Vfr Charts

[luisayala79]

Can somebody please explain to me the main differences and uses of the charts, specially when you're trying to fly V FR and dont wanna get into airspace that you are not suppose to go, SEC WAC TAC charts.

tks luis:}

[welliewanger]

Not entirely sure what you mean by your question, but I'll have a go at answering it!

VFR charts:
Cover relatively small areas (e.g. the south of England) A topographic map of the area with relevant navigational features (roads, rivers, towns, airports, railways) marked as well as navigation beacons and airspace.

IFR en route charts:
Cover huge areas. Often have country boarders and sea as the background but very little topography. This is a much more conceptual representation showing airway routes and waypoints as well as some airports, beacons and ATC frequencies.

IFR terminal charts:
Cover smaller areas such as London. Because of the larger scale they can show more topographic information as well as instrument navigation info.

IFR plates:
These cover Standard Instrument Departures (SIDs) Standard Terminal Arrivals (STARs) and approach plates. SIDs and STARs can cover anything up to about 100Nm from the airport. Approach plates go out to about 25Nm.
These plates show very little topographic details. In stead they show prescribed routes for aircraft to depart from and arrive at the airport and how to land. These routes are defined by radio beacons (Navaids) Aircraft will only deviate from them if they can see outside and / or ATC give them RADAR vectors (steering) in this case ATC have a picture of where other aircraft and terrain are.

Almost all of the prescribed routes on IFR charts and plates are within controlled airspace.

VFR charts cover all airspace, whether it's controlled or not. It's up to the VFR pilot to avoid any airspace he's not allowed into by looking at the chart and (for example) not going South of the motorway south of Biggin Hill as this would take him into the CTR for Gatwick.

Hope that helps.