Jepp no longer in the GA business...?

I went to get my new IFR charts today and my local pilot shop told me they
will no longer be carrying Jepp products. I know that some places have
already stopped, but at PAO/RHV they thought up until a few days ago that
they would be able to carry on.

Seems someone at Jepp has had the brilliant idea to stop retail sales of
their chart products to force people to subscribe. I don't like being
blackmailed at any time, and the NOS charts are fine - I prefer Jepp but not
THAT much - so that's the end of Jepp as far as I'm concerned.

Some quick math suggests that Jepp have just kissed goodbye to $10-20M of
business/year. What are they thinking?

John

"John Harper" wrote in message
news:1086932410.221952@sj-nntpcache-5...
I went to get my new IFR charts today and my local pilot shop told me they
will no longer be carrying Jepp products. I know that some places have
already stopped, but at PAO/RHV they thought up until a few days ago that
they would be able to carry on.

Seems someone at Jepp has had the brilliant idea to stop retail sales of
their chart products to force people to subscribe. I don't like being
blackmailed at any time, and the NOS charts are fine - I prefer Jepp but
not
THAT much - so that's the end of Jepp as far as I'm concerned.

Some quick math suggests that Jepp have just kissed goodbye to $10-20M of
business/year. What are they thinking?

They were thinking that the business they would lose by doing this would be
far less than the cost of buying back all those unused retail kits every
month, a condition demanded by more and more retailers. They were thinking
that they could reduce an enormous GA liability problem, seeing that
airplanes piloted by professional pilots have a much better safety record
than airplanes piloted by, well, unprofessional pilots. They were thinking
that most pilot shops refused to carry their products anyway. They were
thinking that their electronic chart business is expanding at the expense of
their paper chart business. They were thinking that by making people
subscribe they are reducing the chance of an accident caused by cheapskates
who don't keep their charts current. They were thinking that they could
actually reduce overall distribution costs. They were thinking that they
could cut out the middleman in an already low margin business.

Some quick math suggests that Jepp have just kissed goodbye to $10-20M of
business/year. What are they thinking?

They were thinking that the business they would lose by doing this would be
far less than the cost of buying back all those unused retail kits every
month, a condition demanded by more and more retailers. They were thinking
that they could reduce an enormous GA liability problem, seeing that
airplanes piloted by professional pilots have a much better safety record
than airplanes piloted by, well, unprofessional pilots. They were thinking
that most pilot shops refused to carry their products anyway. They were
thinking that their electronic chart business is expanding at the expense of
their paper chart business. They were thinking that by making people
subscribe they are reducing the chance of an accident caused by cheapskates
who don't keep their charts current. They were thinking that they could
actually reduce overall distribution costs. They were thinking that they
could cut out the middleman in an already low margin business.

How do you know all this inside thinking by the folks at Jeppesen?

John Harper wrote:


their chart products to force people to subscribe. I don't like being
blackmailed at any time, and the NOS charts are fine - I prefer Jepp but not
THAT much - so that's the end of Jepp as far as I'm concerned.


If your instrument flying is limited to the U.S. why not forget Jeppesen and,
instead, use the new NACO vector-graphics charts, which are free.

There used to be a real issue of print quality of the bitmap NACO charts offered
by AOPA and others. Not so now that NACO has provided the charts in vector
graphics and, unlike Jeppesen, in a very convenient stand-alone Acrobat file
format. And, when you print out the NACO chart on a good printer it is full
page without any license BS cluttering the top of the chart.

If you fly internationally, then you're stuck with Jepps. In that case, money
usually isn't a big deal so you shower Jeppesen with lots of long green for
extensive international coverage.

Oh, and I forgot to say: those new NACO PDF charts probably wiped out Jeppesen's
retail sales.

John Harper wrote:
I went to get my new IFR charts today and my local pilot shop told me they
will no longer be carrying Jepp products. I know that some places have
already stopped, but at PAO/RHV they thought up until a few days ago that
they would be able to carry on.

Seems someone at Jepp has had the brilliant idea to stop retail sales of
their chart products to force people to subscribe. I don't like being
blackmailed at any time, and the NOS charts are fine - I prefer Jepp but not
THAT much - so that's the end of Jepp as far as I'm concerned.

Some quick math suggests that Jepp have just kissed goodbye to $10-20M of
business/year. What are they thinking?

John



I don't know what they are thinking, but I learned with NOS charts and
have stayed with them. Since returning to flight after a 4+ year
layoff, it seems to me (maybe just my imagination) that the new NOS (or
is it NACO now?) charts seem to be of higher quality than before with
clearer and darker print and better paper. I stuck with NOS because I
can find them almost anywhere if I need another chart while "on the road."

