Anybody use Air Charts http://www.airchart.com/Pages/ac_vfr_sectional.html

I generally use WAC to be legal but when in Idaho or other places I need large scale, I usually have an old sectional for reference. I have never seen an update on mountains and rivers.

Have thought of changeing to Air Chart Western Sectional. If just staying west of the Rockies, then 99 bucks a year seems pretty resonable.

Tim

$99 a month for VFR charts??????

I'll sell you VFR charts for $99 a month

Gump

GumpAir wrote:$99 a month for VFR charts??????

I'll sell you VFR charts for $99 a month

Gump

That is 99 for one book that covers the west for a year.

Tim

The paper is tough stuff- much tougher than a map. I don't think I've ever ripped a page. Using a pen and a finger to measure distances is tough going from one page to next either vertically, or horizontally, even across the binding. When the air is bumpy, its sometimes hard to find a point or orient yourself when changing from a page, vertically to the next page. When you're toward the front or the back of the book and have both sides of the binding open, it can slip off your lap. When swapping stories its quicker to find a new area than shuffling through a stack of maps. The updates aren't particularly easy to use, but do qualify for up to date charts.

For the way I use maps, they fit the bill.

Jack

Delorme Gazetteer and Topos. I like to write my B/C notes into the gazetteer, so I don't have to transcribe from one set of sectionals to another whenever I get new ones

I don't like the books of charts, mostly cause I live pretty much close to the line between two books, so I'd have to buy two of the dang things to make it work. Nice concept, but I'll stick with sectionals.

The Delorme books are great, if you don't cover much ground, and you need infinite detail. Again, depends on what you do, where you go, and what you need.

MTV

Garmin GPS updated once a year & current sectionals for the areas I usually travel in. And a lot of lookin out the windows sayin where in the hell am I?

I use sectionals, cause I'm lazy I guess. At $8 a pop, twice a year is $16. So far I have mainly flown OR/WA/ID/MT, so $16 x 4 is $64. But why don't you try it out and let us know.

I bought the book several years ago. I still have and use the same book. Mostly for planning while sitting on the couch. When I go to do my real flight planning I use Aeroplanner and have it print out all the charts along my route.

Because I'm intrinsically cheap, and virtually all of the flying I do now-a-days is VFR, look out the window flying, I used WAC charts as they covered more area (kinda like getting two charts for the price of one).

The problem with the WAC charts was the scale..at 16 statue miles/inch they lack a fair amount of detail compared to Sectional's (about 1/2 the detail ..go figure )

The problem with Sectionals was I was always flying just a wee-bit further than the area they covered, so I needed 5 or 6 of them on hand and inevitably the one I needed would be out of date. I decided to try the air chart system. At the time they only offered WAC charts in the "atlas" format, but the convenience of having them cover the entire U.S. outweighed the "scale" issue.

I've used the air chart system for over 15 years now, and find it to be very useful. I like the size & ease of use. Since air chart started offering Sectionals in the "atlas" format I've been using the "Western VFR Sectional Atlas". Unlike some others who have posted, I find the updates to be easy to understand and use.

GPS's are nice, VOR's, ADF's, RNAV, and LORAN's are all useful, but there is something to be said for being able to stick your finger at a point on a map and know you are "there". Probably has something to do with learning to fly back in the 1960's when knowing how to read and use a map was essential; old habits die hard I guess.

http://www.runwayfinder.com for planning.
Sectionals in the air.

I use google earth quite a bit too for exploring and daydreaming about places to visit. I highly recommend that fellow g-e users should go download Lloyd Bailey's impressive airspace files for their state to see 3d airspace.
http://www.lloydbailey.net/airspace.html