Anyone use Air Chart?

I saw an ad in AOPA for www.airchart.com . Does anyone have any experience
with these charts? My flight instructor recently got them. For someone that
does a bit of traveling, it sounds like a great deal. I'm curious how
practical they are (in-flight usage, not able to draw the big 'ol line
across 2 or 3 sectionals, etc).

Thanks.




PP-ASEL

I used their WAC charts for a flight last summer from California to
Oshkosh. I thought they were great and their new Sectional charts
should be even better.

I have Airchart Systems Aviation Topographic Atlas and VFR Enroute Atlas,
they came with my airplane when I bought it a couple years ago. Times used
in flight, zero. Renew? No.

I thought seriously about going for their whole package as I'm covering most
of the eastern US this summer in one trip. I wanted the VFR/IFR package
with approach charts. If one is going to use all those charts more than a
couple times spread out over the course of a year, it's worth it. Otherwise
most people would be paying for alot of stuff they'll never use, or use only
once. The VFR Enroute Atlas, unless they've changed it since 2000, is
pretty worthless, IMO. Nearly all of that info is available to me by other
means.

The Topographic Atlas I like, cool to glance at every now and then. The
Class C charts in the back are nice. But the Class B charts are not from
the associated Terminal Area Chart, it's from the sectional, as is the Class
C's. So you may still need to buy a TAC chart or two, or several.
I assume the IFR book is probably pretty good, although I havent seen it and
guess you have to pencil-in changes. The price is a little high for
everything, but they look like they put alot of work into their atlas's, the
topographic one anyway.

Instead I just went through Sporty's and bought what I needed for this trip,
and got a subscription to the charts I use year round. One hassle is this
trip crosses over two 56 day cycles, so a couple I need to buy two cycles,
and find the right ones on the road - although Sportys said they'd send it
out to where I was, pretty cool getting flight charts from the hotels front
desk.

Anyway, theres my 2 cents,
Chris


"Steven Barnes" wrote in message
om...

I saw an ad in AOPA for www.airchart.com . Does anyone have any
experience
with these charts? My flight instructor recently got them. For someone
that
does a bit of traveling, it sounds like a great deal. I'm curious how
practical they are (in-flight usage, not able to draw the big 'ol line
across 2 or 3 sectionals, etc).

Thanks.




PP-ASEL

In article ,
Steven Barnes wrote:
I saw an ad in AOPA for www.airchart.com . Does anyone have any experience
with these charts? My flight instructor recently got them. For someone that
does a bit of traveling, it sounds like a great deal.

I was just looking at those myself.

The new sectional charts seem like a good deal: to cover the whole US
costs about half what it would to buy the individual sectionals,
in theory you update them over 2 cycles, AND they're spiral bound.
I figure the updates won't be a big deal and it will even save me
having to redraw the TFRs a few times. I've seen mixed reviews of
their home-grown VFR products, but how badly could they screw up a
reprint of the sectionals?

Whether you like the "captain's guide" probably depends on what you fly.
They keep it small by limiting it to 2500' hard-surface runways. If
you fly a twin you're probably not missing anything. I do wonder about
the misc A/FD things that the FAA shovels in because they have no other
place for it. VOT frequencies, preferred routes, lots of phone numbers
for things like FSS, etc. Plus the AF/D now has full page runway diagrams
for many airports (nice if you don't have that duplicated by IFR charts).
The captain's guide is very inexpensive compared to any alternative
(less than a subscription to any one AF/D, same price as any one of the
three Flite Guide books, which I hate).

IFR atlas I'd lump in with the sectionals. Actual NACO charts, but
ring bound. Updates probably no big deal.

The approach plates sound like a nightmare. NACO books or loose leaf
(your choice) combined with manual (as in you write on the chart) updates
of the charts. At least if you buy the NACO plates normally you get
to toss torn up books and you never have to do updates. Of course you
could buy all the NACO plates yourself, and you could get updates off
the web if they changed, so I guess the only service here is sending you
the text descriptions of the changes.

Maybe the way to go is to supplement their IFR atlas with a subscription
to the Sporty's DVD of NACO plates and print what you need. Or buy the
regional NACO book you need when you need it.

--
Ben Jackson

http://www.ben.com/

I have used the Howie Keefe AirChart system for decades and it is an
excellent system...
denny

"Ben Jackson" wrote in message
news:N8b8c.83873$po.654476@attbi_s52...
In article ,
Steven Barnes wrote:
I saw an ad in AOPA for www.airchart.com . Does anyone have any
experience
with these charts?

Every May, I buy the Terps and Enroute charts I expect to need from
Uncle Sam. Then I subscribe to Airchart's Updates.

The best of both worlds.

vince norris

In a previous article, "Steven Barnes" said:
I saw an ad in AOPA for www.airchart.com . Does anyone have any experience
with these charts? My flight instructor recently got them. For someone that

I used the IFR Atlas for my Oshkosh trip, and a couple of shorter trips.
I had an approach plate subscription as well, but I could never get the
hang of all the updates.

This year, I've renewed the IFR Atlas, added the VFR Sectional Chart East,
and dropped the approach plate part. I've got a subscription for the
local approach plates (and A/FD and local sectionals) through
flyairways.com and I'll order whatever extras I need for trips.


--
Paul Tomblin http://xcski.com/blogs/pt/
"Harry very carefully read the manual - four times - because Snape would
cut off his breathing privs if he asked him a question that the manual
could answer..." -- Harry Potter and the Book Of The BOFH

I used to use Sporty's. I now use Avmaps.com. They are quite a bit cheaper
than Sporty's and they only charge the actual shipping, not the inflated
shipping and handling Sporty's does.

--
--Ray Andraka, P.E.
President, the Andraka Consulting Group, Inc.
401/884-7930 Fax 401/884-7950
email
http://www.andraka.com

"They that give up essential liberty to obtain a little
temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
-Benjamin Franklin, 1759

I subscribed a few times, but got ****ed off after not seeing
identifiers, frequencies and the like available information that is
usually contained on the sectionals. Plus, everywhere I wanted to go
seemed to be either covered over or right on the next page. I do keep
a copy for quick trip reference, though.

On Wed, 24 Mar 2004 07:18:43 -0500, "Dennis O'Connor"
wrote:

I have used the Howie Keefe AirChart system for decades and it is an
excellent system...
denny

"Ben Jackson" wrote in message
news:N8b8c.83873$po.654476@attbi_s52...
In article ,
Steven Barnes wrote:
I saw an ad in AOPA for www.airchart.com . Does anyone have any
experience
with these charts?

On Wed, 24 Mar 2004 12:11:47 -0600, Stu Gotts
wrote:

I subscribed a few times, but got ****ed off after not seeing
identifiers, frequencies and the like available information that is
usually contained on the sectionals.

They now offer sectionals.