In the past, I always had a chart subscription direct with NOS and will
likely do so again, but for now I am buying as needed at the local FBO
and that is working fine so far and they maintain a decent selection and
inventory.

Matt

In article ,
Matt Whiting wrote:

In the past, I always had a chart subscription direct with NOS and will
likely do so again, but for now I am buying as needed at the local FBO
and that is working fine so far and they maintain a decent selection and
inventory.

I did my original training with Jepp, and used them for a bunch of
years. I wasted a huge amount of time doing the revision filing thing,
then spent a bit more money and got a Jepp Express subscription which
killed more trees, but saved a lot of time.

A while ago, I wasn't flying much and let my Jepp subscription lapse.
When I picked up again, I decided to go with NOS/NACO/whatever, if only
to force myself to become proficient at reading their charts. I still
think Jepp does a better approach plate, but the new style NOS charts
with the briefing strip are a big improvement over what they used to be.

The recent availability of on-line vector PDF charts sold me for good.
The convenience and cost just can't be beat. I print out what I want,
when I want it, and pick up the en-routes at the FBO once in a while.

Do you know these points to be facts, or are these simply your
opinions of likely reasons?

Most of your points make a lot of sense and I could understand why
Jepp wouldn't want to deal with the hassle of retail sales, especially
since mail order and on-line sales work so easily.

Is GA liabiliy really an issue? I would imagine that most GA pilots
who use Jepp products do not buy them retail.

By the way, I've found Jepp to be very flexible and helpful. I've had
them replace charts and plates free of charge even when their getting
"lost in the mail" was my fault.



"C J Campbell" wrote in message ...
"John Harper" wrote in message
news:1086932410.221952@sj-nntpcache-5...
I went to get my new IFR charts today and my local pilot shop told me they
will no longer be carrying Jepp products. I know that some places have
already stopped, but at PAO/RHV they thought up until a few days ago that
they would be able to carry on.

Seems someone at Jepp has had the brilliant idea to stop retail sales of
their chart products to force people to subscribe. I don't like being
blackmailed at any time, and the NOS charts are fine - I prefer Jepp but
not
THAT much - so that's the end of Jepp as far as I'm concerned.

Some quick math suggests that Jepp have just kissed goodbye to $10-20M of
business/year. What are they thinking?

They were thinking that the business they would lose by doing this would be
far less than the cost of buying back all those unused retail kits every
month, a condition demanded by more and more retailers. They were thinking
that they could reduce an enormous GA liability problem, seeing that
airplanes piloted by professional pilots have a much better safety record
than airplanes piloted by, well, unprofessional pilots. They were thinking
that most pilot shops refused to carry their products anyway. They were
thinking that their electronic chart business is expanding at the expense of
their paper chart business. They were thinking that by making people
subscribe they are reducing the chance of an accident caused by cheapskates
who don't keep their charts current. They were thinking that they could
actually reduce overall distribution costs. They were thinking that they
could cut out the middleman in an already low margin business.

Roy Smith wrote:

The recent availability of on-line vector PDF charts sold me for good.
The convenience and cost just can't be beat. I print out what I want,
when I want it, and pick up the en-routes at the FBO once in a while.

There are two rules to properly use NACO charts, which apply less to Jepps.

1. You must check the FDC NOTAMs without fail because NACO is not allowed to
chart "T" FDC NOTAMs, whereas Jeppesen selectively charts them. And, just
because a 28-day cycle passes doesn't mean that NACO will now chart such a
NOTAM. They won't.

2. You absolutely need to subscribe to the AF/D because NACO provides none of
the important data, such as VGSI limitations, etc, that Jeppesen provides
(sometimes incorrectly, I may add) on its airport pages.

With those two caveats, you're probably better off with today's NACO charts.
Also, a subscription to NACO's en route charts from Sporty's is probably a
good idea. NACO's en route charts have always been crisper, easier to read
than Jepp's so far as I am concerned.

"Roy Smith" wrote in message
...
A while ago, I wasn't flying much and let my Jepp subscription lapse.
When I picked up again, I decided to go with NOS/NACO/whatever, if only
to force myself to become proficient at reading their charts. I still
think Jepp does a better approach plate, but the new style NOS charts
with the briefing strip are a big improvement over what they used to be.

That's my impression too. The main things I still prefer on the Jepp plates
are the highlighting of the final approach navaid pointer, and the more
intuitive profiling of step-down fixes (the diagonal-then-horizontal
descent-and-level-off depiction, as opposed to the diagonal-only line that
NACO draws).

--Gary