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US sectional charts online



 
 
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  #1  
Old February 25th 21, 09:13 PM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
Moshe Braner
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 114
Default US sectional charts online

I got an e-mailing from the FAA that said, among other things:

New editions of all FAA aeronautical charts are now available for pdf
download every 56 days.
https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/flig..._Products/vfr/

The previous editions of the sectionals are dated on that page at
various dates in 2020, while all of the "next edition due" dates seem to
be today (Feb. 25, 2021). New faster refresh cycle? Cool.

But the files offered for download are still the old, well, sectionals,
i.e., the sections of the country that were covered by the old paper
sheets. And the file types offered are GEO-TIFF and PDF. Plain image
files apparently not.

Of course our gliderport is right near the seam between two sections.
In the past few years I've been downloading the two sheets, converting
to image files, reducing resolution, cropping to very carefully include
the same longitude range on the seam, and then electronically glueing
them together into one image file. (Which I then keep on my cellphone.)
This is a lot of work, and the results are not perfect, there are
anomalies along the seam. And all this seams/seems silly in 2021.

So, is there any way I can download a seamless "sectional" for my chosen
flying area (overlapping those antiquated sections)?

I've asked this before, but so far I have no solution. There are some
web sites that display sectionals on the screen seamlessly, but you
can't download a chart, only what you can see on the screen (small area
or low resolution).

Alternatively is there easy to install and use software that can import
the downloadable GEO-TIFFs and generate across-seams charts? Such
software clearly lives inside those web sites that show seamless charts.
People who use software such as ForeFlight have it inside their iPads.
I want it in my PC so I can create plain image files that I can store
on any device.
  #2  
Old February 26th 21, 12:27 AM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
Dan Daly[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 718
Default US sectional charts online

On Thursday, February 25, 2021 at 3:10:55 PM UTC-5, Moshe Braner wrote:
I got an e-mailing from the FAA that said, among other things:

New editions of all FAA aeronautical charts are now available for pdf
download every 56 days.
https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/flig..._Products/vfr/

The previous editions of the sectionals are dated on that page at
various dates in 2020, while all of the "next edition due" dates seem to
be today (Feb. 25, 2021). New faster refresh cycle? Cool.

But the files offered for download are still the old, well, sectionals,
i.e., the sections of the country that were covered by the old paper
sheets. And the file types offered are GEO-TIFF and PDF. Plain image
files apparently not.

Of course our gliderport is right near the seam between two sections.
In the past few years I've been downloading the two sheets, converting
to image files, reducing resolution, cropping to very carefully include
the same longitude range on the seam, and then electronically glueing
them together into one image file. (Which I then keep on my cellphone.)
This is a lot of work, and the results are not perfect, there are
anomalies along the seam. And all this seams/seems silly in 2021.

So, is there any way I can download a seamless "sectional" for my chosen
flying area (overlapping those antiquated sections)?

I've asked this before, but so far I have no solution. There are some
web sites that display sectionals on the screen seamlessly, but you
can't download a chart, only what you can see on the screen (small area
or low resolution).

Alternatively is there easy to install and use software that can import
the downloadable GEO-TIFFs and generate across-seams charts? Such
software clearly lives inside those web sites that show seamless charts.
People who use software such as ForeFlight have it inside their iPads.
I want it in my PC so I can create plain image files that I can store
on any device.


Get a custom chart at http://soaringdata.info/aviation/sectionalTab.html . They are .jpg files and also have reference nav info for GlidePlan if you need that. We had a custom chart made for a Canadian Regional (four Sectionals merge for us) and it's great... Courtesy of Lynn Alley "2KA". Highly recommended... I must remember to Donate for this year.
  #3  
Old February 26th 21, 01:27 AM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
Moshe Braner
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 114
Default US sectional charts online

On 2/25/2021 6:27 PM, Dan Daly wrote:
On Thursday, February 25, 2021 at 3:10:55 PM UTC-5, Moshe Braner wrote:
I got an e-mailing from the FAA that said, among other things:

New editions of all FAA aeronautical charts are now available for pdf
download every 56 days.
https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/flig..._Products/vfr/

The previous editions of the sectionals are dated on that page at
various dates in 2020, while all of the "next edition due" dates seem to
be today (Feb. 25, 2021). New faster refresh cycle? Cool.

But the files offered for download are still the old, well, sectionals,
i.e., the sections of the country that were covered by the old paper
sheets. And the file types offered are GEO-TIFF and PDF. Plain image
files apparently not.

Of course our gliderport is right near the seam between two sections.
In the past few years I've been downloading the two sheets, converting
to image files, reducing resolution, cropping to very carefully include
the same longitude range on the seam, and then electronically glueing
them together into one image file. (Which I then keep on my cellphone.)
This is a lot of work, and the results are not perfect, there are
anomalies along the seam. And all this seams/seems silly in 2021.

