Peter,
We did recently add our first cut at a basemap, which is political borders, like countries, states, and provinces. It doesn't have roads or cities. As I mentioned, this is very much in the plans and very high on the list, but it isn't in there today.
There are multiple databases in a SkyView unit. The first is terrain, which is free anywhere in the world. This is what lets synthetic vision work, and gives you the pretty (and useful!) top-down terrain view on the map page. This is technically broken up across a few files, but they are all free and included in the base price of a SkyView unit (you can technically buy a synthetic vision-less SkyView for $100 less, but no one does). So as long as you have the terrain databases installed, you get synthetic vision and terrain on the map.
Beyond this, you need the $500 mapping license. This is only needed once per plane, and you can try it out for the first 30 flight hours (unlimited on ground usage) for free. So for any of the databases below to display, you need to have purchased a map license (or be within the trial period):
In the map program, there is the basemap file, which adds political borders as mentioned. This is free worldwide.
Then there is the aviation database, which are airports, airspaces, and navaids. This is free in the USA, but outside the USA requires a Jeppesen subscription, or hopefully other data providers soon.
Then there's the obstacle database, which has the same terms as the aviation data- Free in the USA, pay other places.
The final database is the placemarks database, which allows a user to load data by themselves using Google earth. The functionality of this will also be greatly expanded soon.
Overall, realize that NavCanada doesn't give anyone data for free. They are a private, for profit corporation, so there is no way for a company to distribute that data for free unless they go out and collect the data themselves, which costs a lot more than just buying it!
Mehrdad,
I don't think GRT doesn't have a free, up to date Canada database, which is what the original poster was asking. You get free data in the USA, just like Dynon customers do. Outside the USA, they support Jeppesen just like we do. They might have an old DAFIF based file that they will give you for the rest of the world, but that was last updated in 2006.
Aerhed,
One issue with raster maps is that they are only images. Most customers really want the digital/vector data as well, which allows you to do things like search for an airport or a waypoint, or create flight plans. This may be perfect for some people, but it is vastly different than what someone will be expecting if they are used to a Garmin handheld or most other aviation maps. Unless the company your device is from is providing these raster maps or has partnered with an organization that aggregates them and makes them easy to install, raster maps tend to be crowd sourced, meaning you either need to do all the work to get them yourselves, or rely on someone else in the world do to it for you. Here, there can be a question of legality of acquisition of map images in a given country, since as mentioned before, outside the USA this data is subject to copyright.
