.

Do Jeppesen, etc depend on DAFIF and FLIP for their databases and if so, what are we going to do for an alternative? I would really not be happy about purchasing a 15k EFIS and not be able to update it with current aeronautical information.

Send your thanks to Canada They're one of these other countries complaining about DAFIF being free..

Anyways, Jepp does not rely on DAFIF so it'll be OK.. you just may have to start paying for upgrades However, there are still other sources, but they may not contain nav data outside the US.

Has nothing to do with Canada per se, it has to do with NAVCAN which is a non-profit corp mandated to run Canada's Air Traffic Management system. Being a non-government beast, their mandate is to break even or better. Therefore, any money making, read all user pay schemes are just fine with them. Now this so called better way of doing business could be stopping at an airport/ARTCC/TWR/gas pump near you if the beast/concept of user pays gets loose! Do beware, for they could be coming after your pocket book and free access if some in Congress get their way.

http://www.copanational.org/non-members/index.htm

It's only affect will be outside the U.S. The ATA-100 will continue to be available for a small fee and contains all airports, navaids, SUAs, etc. etc. Not sure where some companies are getting their nav info, but they should be able to switch to the ATA-100 without too much trouble.