So, is there any way I can download a seamless "sectional" for my chosen
flying area (overlapping those antiquated sections)?

I've asked this before, but so far I have no solution. There are some
web sites that display sectionals on the screen seamlessly, but you
can't download a chart, only what you can see on the screen (small area
or low resolution).

Alternatively is there easy to install and use software that can import
the downloadable GEO-TIFFs and generate across-seams charts? Such
software clearly lives inside those web sites that show seamless charts.
People who use software such as ForeFlight have it inside their iPads.
I want it in my PC so I can create plain image files that I can store
on any device.


Get a custom chart at http://soaringdata.info/aviation/sectionalTab.html . They are .jpg files and also have reference nav info for GlidePlan if you need that. We had a custom chart made for a Canadian Regional (four Sectionals merge for us) and it's great... Courtesy of Lynn Alley "2KA". Highly recommended... I must remember to Donate for this year.


I don't see "custom" charts there, in the sense of gluing together
different sectionals. The image files offered for download there are
distorted, "reprojected in latutude/longitude rectangular grids". That
may be the cat's meow for some software on some devices, software that
hopefully can also then combine the "tiles". But it doesn't get me what
I'm looking for, which is an undistorted image of the original sectional
maps, seamlessly combined. There are online sites such as
https://skyvector.com/ that shows the sections combined into one big
flat world you can pan across. That site does not have the anomalies
that I see when I combine the individual charts myself, so their source
data must be in a different format.

  #4  
Old February 26th 21, 03:16 AM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
Mike Schumann[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 177
Default US sectional charts online

On Thursday, February 25, 2021 at 7:24:43 PM UTC-5, Moshe Braner wrote:
On 2/25/2021 6:27 PM, Dan Daly wrote:
On Thursday, February 25, 2021 at 3:10:55 PM UTC-5, Moshe Braner wrote:
I got an e-mailing from the FAA that said, among other things:

New editions of all FAA aeronautical charts are now available for pdf
download every 56 days.
https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/flig..._Products/vfr/

The previous editions of the sectionals are dated on that page at
various dates in 2020, while all of the "next edition due" dates seem to
be today (Feb. 25, 2021). New faster refresh cycle? Cool.

But the files offered for download are still the old, well, sectionals,
i.e., the sections of the country that were covered by the old paper
sheets. And the file types offered are GEO-TIFF and PDF. Plain image
files apparently not.

Of course our gliderport is right near the seam between two sections.
In the past few years I've been downloading the two sheets, converting
to image files, reducing resolution, cropping to very carefully include
the same longitude range on the seam, and then electronically glueing
them together into one image file. (Which I then keep on my cellphone.)
This is a lot of work, and the results are not perfect, there are
anomalies along the seam. And all this seams/seems silly in 2021.

So, is there any way I can download a seamless "sectional" for my chosen
flying area (overlapping those antiquated sections)?

I've asked this before, but so far I have no solution. There are some
web sites that display sectionals on the screen seamlessly, but you
can't download a chart, only what you can see on the screen (small area
or low resolution).

Alternatively is there easy to install and use software that can import
the downloadable GEO-TIFFs and generate across-seams charts? Such
software clearly lives inside those web sites that show seamless charts.
People who use software such as ForeFlight have it inside their iPads.
I want it in my PC so I can create plain image files that I can store
on any device.


Get a custom chart at http://soaringdata.info/aviation/sectionalTab.html . They are .jpg files and also have reference nav info for GlidePlan if you need that. We had a custom chart made for a Canadian Regional (four Sectionals merge for us) and it's great... Courtesy of Lynn Alley "2KA". Highly recommended... I must remember to Donate for this year.

I don't see "custom" charts there, in the sense of gluing together
different sectionals. The image files offered for download there are
distorted, "reprojected in latutude/longitude rectangular grids". That
may be the cat's meow for some software on some devices, software that
hopefully can also then combine the "tiles". But it doesn't get me what
I'm looking for, which is an undistorted image of the original sectional
maps, seamlessly combined. There are online sites such as
https://skyvector.com/ that shows the sections combined into one big
flat world you can pan across. That site does not have the anomalies
that I see when I combine the individual charts myself, so their source
data must be in a different format.


I had a program a while back on an old laptop that did exactly what you wanted. I could open multiple geotiff files and it would seam them together and let you print PDFs of whatever part of the merged files you wanted. Unfortunately I replaced the computer and lost track of the name of the software.

