IFR Charts

While I wasn't flying, my Jeppesen Northwest Airway Manual Express subscription expired back in February. And it seems like there are (at least seemingly) more options for charting than in the past. Both NACO and Jeppesen charts are of course available, but this time Jeppesen is really pushing their JeppView electronic charting product. I'm not going to go into the NACO vs. Jeppesen debate here, but needless to say, I've trained with Jeppesen, so I'm going to stick to that.

I must admit that I was more or less oblivious to the whole IFR charting business back when I was an instrument student (which actually was not that long ago!) Life then was simple. The pilot store next to the FBO where I trained carried the "Jeppesen NW Express Pack", and for around $30 + tax, I got a fresh set of plates every 56 days. Convenient, but expensive. A little later on, I found out you can get a "subscription service" for the said "NW Express Pack" for much cheaper - and they still send you a fresh set of terminal procedures every 56 days: for the price of being more careful with enroute charts, I got a much cheaper charting story.

In the meantime, I started to discover the limitations of the Express Pack: it only covers Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. That's enough for most of the time, but... I remember once going to Montana -- I had to print out the NACO charts from the web. For one the big trip down to Oakland, Milen and I split the cost of the Jeppesen Express Pack for California. For trips to Canada -- just a short hop across the border -- I ended up buying Jepp Trip Kits. But, they're expensive: I had to get the whole Western Canada edition for around $100 for each trip. And, they take a while to order: there's no spontaneous "let's go to Victoria for the day". On top of that, there were many times when I did not feel like spending $100 for a Trip Kit, so flying to Canada just didn't happen as often as it could have.

So what to do? I considered getting a greater coverage area for paper Jepps, but that comes with a price: the pain of revisions seems to increase exponentially with the increase in geographical area covered. Plus, the price is, uh, a lot. I really need charts for Western USA and Western Canada, so that would be $731/year payable to Captain Jeppesen. And let's face it: most of the airports that are included in the paper subscription I'll never fly to -- so I don't really care that a procedure changed in, say, Lovelock, NV (no offense to people there). Unless, of course, I end up diverting there for some reason, which means I still need to apply the updates "just in case".

Given all this, it seems like JeppView could be the answer. Electronic versions of the low enroute and terminal procedure charts for Western USA and Western Canada are available for slightly cheaper than with regular paper charts -- $524 (plus the initial $100 fee for the software). Updating with JeppView is a breeze, since you can just download the updates from the Internet every 14 days. And, you still get paper enroute charts, so the only truly electronic portion is the terminal procedures. So far, it seems like a win-win from the money perspective and the updates perspective.

I am, however, taking a big gamble on electronic charts: I don't have a dedicated flight bag laptop yet (although I do have a Tablet PC through work). So, the way I'm going to use the JeppView electronic charts is mostly on the ground: I'll buy the special paper for chart printing (already hole-punched, and according to the representative, it's of similar thickness as the paper for regular Jeppesen charts) at $15.95 per 1,000 sheets, and I'll print out the charts I need for any particular route of flight. Of course, I'll likely have to print out charts for airports along alternate routes, and for maximum safety, I'll carry my work-issued Tablet PC just in case I need to make an approach into that Middle of Nowhere Airport. Long term, I'll probably buy a Tablet PC with a special bright screen -- I doubt the Toshiba Portege I have now will be readable in bright sunlight.

Of course, all of the above is theory. The software is scheduled to arrive this Friday, so look for a "first impressions" post soon.