Half mil maps
Things are certainly changing. Whether better or worse is hard to say, but certainly for the more complex.
Many people now favour GPS screens, of a dozen different varieties, over paper charts. We have always had ICAO paper charts at 1:500,000 scale, but then for a while we had Jeppesen who sadly have just withdrawn that product, but also we now have the Transair/Dobossy 1:1m chart, and options to print from various packages as well.
Personally I'm experimenting with the 1m chart for long trips, whether VFR or IFR, then a printout from either MediaMap or SkyDemon for the patch around departure and arrival aerodromes. I have a GPS with an on-screen map of course (who doesn't, although there are numerous variations as I said), but would never rely upon that as my sole source of information. For local flying, I just have an A4 printout of the local patch.
That said, I think that the ICAO 1:500,000 paper charts will be with us indefinitely. Why?
(1) It always works, regardless of conditions, locale, sunlight, power, etc.
(2) It's a universal standard, and we need one of those, so that everything is a variation FROM a known standard.
(3) You need a consistent system for flying instruction, as it's not reasonable to expect instructors and examiners to constantly switch mapping system between students and aeroplanes.
However, I think it's quite likely that as the internet gets more powerful and printing becomes cheaper and ever more available, we'll probably see a move away from buying a paper chart for the year, and towards printing from the net as and when required. Many SkyDemon users, for example, are already doing that as a matter of course. But, it will still basically be a 1:500,000 paper chart.
G
Many people now favour GPS screens, of a dozen different varieties, over paper charts. We have always had ICAO paper charts at 1:500,000 scale, but then for a while we had Jeppesen who sadly have just withdrawn that product, but also we now have the Transair/Dobossy 1:1m chart, and options to print from various packages as well.
Personally I'm experimenting with the 1m chart for long trips, whether VFR or IFR, then a printout from either MediaMap or SkyDemon for the patch around departure and arrival aerodromes. I have a GPS with an on-screen map of course (who doesn't, although there are numerous variations as I said), but would never rely upon that as my sole source of information. For local flying, I just have an A4 printout of the local patch.
That said, I think that the ICAO 1:500,000 paper charts will be with us indefinitely. Why?
(1) It always works, regardless of conditions, locale, sunlight, power, etc.
(2) It's a universal standard, and we need one of those, so that everything is a variation FROM a known standard.
(3) You need a consistent system for flying instruction, as it's not reasonable to expect instructors and examiners to constantly switch mapping system between students and aeroplanes.
However, I think it's quite likely that as the internet gets more powerful and printing becomes cheaper and ever more available, we'll probably see a move away from buying a paper chart for the year, and towards printing from the net as and when required. Many SkyDemon users, for example, are already doing that as a matter of course. But, it will still basically be a 1:500,000 paper chart.
G
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Listen to Farnborough LARs any weekend and hear the people without charts asking a busy LARs controller for the freq for Headcorn/Stapleford etc because they can't read a frequency off their yoke mounted GPS.
The bloke last year near East Mids whose GPS had packed up, and he was lost without a map, or the guy who bust Doncaster airspace because although the half mil showed their new airspace, his GPS didn't.
A current half mil is always folded to the correct place in my cockpit and has lines drawn on it.
SND
The bloke last year near East Mids whose GPS had packed up, and he was lost without a map, or the guy who bust Doncaster airspace because although the half mil showed their new airspace, his GPS didn't.
A current half mil is always folded to the correct place in my cockpit and has lines drawn on it.
SND
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ISTR, several years ago, Ordinance- Survey maps being printed individually, on demand, by an inkjet plotter.
Wide-format printers about 4 feet wide are fairly commonplace for printing posters, vinyl banners and the like.
I can see your local Aviation-shop, or even the larger airfields, installing one and printing , on demand, straight from the relevant Authorities' database. such a map can be date/time-stamped and updates readily identified and appended.
I always wondered, when buying an A-Z town map/street index, just how long ithad been sitting on the shelf....my current Manchester area one is hugely at varience with reality. In the case of Oldham roads and railways have completely vanished...thanks to the internet, an instant update can be had and printed.
