Which Guide?

[pilot8]

So do I go for the Pooleys or AFE Guide to Airports, Aerodromes and Airstrips?
Which do others have or suggest?

It was suggested I post here as I might get more response from the other 2 threads I have put it in with no response!!

[Flyingmac]

AFE. AFE. AFE. Or Pooley's, if you don't mind the 100 or so missing airfields.

[pilot8]

So in your view AFE? Why??

[BackPacker]

Have you considered just using the information in the AIP? All the information you need is in there, and it's free.

The main advantage of a "flight guide" such as AFE or Pooleys is that they employ a bunch of editors who paint the airfield plates in pretty colors while the AIP is black/white. And they're bound into one book, while the AIP needs to be printed and will most likely end up to be a loose-leaf binder of some sort. But is that last thing still relevant in this day and age, where you can have everything on your iPad?

I haven't bought a flight guide of any type in the last six years or so, and have not ever regretted that decision.

(Except in one occasion, where I had to make an unscheduled diversion into Norwich. I was glad I had thrown a six-year old AFE in my flight bag, just in case. But even then ATC gave me progressive taxi instructions so I could have done without.)

[BossEyed]

Have you considered just using the information in the AIP? All the information you need is in there....

Not really.

Pooley's: 942 airfields

AFE: 960 airfields

UK AIP: 126 airfields

[Brad2523]

Recent PPL here, but my instructor recommended pooleys so thats what I have. Although skydemon seems to have all the information that you need and the parts on there that aren't printable you can screen shot and print so I'm guessing it won't be long until the guides are redundant anyway.

[Jan Olieslagers]

Pooley's: 942 airfields

AFE: 960 airfields

UK AIP: 126 airfields Thanks, that's an interesting comparison. Now how does SkyDaemon chime in? How many UK aerodromes does it mention/show?

Edited to add: there is a website called ourairports.com that mentions 536 UK aerodromes, plus another 142 tagged "closed". It surely isn't entirely up to date, but for being totally free it might be worth looking into. Be warned however that a good deal of those 536 are helipads.

[Brad2523]

I don't have the number for skydemon but even the very small strips around Suffolk/Norfolk are shown - certainly so far anywhere I have been has had detailed information as well as this new feature where it even shows you the circuit directions etc.

I would assume that this would also be more reliable as it can be instantly updated so even for minor changes such as fuel price for example are up to date... I assume.

[TheOddOne]

I'm really not fussed which guide you folk use so long as you use an UP-TO-DATE ONE!!!!!
Info for our airfield changed significantly 2 years ago, holding point locations, different routes for back-tracking and a change in the PPR number etc. We STILL get people ringing the wrong number and when asked, some of them are using guides nearly 10 years out-of-date. A current guide is hardly more than a landing fee, just buy a new one each year as a New Year present to yourself.
Skydemon took a couple of goes to get our details changed and there is a 2-month cycle for changes (just like the IAIP). I think Pooley's also do updates if you subscribe. I think on-line info like Skydemon is the way forward, though I haven't subscribed to the extra for the on-line Pooley's. Presumably, you need to be connected to the internet to get info, or can you download the whole guide and have it available in the air?
We also had one pilot who called the wrong LARS frequency locally. He was using the info on his map - yes, you've guessed, it was YEARS out-of-date...

TOO

[Bobby Hart]

(Rob from SkyDemon here...)


Since we offer the Pooleys and AFE flight guides, and the way our system works is to refer these extra documents to a corresponding airfield on our charts, you should find that SkyDemon has all of these airfields and then some more. In addition, quite a few extra private strips have provided us with their data despite it not being in the paper guides...


Up until recently, the Pooleys guide was geo-referenceable while the AFE guide was not, but AFE are now getting on board with the idea - They still have quite a few plates to redraw though. Meanwhile, as has been noted, Pooleys have been closing the gap on the sheer number of airfields described. Its starting to get to be an argument of consumer preference rather than assessing superiority one way or another.

... I think on-line info like Skydemon is the way forward, though I haven't subscribed to the extra for the on-line Pooley's. Presumably, you need to be connected to the internet to get info, or can you download the whole guide and have it available in the air?



In fact, you can "Download Product" after purchasing, which will sit there and download the entire flight guide while on home Wi-Fi so that it is available offline. Its advisable to do this once every couple of months to pick up updates, and to look out of "orange" documents which indicate that a newer instance of the document is available.

[pilot8]

Its all purely for the odd bit of "Plane Spotting" after being called one recently in another thread by an Honorable FRAeroS who thought anyone lower than a Member was just a plane spotter!!

[Genghis the Engineer]

Get over it Pilot. You said that you were an aviation professional, I suggested that you should therefore aim at an appropriate RAeS membership grade for professionals, and offered to help work out what grade. The offer's still open.


I've used both AFE and Pooleys guides - I preferred the simpler presentation and smaller page size of Pooleys but reluctantly switched to AFE because they had so many more airfields.

However, Sebastian Pooley seems to have had his team working very hard on catchup, so I'll probably switch back at the end of next year as the AFE pages are irritatingly just a bit too big for most standard knee boards.

G

[tinmug]

Pooleys give radials & distance from VOR to the airfield but if you only fly along the purple line on GPS or ipad I don't think it matters much which you use.