Today, I fly with FltPlan Go an an iPad. No more paper charts. This app is totally free. It also runs on iPhones. A perfect solution. Use a kneeboard iPad mount if you don’t have space on your panel. Add an Ads-B receiver and get free weather radar, METARS, TAFs, and TFRs, along with traffic.
  #5  
Old February 26th 21, 07:30 AM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
Tom BravoMike
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 266
Default US sectional charts online

Doesn't the OziExplorer's 'Map Merge' supplement software do what you need?

https://www.oziexplorer4.com/mapmerge/mapmerge.html


On Thursday, February 25, 2021 at 2:10:55 PM UTC-6, Moshe Braner wrote:
I got an e-mailing from the FAA that said, among other things:

New editions of all FAA aeronautical charts are now available for pdf
download every 56 days.
https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/flig..._Products/vfr/

The previous editions of the sectionals are dated on that page at
various dates in 2020, while all of the "next edition due" dates seem to
be today (Feb. 25, 2021). New faster refresh cycle? Cool.

But the files offered for download are still the old, well, sectionals,
i.e., the sections of the country that were covered by the old paper
sheets. And the file types offered are GEO-TIFF and PDF. Plain image
files apparently not.

Of course our gliderport is right near the seam between two sections.
In the past few years I've been downloading the two sheets, converting
to image files, reducing resolution, cropping to very carefully include
the same longitude range on the seam, and then electronically glueing
them together into one image file. (Which I then keep on my cellphone.)
This is a lot of work, and the results are not perfect, there are
anomalies along the seam. And all this seams/seems silly in 2021.

So, is there any way I can download a seamless "sectional" for my chosen
flying area (overlapping those antiquated sections)?

I've asked this before, but so far I have no solution. There are some
web sites that display sectionals on the screen seamlessly, but you
can't download a chart, only what you can see on the screen (small area
or low resolution).

Alternatively is there easy to install and use software that can import
the downloadable GEO-TIFFs and generate across-seams charts? Such
software clearly lives inside those web sites that show seamless charts.
People who use software such as ForeFlight have it inside their iPads.
I want it in my PC so I can create plain image files that I can store
on any device.

  #6  
Old February 26th 21, 02:29 PM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
Eric Greenwell[_4_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,939
Default US sectional charts online

Mike Schumann wrote on 2/25/2021 6:16 PM:
On Thursday, February 25, 2021 at 7:24:43 PM UTC-5, Moshe Braner wrote:
On 2/25/2021 6:27 PM, Dan Daly wrote:
On Thursday, February 25, 2021 at 3:10:55 PM UTC-5, Moshe Braner wrote:
I got an e-mailing from the FAA that said, among other things:

New editions of all FAA aeronautical charts are now available for pdf
download every 56 days.
https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/flig..._Products/vfr/

The previous editions of the sectionals are dated on that page at
various dates in 2020, while all of the "next edition due" dates seem to
be today (Feb. 25, 2021). New faster refresh cycle? Cool.

But the files offered for download are still the old, well, sectionals,
i.e., the sections of the country that were covered by the old paper
sheets. And the file types offered are GEO-TIFF and PDF. Plain image
files apparently not.

Of course our gliderport is right near the seam between two sections.
In the past few years I've been downloading the two sheets, converting
to image files, reducing resolution, cropping to very carefully include
the same longitude range on the seam, and then electronically glueing
them together into one image file. (Which I then keep on my cellphone.)
This is a lot of work, and the results are not perfect, there are
anomalies along the seam. And all this seams/seems silly in 2021.

So, is there any way I can download a seamless "sectional" for my chosen
flying area (overlapping those antiquated sections)?

I've asked this before, but so far I have no solution. There are some
web sites that display sectionals on the screen seamlessly, but you
can't download a chart, only what you can see on the screen (small area
or low resolution).

Alternatively is there easy to install and use software that can import
the downloadable GEO-TIFFs and generate across-seams charts? Such
software clearly lives inside those web sites that show seamless charts.
People who use software such as ForeFlight have it inside their iPads.
I want it in my PC so I can create plain image files that I can store
on any device.

Get a custom chart at http://soaringdata.info/aviation/sectionalTab.html . They are .jpg files and also have reference nav info for GlidePlan if you need that. We had a custom chart made for a Canadian Regional (four Sectionals merge for us) and it's great... Courtesy of Lynn Alley "2KA". Highly recommended... I must remember to Donate for this year.

I don't see "custom" charts there, in the sense of gluing together
different sectionals. The image files offered for download there are
distorted, "reprojected in latutude/longitude rectangular grids". That
may be the cat's meow for some software on some devices, software that
hopefully can also then combine the "tiles". But it doesn't get me what
I'm looking for, which is an undistorted image of the original sectional
maps, seamlessly combined. There are online sites such as
https://skyvector.com/ that shows the sections combined into one big
flat world you can pan across. That site does not have the anomalies
that I see when I combine the individual charts myself, so their source
data must be in a different format.


I had a program a while back on an old laptop that did exactly what you wanted. I could open multiple geotiff files and it would seam them together and let you print PDFs of whatever part of the merged files you wanted. Unfortunately I replaced the computer and lost track of the name of the software.

