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Old 22nd January 2007 | 15:05
  #13 (permalink)  
IO540
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Joined: Jun 2003
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From: EuroGA.org
Jeppesen Flight Planner (JIFP) is available for Europe here - it's about Euro 150 per year which I believe includes their weather data feed.

I had a play with it recently. It's almost exactly identical to Flitestar. There is a page on that Jepp website detailing the differences between JIFP and Flitestar. It's fairly obvious what they have done: the PC application is Flitestar, but instead of accessing the database on the hard disk or CD they get the data off the Jepp server.

It's a good product. If Flitestar does the job for you, and you have broadband access (essential for JIFP; 3G would also do if your employer is paying for the data ) then it will do what Flitestar does, at a cost of v. roughly 1/5 of the cost of Flitestar (IFR v. IFR comparison, based on outright Flitestar IFR purchase and four updates through the year), and you get the latest database all the time, automatically, with no messing about with update CDs.

The drawback is that if you are mobile (and if you are not, why need European coverage?) then often there is no wifi or 3G, and JIFP on GPRS is very slow. A GSM data connection (GPRS or 3G) is also going to make JIFP very expensive to use - unless you are on one of those juicy contracts where you get a monthly data allowance but not many have the allowance available abroad (when roaming). An IFR planning session is a good few MB.

There is no "online Jeppview" for Europe yet i.e. no approach plates. I suspect there will be, eventually. The pricing will be interesting as Jeppview is hugely overpriced for GA. I know airlines have access to online approach plates from Jepp but under some other and very different arrangement and they pay through the nose for it.

The really good thing for GA would be an online version of the Bottlang VFR guides. The UK is covered OK by Pooleys etc but going abroad VFR gets messy; most people with an IR rarely bother flying VFR anymore because of the hassle.
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