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Why Isn’t The VFRG Available For Download?
Am I missing something or is there no downloadable VFRG? Some of us may not always have internet access and a physical copy wastes weight and space. |
Originally Posted by Sunfish
(Post 10510138)
Am I missing something or is there no downloadable VFRG? Some of us may not always have internet access and a physical copy wastes weight and space. CASA have "improved" it by turning it into a website that's completely useless offline. |
Why not take a photo of the relevant pages from your hard copy on your phone? There is always a workaround.
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https://www.casa.gov.au/sites/defaul...de-example.pdf Saw this at my local aeroclub the other day. Quiet a good little refresher on the VFR stuff. :ok: |
I believe it is no longer offered in digital form as it was perceived to be harder regarding version control when out in the wild. Gotta love that CASA publishes ‘plain English’ guides of legislative standards that are already required to be clear & precise... |
Stick: I believe it is no longer offered in digital form as it was perceived to be harder regarding version control when out in the wild. Compare that with a simple .pdf and a broadcast email; “The VFRG has changed, download your new copy here(with link)”. This is something like what Rotax does. They updated the 912 iS poh a few days ago and it’s already in my library.......and I’m quite a few miles from home ATM. |
With the current VFR G not available as a PDF any longer, I have actually seen people rely on past editions of the PDF reasoning that not enough could have changed to warrant buying a new one. You have to say, brilliant side effect in the epic quest to promote safety.
As to why nobody simply scans and shares the document, that is precisely the thing that I never understood in the community of pilots in Australia (assuming that such thing exists, that is). Back in my uni days in Europe, doing things on the cheap was the motto. Not because we were cash strapped albeit many of us were but because we were trying to be smart (at the expense of honesty and exemplary behaviour, perhaps but making money out of students is equally if not more disgraceful). One student would buy a textbook or lecture notes and make copies or a scan thereof for their mates. Everyone would obviously chip in which meant more coffee and beer (or whatever we were on at that time) at the end of the week for everyone. Here in Australia it literally beats me every time the N+1th student pilot buys the exact same textbooks or sample exams as the previous N ones before them instead of just recycling them from previous folks. Not that it surprises me any longer that people tend to spend their money very foolishly at these low latitudes but they will be using their copy for a single exam before tossing it under the bed and repeating the process. It also beats me that flight schools won't purchase a couple of ERSA and charts for the students to take on their flights. You have to love paying that 40% markup on your VTC from the pilot shop when you can have it for free online* or, if you insist on having a paper version, ordering it from the official publisher. But that's just that fellows. I figured, I might just be the only pilot out there who apparently hasn't bought Aviation Theory Centre or Skylines shares yet. * If you have trouble displaying the large PDF of charts, PM me and I'll give you a trick or two. |
Originally Posted by Okihara
(Post 10511075)
As to why nobody simply scans and shares the document, that is precisely the thing that I never understood in the community of pilots in Australia.
Seriously, I can’t be arsed scanning hundreds of irregularly-sized pages just for the benefit of a few people. In my opinion the VFRG is the best general, regulatory guide out there for the average VFR pilot. |
I tried to make it available in PDF but was overruled due to the need for “Cost Recovery”. I wrote the the first one in 6 weeks from scratch due to a very skilled colleague who cleared the way. The last one I produced prior to leaving the place took twice as long to get the project plan and risk assessment approved before even starting work! The vast majority of the Safety Promotion(Communications/Stakeholder Engagement) team work very hard to overcome some very difficult hurdles within the molasses of Public Service. If everybody smashes the feedback button with the same requests, it will happen you know! Oh oh and there is a rumor that the Flight Safety Australia magazine is coming back in the print format. Three thumbs up for that one. Stay Safe AWB |
“cost recovery?” What about the logistics costs first of all printing, then warehousing and distribution to various points of sale? Then there is the question of stock holding costs, reprints. Then there is the cost involved in version control and updates, including pulping old stock, processing returns from sales outlets, distribution of new stock and the whole process of changeover to a new version including transition arrangements. Then there is the cost of working capital involved. Has all that been taken into account in “cost recovery?” How slow and snail like the process? How is the information going to reach the maximum number of pilots at minimum cost to everyone? It isn’t. You can publish and distribute online for a fraction of the cost of using dead trees - and that’s another thing, what about the environmental costs of paper usage as well as the extra weight and fuel burn? Just ask for an email for update notification, maybe put an automatic watermark on the .pdf as it’s downloaded to prevent unauthorised distribution if you like, then you have fast easy efficient and effective distribution of the latest safety information to the pilot community that needs it. Manufacturers like Dynon, Rotax and goodness knows who else puts this sort of information on the web for free and updates it regularly with full version controls as well - this isn’t rocket science. And another thing. Why in this century am I not able to reserve an aircraft registration Set of letters on the web in seconds? |
I thought the reason they stopped it was a federal budget cut for coloured data, and a green initiative to cutback on unnecessary wasted coloured pixels that would pollute the cloud. The cloud pollution is a major contributing factors to internet warming. |
V… F...… G...
