On 05/10/06 01:39, Greg Farris wrote:
In article .com,
says...


Hello,

I'm new to this IFR stuff and I'm wondering if I can subscribe to Jepp
or some other service and print off approach plates and airport
diagrams at my liesure? Ideally log into a web site every month, see
if the plate changed, and if so, re-print it. Seems easy, so I
imagine its available... any links and costs would be a great help.


It's not easy at all - that's the problem. You can get all the charts you
want, current and free online from several sources - but going through
them to "see if something has changed" and printing "all" the charts you
may need for any given trip is very laborious and error prone. Just an
example, if you didn't happen to notice that the tower frequency had
changed at an airport you were not expecting to fly to anyway, when your
plans change because your intended destination is below minimums, you're
in for some embarrassment and confusion (hopefully nothing worse)because
you don't have the current info.

That's why people still pay for subscriptions, when all the
information is available for free, and still lug huge volumes along with
them - you're paying someone else to do the work (an expert no less) and
when you have to pull a plate you didn't expect to need, you are sure you
have it.

You can be (reasonably) sure you have the latest published chart, but not
necessarily the latest info. Checking the NOTAMs for airports you have
no idea you'll be going to is difficult.

With the subscription you can reduce the window for potential errors, but
not remove it. After all, there can be a tower frequency change which didn't
make it into the current published charts, so even the subscription may be
out of date.


--
Mark Hansen, PP-ASEL, Instrument Airplane
Cal Aggie Flying Farmers
Sacramento, CA