How did we manage, before Computers and Cellphones?
Wide-format printers about 4 feet wide are fairly commonplace for printing posters, vinyl banners and the like.
I can see your local Aviation-shop, or even the larger airfields, installing one and printing , on demand, straight from the relevant Authorities' database. such a map can be date/time-stamped and updates readily identified and appended.
I always wondered, when buying an A-Z town map/street index, just how long ithad been sitting on the shelf....my current Manchester area one is hugely at varience with reality. In the case of Oldham roads and railways have completely vanished...thanks to the internet, an instant update can be had and printed.
How did we manage, before Computers and Cellphones?
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I am sure they will just like I always did.
Just as all the commercial flights to the highlands and islands will continue to operate as normal in a procedural environment without any radar cover below 7000ft.
"Multiple high energy contacts inside 50 miles flight information service boys good luck"
"bugga I knew we should have just gone for Scottish info those area radar boys are just depressing"
Just as all the commercial flights to the highlands and islands will continue to operate as normal in a procedural environment without any radar cover below 7000ft.
"Multiple high energy contacts inside 50 miles flight information service boys good luck"
"bugga I knew we should have just gone for Scottish info those area radar boys are just depressing"
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half mil maps
Our 1/2 m charts are very nice but also very expensive at about 18 quid a pop. To be strictly legal, I'm required to carry the most current chart but if, for example, I'm planning a trip to, say, the North of England next week, I will have to buy a chart for that area. No problem with that, but then the 'current' chart for that area may be going out of date in a couple of weeks, at which time the chart for which I've shelled out £18 will (legally at least) become useless and then I will have to buy another one!
UK charts are works of art but with high production costs. I have to ask, do we really need this sort of quality? I can't see why we can't just copy the US and issue non glossy paper sectional charts, costing the equivalent of about £5 a pop which we can just throw away when they become too tatty, or when a new one is issued. Being so much cheaper, it's more likely that pilots will have the latest version, and won't feel ripped off if they need to buy a chart for a short one-off trip.
UK charts are works of art but with high production costs. I have to ask, do we really need this sort of quality? I can't see why we can't just copy the US and issue non glossy paper sectional charts, costing the equivalent of about £5 a pop which we can just throw away when they become too tatty, or when a new one is issued. Being so much cheaper, it's more likely that pilots will have the latest version, and won't feel ripped off if they need to buy a chart for a short one-off trip.
UK charts are originally supplied unlaminated - it's further down the supply chain that someone adds lamination - and cost. When I worked for Loganair the charts weren't laminated.
I don't like laminated charts: They're bulkier, more difficult to fold whatever way you want, the gloss is an annoyance at night, and need a special marker & method to erase the marker. Plain paper is much easier to deal with. That being said, and more on topic, a week or two ago I ferried a 2001 Baron 58 from Central Florida to Michigan (870nm). It had a Garmin G500/600 glass display and a GNS540 - both with up-to-date databases. I also had an Android pad with (free) downloaded charts. I didn't need to touch a paper chart or document the whole way.
I don't like laminated charts: They're bulkier, more difficult to fold whatever way you want, the gloss is an annoyance at night, and need a special marker & method to erase the marker. Plain paper is much easier to deal with. That being said, and more on topic, a week or two ago I ferried a 2001 Baron 58 from Central Florida to Michigan (870nm). It had a Garmin G500/600 glass display and a GNS540 - both with up-to-date databases. I also had an Android pad with (free) downloaded charts. I didn't need to touch a paper chart or document the whole way.
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no you don't DUO you only have to have updated the chart with the new data.
If you want a paper one you just get the Jepp paper VFR ones which are poo but do the job.
Yes the school shop will say that you need to most current ones because they want you to buy them otherwise they are down out of date charts which you can't send back. There are even folk out there that will tell you that its illegal to hack off the bits you don't use and have a cut down local area chart. Some rubbish about the legend needs to be in tacked.
All a complete and utter load of poo.
If you want a paper one you just get the Jepp paper VFR ones which are poo but do the job.
