horrified to discover they're not laminated as standard
Which is MUCH better
Laminated charts are a pain and hard to fold, and as the FAA ones expire every 56 (?) days it is no biggie. Also I use one of those "magic" pens to draw my route. One side is like a highlighter, the other end is an eraser so when you draw over the marks with the eraser end it disappears. (actually saying that, since starting to fly G1000 aeroplanes I don't bother drawing on the paper map any more
)