Aircharts or print your own or paperless?
SO WHAT IS THE STATE OF THE ART ON-LINE CHART SYSTEM?
It's 2008, everything is going electronic or wireless. With TFR's and NOTAMS* its hard to keep up with just paper. Usually geographical stuff stays the same. However new towers (like 1000' agl) go up all the time. If you rely on one electronic service its no substitute for a briefing, not only WX but new NOTAM's, which are not always disseminated by electronic services.
On-line is a great method but I still like paper. This is not an internet service you print out yourself but I like:
http://www.airchart.com/. Even after the service expires its a cool reference. Its all the sectionals, WACs and terminals in one bound book. The pain is when you flight path kind of overlaps two panels, you have to flip back & forth to get the big picture. The update is painless, you just note the update in the back and before a flight you check to see if anything affects your flight. I also still like the old but handy "Flight Guide" by Airguide Pubs., the little brown books. It has VFR arrival info and "local tribal knowledge" that might not be in any other source. I just like paper, but Flight Guide was a pain to update. Even Flight Guide has seen the computer writing on the wall and has gone "
On-Line". (I think they still offer the paper books as well.)
Computer services look cheaper? They may or may not be more update? Printing out color charts seems expensive and a bit of a pain. I have a cheap color printer. I think the computer services are more practical if used as "paper-less" system. Where you just load your notebook or tablet computer to view directly in the cockpit, skip the print process altogether?
The pain with paper services is they expire and you have to replace it, or you have to do endless revisions for places you might never go. The idea of getting charts just as you need them, before a trip is nice. However that does not eliminate you getting current Class I & II notams, FDC, Local and Distant notams and now TFR. Remember if its gone to class II (in hard print local FSS) you have to ask flight service for it specifically. I flew to an airport I thought was open, to find a big white "X". I got a preflight but it was a LOCAL notam not a distant notam, which the flight service I called did not have or give me, and I did not ask for it. The airport runway was done for months for refacing. Everyone in the area know it. No big deal, but glad it was day and there was a handy airport nearby.
Times have changed with wireless or paperless the way to go, but I really like having the whole USA on paper in the cockpit. More than once I started going East and ended up going South, way out of the way to end run weather. Once I just had the min basic charts and approach plates for the flight, but "ran out of charts". If you get just enough charts for your "expected" planned flight, Mr. Murphy will surly make you fly outside your chart coverage.
Is any one buying charts?
It seems to me many guys now just blast off with a 4 year old WAC and their wiz-bang GPS/EFIS. Even if the GPS is updated, does that meet FAR 91.103 "Preflight Action". Some GPS can get up to the minute updates with latest TRF's off the web as I understand it. That's a cool thing.
Bottom line I want something I can plug a tablet/notebook computer into the web, and get ALL current updated information, charts, airport diagrams with VFR and IFR arrivals and approaches, weather, notams, TRF's and so on, in one swoop, as needed. Even better is if that was integrated into the EFIS. Does any one have that yet?
How many RV'ers, I wounder, go on long X-C's, just kick the tires, light the fire and launch with a GPS?
Here is a nice notam write up on NOTAMS, I can never remember:
(This is still one of the most convoluted things in aviation, has it changed? It should.)
NOTAMS, Class (I) and (II), D, L, FDC/NOTAM codes
CLASS I: Distribution by means of telecommunications.
CLASS II: Distribution by means other than telecommunications.
D: (distant) information is disseminated for all navigational facilities that are part of the National Airspace System (NAS), all public use airports, seaplane bases, and heliports, listed in the Airport/Facility Directory (A/FD). The complete file of all NOTAM(D) information is maintained in a computer data base at the Weather Message Switching Center (WMSC), located in Atlanta, Georgia. This category of information is distributed automatically via Service A telecommunications system. Air traffic facilities, primarily FSSs, with Service A capability have access to the entire WMSC data base of NOTAMs. These NOTAMs remain available via Service A for the duration of their validity or until published. Once published, the NOTAM data is deleted from the system.
L: (local) information includes such data as taxiway closures, personnel and equipment near or crossing runways, airport rotating beacon outages, and airport lighting aids that do not affect instrument approach criteria, such as VASI.
information is distributed locally only, and is not attached to the hourly weather reports. A separate file of local NOTAMs is maintained at each FSS for facilities in their area only. NOTAM(L) information for other FSS areas must be specifically requested directly from the FSS that has responsibility for the airport concerned.
FDC: (Flight Data Center) On those occasions when it becomes necessary to disseminate information which is regulatory in nature, the National Flight Data Center (NFDC), in Washington, D.C., will issue an FDC NOTAM. FDC NOTAMs contain such things as amendments to published IAPs and other current aeronautical charts. They are also used to advertise temporary flight restrictions caused by such things as natural disasters or large-scale public events, that may generate a congestion of air traffic over a site. FDC NOTAMs are transmitted via Service A only once, and are kept on file at the FSS until published or cancelled. FSSs are responsible for maintaining a file of current, unpublished FDC NOTAMs concerning conditions within 400 miles of their facilities. FDC information concerning conditions that are more than 400 miles from the FSS, or that is already published, is given to a pilot only on request.
(So by radio you might need to call FSS and ask for update on info by local FSS, if the departure FSS was more than 400 miles away. Hard to believe it still works like this, but that is what's on the books. If any of the "services" claim to guarantee you will get "all avaiable info" per FAR part 91.103, it is worth the money. I doubt any of the services do more than rehash NOS stuff as best they can and public domain stuff on the FAA webs site.)