Today, I fly with FltPlan Go an an iPad. No more paper charts. This app is totally free. It also runs on iPhones. A perfect solution. Use a kneeboard iPad mount if you don’t have space on your panel. Add an Ads-B receiver and get free weather radar, METARS, TAFs, and TFRs, along with traffic.

Is there an ADS-B receiver using Bluetooth that works with it? My iPhone wifi is dedicated to
Butterfly vario.

--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA (change ".netto" to ".us" to email me)
- "A Guide to Self-Launching Sailplane Operation"
https://sites.google.com/site/motorg...ad-the-guide-1

  #7  
Old February 26th 21, 03:38 PM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
Moshe Braner
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 114
Default US sectional charts online

On 2/26/2021 1:30 AM, Tom BravoMike wrote:
Doesn't the OziExplorer's 'Map Merge' supplement software do what you need?

https://www.oziexplorer4.com/mapmerge/mapmerge.html



That might work, if you want to pay $124 for OziExplorer plus the Merge
tool. At least the download files are small and system requirements
modest. There are various free software packages that can interpret
GEO-TIFF files, and some of them may be able to stitch them together.
It appears that QGIS can do that. But it's it is a 390 Megabyte
download, and it expands when you install it. And the hardware
requirements are high.

Either way you'd have to learn to use some complicated software (choose
your map projection, for example). All good if you want to dabble in
what is truly GIS software. But what I would expect for our tax money
by now is to be able to get a map for the area of your choice directly
from the FAA, instead of paper-map lookalikes. They could have several
overlapping combined maps generated and stored, and when you specify
your coordinate limits it would pick the right one and crop it, which
would be quick. I can dream. But that's essentially what Skyvector.com
already does, instantly.

Lacking that, maybe the flying community can get together and create
some merged maps and store them online somewhere. That would need to be
repeated periodically, the cycle of the sectional updates is now 56
days. For most of us the area we want in one map won't be bigger than a
traditional sectional, just needs to be shifted across the seams. Thus
pre-merged pairs of adjacent sectionals, for example, might suffice.
For the purpose, the resolution of the image can be reduced. E.g., my
hand-stitched map image of my flying area is only about 7 megabytes (25
megapixels, covering about 20,000 square miles). Thus storage and
download would be easy enough.

I've found some example merged sectionals he
http://www.glideplan.com/styled-5/downloads-3/files/
but those are from 2014 or earlier, and the whole point is to get
up-to-date maps to electronically carry with you.

The other approach is to use a live cellphone data connection to
something like skyvector.com from the cockpit, but I would much prefer
to have the data with me and not to count on a connection which may not
work when you need it.
  #8  
Old February 26th 21, 04:49 PM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
5Z
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 405
Default US sectional charts online

I've heard that the Fltplan Go app is free and provides current sectionals. I'm a CFIG, so use WingX, which is free to anyone with a CFI.

5Z
  #9  
Old February 26th 21, 05:01 PM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
Lynn Alley
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 3
Default US sectional charts online

Hello Moshe,

My website will indeed do exactly what you want. The format you seem to be asking for is the same as what GlidePlan uses. On the Sectionals tab, go to the section titled "US Sectional Charts for GlidePlan" and follow the link to request a custom GlidePlan map. You will need to provide a decimal lat/lon for a reference point somewhere on the chart, and distances in nautical miles from the reference point to the north, south, east, and west edges. The chart area must be limited to 200,000 square nautical miles, but that is huge.

My software will stitch together the required sectionals and make a JPG file you can download. You only need to make the request once, and after that, updated versions will appear in the custom GlidePlan charts folder on my website periodically.

Lynn Alley
"2KA"

  #10  
Old February 26th 21, 05:25 PM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
Moshe Braner
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 114
Default US sectional charts online

On 2/26/2021 11:01 AM, Lynn Alley wrote:
Hello Moshe,

My website will indeed do exactly what you want. The format you seem to be asking for is the same as what GlidePlan uses. On the Sectionals tab, go to the section titled "US Sectional Charts for GlidePlan" and follow the link to request a custom GlidePlan map. You will need to provide a decimal lat/lon for a reference point somewhere on the chart, and distances in nautical miles from the reference point to the north, south, east, and west edges. The chart area must be limited to 200,000 square nautical miles, but that is huge.

My software will stitch together the required sectionals and make a JPG file you can download. You only need to make the request once, and after that, updated versions will appear in the custom GlidePlan charts folder on my website periodically.

Lynn Alley
"2KA"


Fantastic! I didn't realize that was were this was hiding. And I see
it's not an automated system, it is instructions on sending you a
request to do some manual setup (which will then re-run automatically in
the future). I will try and submit a request as per the instructions,
that will satisfy other glider pilots in New England. Thank you for
this, and all the other great stuff you maintain on your web site, Lynn!

 




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