Printing off approach plates on demand?

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.

Thanks,

-dr

Jep offers subscriptions, you can get government charts for
free from the AOPA or directly from the government also for
just your tax money.

http://www.jeppesen.com/wlcs/index.jsp
www.aopa.org
http://www.naco.faa.gov/index.asp?xm...s/ifr/ifrchart



--
James H. Macklin
ATP,CFI,A&P

--
The people think the Constitution protects their rights;
But government sees it as an obstacle to be overcome.
some support
http://www.usdoj.gov/olc/secondamendment2.htm
See http://www.fija.org/ more about your rights and duties.


wrote in message
oups.com...
| 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.
|
| Thanks,
|
| -dr
|

wrote in message oups.com...
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.

Thanks,

-dr

www.jeppesen.com
I use Jeppview for the Apollo MX20, and I was going to put the link here,
but it is an unreasonably long and unwieldy link.
Better you should search for it, or look under "Products and Services",
and then under "Charting and Navigation Services".

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.

GF

Hello...

Ok, so if you can get them for free by downloading and printing them,
why do people pay for the paper plates? Or is it a convenience thing
just to have them shipped to you every cycle?

I imagine the cost would add up for Jepp plates, enroute charts, MX20
plate subcription, garmin subscription. Or perhaps there is an "all in
one" package you can order?

Thanks,

-dr

wrote:
Hello...

Ok, so if you can get them for free by downloading and printing them,
why do people pay for the paper plates? Or is it a convenience thing
just to have them shipped to you every cycle?

They're free to download, but using the kinds of printers most people have in
their homes attached to their PCs, they're expensive to print. OK for a one-off,
but if you plan on printing very many, the cost adds up.

Then there's the convenience of a bound volume, and the reassurance that you
have all the charts and you didn't fail to print one that you might need.


I imagine the cost would add up for Jepp plates, enroute charts, MX20
plate subcription, garmin subscription. Or perhaps there is an "all in
one" package you can order?

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

On 05/10/06 05:06, wrote:
Hello...

Ok, so if you can get them for free by downloading and printing them,
why do people pay for the paper plates? Or is it a convenience thing
just to have them shipped to you every cycle?

I imagine the cost would add up for Jepp plates, enroute charts, MX20
plate subcription, garmin subscription. Or perhaps there is an "all in
one" package you can order?

Thanks,

-dr


My experience is in the U.S. only...

You really have a choice between Jeppesen and NACO (the U.S. Government
charts).

Jeppesen is focused on the professional pilot, so they aren't cheap.
The NACO charts are basically free. You can download and print them
yourself, or buy the booklets for just a few dollars, etc.

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,



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

Peter wrote:
Dave Butler wrote:


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


You can run the free charts on Oziexplorer, among other products.

A tablet PC should display NACO plates OK, though perhaps not in a
size approximating their actual paper size. Aren't there many products
in the USA that do this?

Since I don't have any other use for a tablet PC, the cost of the PC makes it
not cost-effective for me. I can purchase a lot of NACO chart books for the
price of a PC.

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

On 5/9/2006 9:21 PM, wrote the following:
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.


I have used a couple of software packages that help you organize and
print the plates you need:

Seattle Avionics (seattleavionics.com) had a product called
SmartPlates that was very nice. Now it is incorporated somehow in
their Voyager flight planning package. I am not clear how, as I have
SmartPlates, but not a full Voyager package, grandfathered in. The
product is a monster, based on Microsoft's ugly dot-net package. If
you like buying memory for your computer and watching hourglass
symbols you will love this app. I no longer use it.

A guy named Greg Siemon has written (singlehandedly I think) a nice
package called Aviator Trip Pack. You can look at it he
http://www.cmensys.com The interface is a little quirky but it runs
very fast. Greg has recently added a bunch of DUAT/DUATS stuff and
flight planning features, but I have not used them.

I use Greg's package with a utility called FinePrint
(www.fineprint.com) which allows me to easily print booklets of
plates, nicely sized to half page, page numbered, date stamped for the
printing date, and two sided. This makes life very easy as I just
print a new booklet every time I need one.

For backup, I carry paper plates from Air Chart Systems. Their system
is much cheaper than an NACO subscription and is entirely adequate as
a backup.

Finally, take a look at ChartCase Pro
(http://www.flightprep.com/rootpage.php?page=HomeEFB) if you want to
see the extreme of what can be done with the NACO plates, sectionals,
low and high altitude charts. Those guys have them all georeferenced
and set up for use on tablet computers with GPS receivers. It's
really slick. (Truth in Advertising: I was a beta tester for them.)

HTH