Printing off approach plates on demand?

Peter wrote:

Yes, but you (or somebody) wrote above

"I too am still looking for a cost-effective and convenient solution
to use the "free" downloads."

How else are you going to use downloaded plates? Either print them, or
display them on something.

That's what I wrote. What don't you understand?

Dave

Those Flightprep folks certainly seem to have a good system with the
GPS, WX, and Plates complete with the computer. Just plug it in and
go. HOw was your experience with this system. Does the computer run
windows? Can i use it for something other than avaition stuff (ie:
play a DVD)?

-dr

Some years ago, the Gov charts began copying the briefing strip from
Jepp. Closed the gap a bit I hear. I've never used Jepp.

Regarding printing - I hear Staples has a low cost, high speed laser
sale for $50 after rebate. Cheaper than the cartdridge. Would make
printing easier... but there's a lot to be said for having the whole
bound current volume in the bag. Don't know about you but when
traveling, I often change destinations due to weather/time/mood. Hate
to have my decisions influenced by what charts I have on board.

Mark Hansen wrote:

When I began training, I was told that Jeppesen produced better charts.
When comparing the two, I liked the structure, layout, etc. of the
Jeppesen charts, so I decided to go that route.

I have a subscription to the charts for California only, which costs
me about $140 per year.

With certain subscription levels, you can print Jeppesen charts, but
I haven't done this yet.

If you think you might like to use the Jeppesen charts, you can purchase
an expired set, just to see what the format looks like. Also, Rod Machado's
book, "The Instrument Pilot's Survival Manual", goes through the differences
in the charts, highlighting those that make the Jeppesen charts better (the
book goes through most all aspects of Instrument flight, the comparison of
the charts is only part of it).

Hope this helps,

Go to MyAirplane.com They have all the NACO plates online for free...
in vector PDF format. They also sell DVDs of the charts for a decent
price.

In article ,
says...


However in the USA you have the free plates, which unlike the European
ones are quite usable.


And what do you find "unuseable" about the European online plates?
Perhaps you are referring to a specific country. Previous threads here
have seemed to indicate that there are still significant differences
in the quality and availability of online services in different European
countries. The online charts available for free in France are,
if anything, better than those available in the US.

GF

In article ,
says...

We do have free plates in Europe too, for the major countries, but
they are all A4 PDFs and not only are they unreadable if reduced to A5
(the normal plate size) but this appears to be deliberate, to protect
the revenue of firms like Jepp....


Interesting - In France, in the past year the official government
publications (for paid subscribers) for instrument plates has moved from
A5 to A4 (half-size to full-size 8.5X11 for those Americans unfamiliar
with European sheet sizes). I assume this was done in full coordination
with aircraft manufacturers, who agreed to increase cockpit size on new
models, and retrofit all older planes with twice as much knee space for
the new charts.
;-)

GF

In article ,
says...



Peter wrote:

If they are to be displayed on any electronic device, the absolute
minimum resolution is 768x1024 (portrait) just to be able to read the
small text.


I love the Jepp advertisement - says something like "New Technology -
Same Approach" and it shows a paper approach plate and a tablet display
of the same plate. The problem is the paper one looks sharp and detailed,
while the tablet display, although readable, appears pixelated and grainy
by comparison!

GF

Greg Farris wrote:

I love the Jepp advertisement - says something like "New Technology -
Same Approach" and it shows a paper approach plate and a tablet display
of the same plate. The problem is the paper one looks sharp and detailed,
while the tablet display, although readable, appears pixelated and grainy
by comparison!

This is a real technology problem. For all the wonderful advances in
display technology, we're still nowhere near the resolution available using
ink on paper. A high quality printing press on good paper can do 1000
lines per inch. The best LCD displays today are only about 100 dpi.

I also haven't yet seen an LCD panel that I can fold up so just the right
portion is visible and scrunch it in the corner of the windshield.

"Peter" wrote in message
...

Roy Smith wrote:

This is a real technology problem. For all the wonderful advances in
display technology, we're still nowhere near the resolution available
using
ink on paper. A high quality printing press on good paper can do 1000
lines per inch. The best LCD displays today are only about 100 dpi.

You could do it with say a 1200x1600 display, but for marketing
reasons nobody is going to make a 1200x1600 tablet with a screen size
that is desirable for cockpit use, probably 8" diagonal.

http://www.motioncomputing.com/produ...blet_pc_le.asp (1600)
....
800x600 tablets have been around for ages. The old Fujitsu LTP600 is
popular with a number of pilots I know, for JV.

"Peter" wrote in message ...


Whereas the Jepp plates are stored as image files, and these were
obviously designed for 800x600; the format is proprietary but it is
probably something like GIF (lossless compression suited well to line
drawings) and they very possibly store 2 or 3 images of the plate to
suit the different views which JV can offer - whole page, page width,
I don't have JV handy. It's efficient; all the plates for all airports
in the world fit in 500MB or so on one CD. Every JV3 CD has all this
on it; you just need to coverage code to unlock the stuff you have
paid for


More specifically, Jepp plates are vector graphics, not raster images.
They are rendered into a raster image only at time of display,
so lines and edges won't appear fuzzy at high zoom levels.
That means each displayable image is constructed to the full resolution
of your display device only *after* you select a subsection of the chart,
such as the chart header, or the profile view, etc. for display.
That uses a little extra real-time image-processing computation,
but the result is an immensely better image than PDFs give us.