Jeppesen VFR Flight Guide...advice from anyone using it

[RansS9]

Following on the recent discussion re. Pooleys Guide, and a search of previous threads..

For those that are using or have used the Jeppesen (formerly Bottlang) VFR flight guide;
--What do you like/ dislike about the guide ?
--How does it compare with AFE or Pooley?
--How accurate have you found it?
--Roughly how many airfields in the UK does it cover?
--After the initial purchase how much and how frequently do you pay for the update service?

Thanks TIM

[BackPacker]

I have bought the Bottlang "trip kit" which is a one-off set for any region you specify. It is up to date at the time of printing (which is done on-demand) but it doesn't include an update service. I don't do touring all that much and simply check my version against the "official" sources (either the official AIP or the Bott/Jepp we have at the club) if I go somewhere. I plan to obtain the new Jepp VFR trip kits somewhere in the spring when I need it - the Jepp VFR uses a different binder than the Bottlang.

All the information you need is there. What I sometimes find hard to work with is that the textual information about a field, like phone numbers, fuel availability and such, is not near the airfield diagram, but contained in the front of the guide. So if you're planning a longish trip and need to check things like runway length, fuel availability, PPR, opening times and such, you'll find yourself constantly flipping back and forth. But other than that, the info in the Bottlang (or the new Jepp VFR) is the same as you'll find in Pooleys or AFE.

If you buy the Jepp VFR guide, contact Jepp directly instead of going through a reseller. The resellers don't stock anything in this respect, but will ask Jepp to print a guide for you based on the latest info. But if you contact Jepp directly, you can specify exactly which countries you want coverage (and binders) for, instead of having to choose from a few set groups. They're very friendly over the phone and the time it takes to deliver the things is very low. I remember on the order of three days or so.

And talking about accuracy, the Jepp VFR is basically a subset of the full Jepp IFR kit, which is what airline pilots use all over the world. If the actual situation at an airfield and the Jepp information about that airfield don't match, it's probably the airfield that's wrong...:O

[flybymike]

After many many years of using Jepp I have decided not to renew this year. Frankly I got fed up with the plethora of update paperwork which arrived every month and which was a PITA to enter up. As has been remarked, the manual can be quite disjointed ( although very comprehensive) I have decided to stick with the relative simplicity of Pooleys and AFE

Renewal cost me approx £40 pa for UK only payable by credit card direct to Germany ( ie much more expensive than other manuals also)

[Johnm]

I've got the full set of Jeppesen European flight guides, the updates are a small burden (I tend to do them on sunday evenings along with the household paperwork). They are very comprehensive. The new format is not as good as the old as the paper is thinner and needs care if you take them out of the folders and place on kneeboard.


I have a full set in the old format up to date as of October if anybody wants them..............

[IO540]

After many many years of using Jepp I have decided not to renew this year. Frankly I got fed up with the plethora of update paperwork which arrived every month and which was a PITA to enter upI used to do this too but Jepp went electronic a while ago. Now you just get the two CDs, or an internet download, and it updates the lot. Manual updates were highly time consuming and almost impractical if you had coverage for all of Europe - the airlines pay ground staff to stuff the updates into the manuals and in fact a friend married a girl who spent her whole life doing just that :)

For the UK VFR scene, I use Pooleys. It is quite accurate enough and a copy lives on the back seat. I also use Navbox Pro for VFR flight planning, and use that to look up phone numbers etc for PPR.

I never used a Bottlang guide for the UK (Pooleys is cheaper) but used them extensively for abroad when I used to fly there VFR. The accuracy varies hugely - the data is lifted straight out of the national AIPs and their accuracy degrades inversely with the latitude :) At 50N it is quite good but by the time you get to about 30N it is a lot less good. The basic data is OK but stuff like phone/fax numbers (vital for PPR) tend to be duff. Nevertheless these are useful pubs for VFR touring. Nowadays they are electronic too (on one trip I carried 30kg of Bottlang guides) and when you buy a Jeppview subscription there is an option of VFR plates which I think is basically identical to the Bottlang pages. You just need to carry a laptop on which to view the stuff...

[RansS9]

Thanks for your time and effort, very helpfull.

TIM.

[VictorGolf]

I hope I'm not too late to comment but as a long time user of Bottlang and now Jeppesen, guides for the UK, I must say they've always fulfilled my requirements, which are basically day VFR in the UK. One advantage over the Pooleys/AFE guides is that the airfield "plates" have the surrounding area on one side and the airfield plan on the other which helps steer clear of local no-go areas. I don't find the updates too tedious for just the UK and it does keep you up to date with any changes. The monthly updates that arrived yesterday only took 20 minutes to enter. As others have said, the thinner paper might not take too much wear but it does make for a thinner binder which is no bad thing. In terms of content you won't find too many strips of less than 500 meters which is fine by me as that's the limit I set for my aircraft. So in summary I feel that for my purposes it is worth abut 20 minutes of fuel over the "domestic" manuals.

[Ni Thomas]

I used to use Pooley's when simply flying in the UK, but since expanding my horizons have used the Jeppesen/Bottlang Flight Guides for the last 20 or so years. I hold Jeppesen's which cover most of Europe (from Denmark down).
I also have several trip kits for individual countries following various jaunts.

Personally I found them priceless.
Despite flying over, through and around most of the countries (In fact all of 'em) I have never had any problems with accuracy in the chart presenetaion, maybe a few hitches with telephone contact numbers, but not unsurmountably so.
The monthly updates are no problem whatsoever and I almost enjoy doing them (I love charts!).
You asked about the cost of update - Naturally, the annual subscription for the monthly update varies according to the coverage:-
As a guide:
My BAM E revison for March 2008 to March 2009 was 205 Euros
To get a better estimate of coverage and costs try looking at www.flightstore.co.uk or even www.jeppesen.com/vfrgps

[tugwilsons]

High Johnm, if you still have the old set of guides I would be interested.
regards
Tug

[A and C]

No dispute Jepps are the best (my first thing to do tomorrow is to raise an ASR about another conpany's departure plate).

IO-540 has encapsulated the situation with a laptop & a small printer you can be your own flight opps depatment, carry 30 KG of Jepps and print, file flight plans and get the weather online and print plogs. The best of it is the whole plot weighs about 10KG and is updated in seconds (well about 120 seconds!)