No information - business opportunity?
I've had internet since 1994 and consider myself a pretty savvy user of the medium and pride myself in my abilities to get to information. But when it comes to GA stuff, I can't seem to get much useful info. It's as if there's a genuine lack of information available. Specifically in regards to flight planning crossing borders.
Just as simple as task as finding GA airports in the vicinity of cities etc, turns out to be almost impossible using regular tools unless you physically buy the VFR charts (if such are available - most countries don't even have them). My Google-Fu is severely hampered when it comes to GA. For instance, I might be planning a trip from LA to Mexico and wanted to find out what airports are near Mexico City. If you Google it, it will only give the big international airports. Any GA permutation I can think of brings up very little. Same goes for border procedures, VFR flight plans etc etc. AIP's at a glance? Forget it. I'm sure it's similar in Europe. Sure one can trawl through each countries AIP and make a flowchart of differences (night flight allowed, VFR flight plans mandatory, mode C allowed?) but one would very quickly go bonkers planning a simple trip. I use Foreflight here in the US. Great application, but it has no support for either Mexico, Canada or Europe in VFR. Surely, a most rudimentary VFR map of the world with known airports marked out should be a dead easy app to develop, no? Even if it isn't updated regularly, or even ever, it beats having no information.
Is there no reliable website, app etc that can give a brief overview of all the main AIP's, procedures, locations of airports etc? Like a worldwide Pooley's app or website? If not, isn't there a business opportunity here?
Sick of having to play Sherlock Holmes for days on end just to gather the most basic information of a most basic trip...
Last edited by AdamFrisch; 1st Nov 2012 at 23:30.