foreflight subscription for VNC's - anyone got it?

[flyboy1963]

I was thrilled, then appalled, to see that Foreflight now has digital VNC's and TAC etc. for Canada.
but.......
How many people fly more than 500 miles from home? not many I'll guess.
so instead of spending $15 every year or two for a current sectional, and the stupid CFS, we get to pay 20 times that to have them in digital format.
Ok, is it worth it?
I find sectionals almost impossible to read on the kitchen table, much less in the cockpit, in their current colour and shading form.
.....some pireps appreciated.

[Beancounter]

Perry
We bought the Cdn data for Foreflight just before we went to Frostkosh. In my experience foreflight now has simular information available in Cda that was previously only available south of the border. I think it was under $250/yr. I dont know if you are currently using digital in the cockpit but yes it will cost more than paper. I find it much easier to retrieve flight info from an Ipad than from a paper map. I dont know if it legally can replace paper but I would have a hard time going back to paper only. I will renew my subscription next year.

[Tom Martin]

For me it is worth every penny. I just flew from southern Ontario to Lethbridge Alberta, 1400nms one way. All the current charts and current approach plates for all of Canada and are USA on my iPad. PLUS all the VTAs, and ,and that really annoying CFS are now available, current all the time. I can not remember the last time I had a current CFS in my airplane. Those things add up to quite a bit of coin over the course of a year.
The Canadian charts have a nice feature in that if you want to you can "see" the descriptive legends on the ends of the map. This is not available on the USA charts.
My eyes are not as sharp as they used to be and the iPad allows me to zoom right in and get the details that are hard to read on a paper map. Besides that, have you ever tried to fold a map in a rocket

[flyboy1963]

appreciate the comments; could be I will have to throw out my Geopilot and ask Santa for an iPad. The zoom ability is really the 'must have' for aging eyes, and the crappy paper was rarely taken out of my bag anyway.

[Snowflake]

Perry, do you fly basic VFR or do you do a lot of traveling or IFR flying? If you're just a casual VFR pilot most of the time, take a look at Air Navigation Pro. For a one-time fee of $50, you will have unlimited free mapping across North America and a surprising part of Europe, too.

The Canadian data available for free in Air Nav Pro is more than adequate for VFR flight. Airspace info is there, courtesy of the Designated Airspace Handbook. Airport waypoints, navaids, etc. are all there too.

You can buy the official FAA charts one at a time for the areas you need/want if you travel to the US. No official Canadian charts, Nav Canada's terms are just not reasonable for most developers.

I'd gladly pay what I'm paying now for paper maps, to get digital ones. But I want them on the same terms... I want to buy one or two, not the entire country.

[flyboy1963]

Hey Rob,
thanks for the tips about AirNavPro........what do you view them on????

I've already b!tched to navCan that they should provide something other than the entire 21 million square kilometres of charts!
That said, I feel just a digital version of sectionals to be less than ideal, due to the clutter....but I've never used them, so perhaps if you can turn off terrain & airways etc. it would be useable.
I'll check into your idea, many thanks!

[Snowflake]

I have an iPad 2 and a Google Nexus4 smartphone, both running Air Nav Pro. The phone is always on my panel (Velcro holds it there nicely) but I put my iPad on my kneeboard for longer flights.