Yes the school shop will say that you need to most current ones because they want you to buy them otherwise they are down out of date charts which you can't send back. There are even folk out there that will tell you that its illegal to hack off the bits you don't use and have a cut down local area chart. Some rubbish about the legend needs to be in tacked.
All a complete and utter load of poo.
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half mil maps
I agree with you, Mad Jock. I didn't actually say that I necessarily carry the latest chart, (or a manually updated one), just that I would need to to be strictly legal. It's a pain in the a**e having to sit down and manually update an older one and I'm simply suggesting that it would be a helluva lot cheaper and easier to have cheap, throwaway paper charts like in the US and elsewhere. If I'm making a trip to another area which requires another chart, I probably don't have an older one that I can amend, and I grudge paying £18 or so for a glossy chart that's simply going to be stuffed down the side of the seat, all for the sake of what might be a one-off trip. Anyway, with electronic charts being more prevalent these days, a paper chart is nothing more than a back up if the electrics go tits up, and so will hardly ever get looked at.
I could be wrong but I thought that Jepp had stopped doing UK 1/2 mill VFR charts.
Also, I very often fly with a 'cut-out' chart, particularly in a glider where space is tight.
I could be wrong but I thought that Jepp had stopped doing UK 1/2 mill VFR charts.
Also, I very often fly with a 'cut-out' chart, particularly in a glider where space is tight.
Paper is not infallible either.....I once had my map fly out of the open door, briefly wrapping itself round the tailplane before departing english channel wards. Fortunately Shoreham was easy to find by mark one eyeball.....
The great thing about the Jepps charts was that you could go VFR anywhere you liked in europe and use charts with the same presentation.
I did a SEP ferry to Portugal a while ago and it was great to be able to use the same charts in UK, France, Spain, and Portugal.
Now we're back to the old days of different chart formats for every country,
.... unless you pay Jepps a whacking fee for an Ipad subscription!
MJ
I did a SEP ferry to Portugal a while ago and it was great to be able to use the same charts in UK, France, Spain, and Portugal.
Now we're back to the old days of different chart formats for every country,
.... unless you pay Jepps a whacking fee for an Ipad subscription!MJ
DFS still offer paper charts for several European countries, 1:500000, all in the same style ; I will be using these more and more. Most cost some 10-12 euro's, which I think bearable.
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Good point Bigendbob.
They don't teach you that on your instructors course. Chart origami on 2 mile finals while steering with your knees while you trial flight barfs in the chart.
And if you do it right you only have to wipe it down afterwards and swap it with another one in the lost property box.
Anyone got their hands on one of those 1 : 1 000 000 charts?
What they like?
Wouldn't give them to a student mind but handy for the rest of us. Especially for the IR boys/girls that still want the option of VFR winging it.
They don't teach you that on your instructors course. Chart origami on 2 mile finals while steering with your knees while you trial flight barfs in the chart.
And if you do it right you only have to wipe it down afterwards and swap it with another one in the lost property box.
Anyone got their hands on one of those 1 : 1 000 000 charts?
What they like?
Wouldn't give them to a student mind but handy for the rest of us. Especially for the IR boys/girls that still want the option of VFR winging it.
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I think 'legally' you would be allowed to use an AA map, as long as you have marked in all the relevant airspace you are likely to encounter and the Notams.
But it's a bit of a fiddle, unless you only fly gliders locally, in clear class G airspace.
But it's a bit of a fiddle, unless you only fly gliders locally, in clear class G airspace.
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I like paper charts but I am stuck in the middle of the country so I have to buy two. Not that I every fly abroad but I really think all maps within EASA countries should be the same format.
This year I am going to buy the Cartobossy 1:million chart which covers all the UK. I can then get the same format chart to cover some of the european countries.
In reality of course I will use skydemon but use these as a back up.
I suspect that I will still recommend my students to use the CAA 1:500K chart however.
This year I am going to buy the Cartobossy 1:million chart which covers all the UK. I can then get the same format chart to cover some of the european countries.
In reality of course I will use skydemon but use these as a back up.
I suspect that I will still recommend my students to use the CAA 1:500K chart however.