Worldwide charts?

[AdamFrisch]

I've been in talks with the people at Foreflight as I was underwhelmed by the European part of their app. There are terrific VFR charts published in most countries and I pointed out that they should try to license them or otherwise incorporate that in future releases. I gave pointers to the places where I'm most familiar - the UK and Sweden (Sweden has the best VFR charts ever, published by the Royal Aeronautical Club - they are outstanding).

It got me thinking. With the pooled experience here it would be good to make a definitive thread on which countries print their own VFR charts and where to obtain them (if they can be obtained at all). I know that there are some weak spots in southern Europe and I've heard IO540 saying that pilots in Greece still use the ancient ONC charts from the US military. Is this the case?

How about the middle east and asia? Do these areas generally print VFR charts at all?

Here's a link to buying the great Swedish TMA charts:
TMA Sverige (http://www.pilotshop.se/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&page=shop.browse&category_id=7&Itemid=28)

[Jan Olieslagers]

Sorry if this isn't much of an answer, but my one thought is this:
In this 21st century, public services (such as the various civil aviation administrations) should really be making an effort of publishing their data/rulings on the www, or any other commonly and easily accessible medium, in a format open and documented (and hopefully even ruled by some defined and sustained standard) , so as to be available to ANY IT-based aid to navigation. That's what we're paying taxes for, isn't it?

We really shouldn't accept having to pay for information that is essentially available to the broad public, and needs to be by law. And I think we have a right not only to the availability as such, but also to the availability in a format defined by some international standard, and fit for direct interpretation by electronic apparatus.

[AdamFrisch]

Couldn't agree more.

Also, why don't the AIP's contain charts? And why don't they contain airport or airfield diagrams for VFR fields? As it is now, even "civilized" countries like the UK only publish the diagrams for airports that contain IFR procedures. The rest you have to find from Pooleys or somewhere else even though they are marked on the chart (so they obviously have that information)...

[IO540]

AFAIK every European CAA treats charts as a moneymaking project, which is why they are not in the AIP. The only stuff in the AIP is what each country is obliged to release under ICAO obligations, and it doesn't need to be particularly usable by pilots (ref: most AIP approach charts).

Greece does not publish VFR charts as a whole so the 1998 ONC is still the last one :) There are some fragments e.g. the Athens TMA and its VFR routes in the AIP, which is not online and has to be purchased. A lot of people use the Jepp IFR enroute charts which are OK, especially if you mark up the CAS from those onto the ONC chart.

The basic issue with VFR charts is copyright. Jepp have done VFR charts for most of Europe but they are not cheap - about 300 euros for the whole lot. They have appeared on P2P in Oziexplorer format, presumably from a scanned job, and same has happened to the UK VFR charts, but this is obviously not a commercial solution.

There is no real unified solution to this. I see some products coming out with national "ICAO" charts, which are probably cheaper to license than the Jepp ones.

[Ultranomad]

Czech CAA offers a free ICAO overlay in PDF format (http://lis.rlp.cz/info/ANC_ICAO_2011.pdf), containing all airspace, aerodromes, obstacles and navaids. Print it on any 1:500000 Lambert projection map, and you've got a full ICAO chart!
Actually, I suspect that all the above data may be available for free in many EU countries (though not necessarily in the same format everywhere), and the money is charged mostly for the underlying landscape map.

[Jan Olieslagers]

To come back to the original question: Belgian VFR map at 1:250000 is published by the National institute for Geographics, (not by our CAA!) at
NGI - producten - Topografische kaarten - Kaartserie 1:250*000 (http://www.ngi.be/NL/NL1-1-5.shtm#lowair)

Strange to see they are still mentioning the 2010 edition, though they normally publish in May, or even late April.

Interestingly, they also offer a .TIFF electronic version in two resolutions: NGI - producten - Digitale gegevens - Topografische databanken en kaarten (http://www.ngi.be/NL/NL1-5-1-7.shtm#lowair)