Mr swh Cheeerrrsss |
Originally Posted by Alpha Whiskey Bravo
(Post 10511228)
I tried to make it available in PDF but was overruled due to the need for “Cost Recovery”.
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....2ddddd6dc4.png Facebook 3/9/15
Originally Posted by Alpha Whiskey Bravo
(Post 10511228)
If everybody smashes the feedback button with the same requests, it will happen you know!
Oh oh and there is a rumor that the Flight Safety Australia magazine is coming back in the print format. Three thumbs up for that one. Stay Safe AWB |
Well. The VFRG is a distilled version of the AIP. The AIP has a release date on it and it's a downloadable document. Therefore I see no valid argument here why the same can't be done for the VFRG.
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“as keeping it online ensures..... everyone is using up to date information.” only in Canberra! Try living in regional Australia where internet access is often marginal, if it’s available at all. It’s also expensive. Your “user case” obviously didn’t include 5am. in an outback motel. Why didn’t CASA consult this group who could have told them about the “online experience” over much of Australia. The only thing slower is the postal service. At least with a downloadable version, you could keep a copy on a memory stick. To put it another way, accessing the internet multiple times to look at the VFRG isn’t going to happen at all in regional Australia, so the “up to date data” excuse doesn’t wash. Wait until they find out..... https://birrraus.com/ “ Internet Survey unearths critical need for widespread changes to combat #DataDrought The Better Internet for Rural, Regional and Remote Australia (BIRRR) Regional Internet Access Survey, released this week, has revealed critical problems with Australia’s current internet options, and warns of long-term consequences if changes are not urgently made. The survey, distributed through the BIRRR Facebook group, investigates current consumer conditions for people in rural, regional and remote areas of Australia using the internet. The in-depth report found that rural, regional and remote people are severely disadvantaged in terms of access, speeds, cost and reliability of their internet connections, whether they be via mobile broadband or via satellite. These issues have had (and continue to have) a dramatic effect on rural, regional and remote peoples business, the education of their children and themselves, and on their personal well-being. It also illustrates the notion – even with the onset of NBN’s Skymuster – that data growth will soon outgrow the nbn Fair Use Policy that will see 75GB/month peak use data limits on customers. Among the statistics revealed from this survey: • Internet in RRR Australia is mainly used for business (Fig 2, p 8) • 88% of RRR respondents stated current data did not meet their needs (Fig 5, p10) • Mobile Broadband costs those surveyed an average of $9.27 per GB, with some consumers paying up to $20 per GB. (p18) • Satellite broadband costs an average of $15.96 per GB, with some consumers paying up to $70 per GB (Table 20, p 28) • 63% of respondents are shaped more than 6 times per year, with over 40% being shaped every single month. (Table 11 p 19 for mobile, Table 23, p 29 for satellite) • 74% of mobile broadband users (Fig 11, p21) and 89% of satellite users (Fig 18, p 30) have download speeds under 5Mbps • 72% of mobile broadband users had to purchase extra equipment at their own cost, usually between $1000 – $2000 (Fig 20, p33) • 73 % respondents do not have reliable mobile coverage (Fig 20, p33) • 41% said their address would not register on the NBN database. (Fig 21, p 35) • 65% of people not confident that they are aware of their nbn options (Fig 23, page 40) • 92% gave a score of six or above indicating that they would recommend the BIRRR to friends and family (Fig 24, p 41) BIRRR founder and admin Kristy Sparrow said the results reinforce the need for an independent telecommunications advisory body to help guide consumers through the bush broadband ‘jungle of options and answers’, along with an established universal service guarantee for regional Australians. “There needs to be an established service guarantee for internet services Australia wide. Service for regional, rural and remote customers should be equitable in terms of speed, download capabilities and costs. “If this does not occur regional Australia will be left (even further) behind.” |
Cost recover was the potential reason given. You know where to provide feedback... |
VFRG Digital Recipe
Ingredients 1 x VFRG 1 x Photocopier with auto feed tray scan VFRG chapters to an email address - you usually cant do the whole document in one go use a pdf binder app to join the chapters in to one .PDf document Bingo, one DIY digital copy. Easy peazy. |
Ozgrade, while you are correct, the existence of pirate .pdfs guarantees that a section of the community will never have up to date information, |
This really is a third world country. As for compliance with a digital copy, it would not be hard to see which ARN has downloaded what. Maybe a few (thousand) REPCONs to the ATSB might push this and the whole rewrite of our regulations out into the pubic eye. Any legal types upto writing a standard letter we could all use? |
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