Justin Gombos wrote:
I'll start with a rant; it's disturbing to find that the Department of
Transportation ("DOT") does not release the AFDs in a useable digital
format.

Of course they do. Where do you think places like Airnav get their data
from? True, it's not 100% of everything that's in the AF/D, but it's most
of it. The FAA has been getting steadily better about stuff like this.
You can download PDFs of all the approach plates. You can download
sectionals. You can download the entire nav database (every airport, fix,
navaid, airway, etc, in excruciating detail). You just have to do your
homework to find it.

The DOT cannot legally copyright the AFD, so AFAIK anyone is free to
tear the binding off, scan it, and redistribute it. Is anyone doing
this?

Of course somebody could do it. But I can't imagine anybody would want to.
Scanned images of the pages??? It's hard to think of a more bizarre way to
waste perfectly good electrons.

Airnav.com is useful, considering it's the closest thing to a
publication of similar information (and non-raster, which is even
better). However, the keyword is "similar". Airnav makes no
guarantees about providing the same information as the AFD. Can a
pilot legally use airnav's publications instead of the AFD, and still
be compliant with FAR 91.103?

If you want to play lawyer games, keep buying the green book. If you
simply want to get the useful information you need to conduct your flight
safely, go to Airnav, or places like it. If you think you can do a better
job than Airnav, go download the raw data, spend $9.99 to register a domain
name, and go into competition with them.