Carriage of Maps vs. Print-Outs

[italianjon]

Hey All,

I was thinking recently about long range trips etc, and had a thought. Wondering if anyone has a view on this.

So MEL requirements are nicely laid out in the CAP393, Section 1 Schedule 4. You can derive what you need based on the Aircraft and Flight Conditions etc.

My question is around Scale A Paragraph 2, and to do with "Maps"

Maps, charts, codes and other documents and navigational equipment necessary, in addition to any other equipment required under this Order, for the intended flight of the aircraft including any diversion which may reasonably be expected.

Do you have to carry "Offical" maps? I define this as being NATS/CAA, Jeppesen, SIA etc produce maps.

Or would a print from software such as SkyDemon meet this legal requirement?



If you think about a one off trip, say to the south of Spain, that is a lot of money on a set of maps for a single use, but the "Trip Kits" produced by some of the navigational software has some pretty decent maps in them. Skydemon is the one I have look at the most, and I only mention that because I haven't looked at others in as much detail yet, but you have the option to print charts in the "Official" formats I mentioned above.

This could potentially save a lot of money.

Cheers

J

[dirkdj]

If the printouts are up to date what would be the problem? AIP charts are legal but less practical than Jepp, they are the source for Jeppesen documents.

[peterh337]

Do you have to carry "Offical" maps? I define this as being NATS/CAA, Jeppesen, SIA etc produce maps.

For private flight, you can legally use any chart or other navigational data, paper or electronic.

Obviously if you get into some trouble and it turns out to not be current, you won't have a comeback on the chart provider

And if you fly with an electronic device and no backup, and it packs up, then likewise

On airway flights I have been flying with enroute strip charts (like this) printed out of Flitestar IFR, and have not bought a Jepp or Aerad airway chart for some years.

[achimha]

For IFR, I use the JeppFD iPad application which contains an up to date low and high enroute map (even though I only have a VFR subscription). Flitestar costs quite a bit of money and it's Windows only. Unfortunately, JeppFD on the iPad is rather unreliable and I've had several cases where it would crash at startup so my plan is to eventually carry 2 iPads.

For IFR approach charts I use RocketRoute's iPad application. It appears to be very reliable. For VFR approach, I use JeppFD with a subscription for all of Europe. Many European countries do not make their VFR charts available free of charge.

For VFR enroute, I have not found a good alternative to Jeppesen paper charts. I don't like the Jeppesen VFR/GPS charts very much but at least they are the same for every country. To my knowledge, there is no electronic version of the Jepp VFR charts.

[peterh337]

I use the JeppFD iPad application which contains an up to date low and high enroute map

Can it print strip charts, say 10nm=1", along your route?

For VFR enroute, I have not found a good alternative to Jeppesen paper charts. I don't like the Jeppesen VFR/GPS charts very much but at least they are the same for every country.

Very true.

To my knowledge, there is no electronic version of the Jepp VFR charts.

There is. It is called "Raster Charts". The CD for all of Europe (well, the "all" that Jepp provide) is about 300 euros.

RC runs in Flitestar, or Flitemap if you want a GPS moving map. But you can't (AFAICT) print them off as enroute strip charts. You can print them but only the piece of the screen at a time.

Jeppview doesn't run the RC and I doubt anything on the Ipad runs them either. Some old versions of RC are "out there", converted for Oziexplorer (or maybe somebody scanned the paper charts) and that is a nice way to run them as a GPS moving map. I used to run RC under Flitemap on my long VFR trips in 2004/05 and it was OK but I did have one odd case where the map got obviously shifted by a few miles, in Greece; I reported this to Jepp and while they never replied (their usual form) they discontinued Flitemap shortly afterwards

I have recently had a play with the two Jepp apps for the Ipad. JeppFD was absolute crap and crashed all the time. JeppTC (the approach plate viewer) seems to work adequately.

[italianjon]

Thanks guys, helps a lot. That certainly makes things easier for me as I want to do the odd long trip.

[NazgulAir]

What also helps is getting the 1:1million charts. They do not contain all the aeronautical data (for which you will have to use your other sources), but they show FIRS and major features and are great for their topographical and terrain information.

[peterh337]

Which 1M charts?

France does the SIA ones.

The ONC 1M charts are very old now - last revised 1998. They are all that exists for some of Europe though (Jepp airway charts aside).

[dublinpilot]

Carbossy also do a French 1M scale charts, that do have topo details on them, but I've never used them, so can't comment.