Nav Canada VNC/VTA charts in ForeFlight!

[Snowy]

Has hell frozen over? Nav Canada is working with ForeFlight to bring Canadian VNC and VTA charts into ForeFlight!

http://blog.foreflight.com/2013/07/03/c ... app-store/

[PointyEngine]

Great news - wasn't expecting that for a few millenia... Now it'd be just as cool if they'd make ForeFlight for Android!!

[Driving Rain]

http://skyvector.com/

[Snowy]

http://skyvector.com/

SkyVector uses FAA charts, not Nav Canada as of yet. Still a great site though. If only we could do planning on that tool similar to ForeFlight

[dahspeers]

Switched over my subscription and my iPad and iPhone are chewing through all the downloads now. Finally!

[chipmunk]

Woohoo!! Pleasantly surprised!

[AirFrame]

"$149.99 USD per year."

Hell will freeze over before I pay that for Canadian Charts.

[dahspeers]

How many Canadian charts are there? Multiply that by 18. Add in the cost of the 56 day pubs, and IFR charts.

Now bundle that all together, plus the USE of GPS, and great flight planning and the 149.99 isn't that bad. In my opinion.

[jump154]

... wrong information.

[Old Dog Flying]

Rob: I agree with you. Maps Canada used to produce these bits of paper at a reasonable price but since the "Not for profit" company took over everything is going sky high.

[Driving Rain]

http://www.flightplanner.ca/

[AirFrame]

How many Canadian charts are there? Multiply that by 18. Add in the cost of the 56 day pubs, and IFR charts.
Now bundle that all together, plus the USE of GPS, and great flight planning and the 149.99 isn't that bad. In my opinion.

How many Canadians fly coast to coast to coast? Sorry, but i'm a private pilot. Commercial pilots have a revenue stream to pay for this, I don't. I don't *need* all of Canada.

As a private pilot, I want the Vancouver VNC/VTA and that's it. If I travel east i'll buy the Calgary ones (and further if necessary, but I have no plans for travel that far in the forseeable future). I'd like a new CFS once a year, i'll track any changes in between manually. I don't need one every 56 days. I certainly don't need IFR charts.

NavCan needs a solution that factors in Private/GA pilots. $149 buys a lot of gas (although less than it should, because we're still paying a fuel tax that is supposed to pay for the air navigation services that NavCanada now provides and charges for separately).

[Marc_CYBW]

How does one track changes in the CFS?

[CpnCrunch]

If you want a cheaper solution, use Air Nav Pro. Updates are free and the app just costs $20-$50 one-time fee. It doesn't have exactly the same info as the VNC, but all the controlled airspace and airports are there. As long as you have an actual VNC for flight planning, it works very well.

[daedalusx]

I would have no problems paying 200$ /year for proper Electronic VNC/CAP/CAPGEN and CFS.

Foreflight sadly is still lacking digital CFS, also it doesn't have the same PDF quality as fltplan.com app (which is free).

JeppFD is still king, just too expensive for private/GA use.

[AirFrame]

How does one track changes in the CFS?

By comparing to a current hard-copy and making notes on my dogeared paper copy if needed. Again, for Private, GA pilots, the data in your area that you might actually use won't change much, if at all, in any given year. Very few people fly into the major international airports privately, it's just your local airports you really need to track. If you're going somewhere new or far away, it's probably prudent to get a new CFS and charts to be up-to-date, but flying around casually it's just not necessary.

I have AirNavPro, and love it. iOS and Android versions (iPad and Nexus 4). They'll replace my Garmin GPS when I finally get tired of having a dim, low-resolution screen in my cockpit. The more I use my Aera the less I like it.

[whatthe...]

Rob: I agree with you. Maps Canada used to produce these bits of paper at a reasonable price but since the "Not for profit" company took over everything is going sky high.

That is because the cost of the maps were subsidized by all taxpayers. Now you have to pay your own way - boo hoo.
If you can afford an expensive hobby like flying than I don't think you should complain about paying your fair share for all the publications - especially when they are updated every 56 days.

[skymarc]

The CFS is coming in ForeFlight. I heard by someone at NavCanada that the CFS info was sent to FF.
Hopefully we will see it before year end. I will check with FF at Oshkosh.
$200 for all this info updated every month is pretty good .

[PAJ]

They have been teasing us with the CFS tab (empty) for a while now. After the last update (v 5.2) the home page of their web site states "airport data from the Canada Flight Supplement (CFS)".

I emailed ForeFlight support and received a reply within 1/2 hour - impressive!

Thanks for your email. The CFS data will be added very soon, stay tuned.

[I_Drive_Planes]

I can't wait until they have the VNC/CFS data in Air Nav Pro or one of the other Android aviation apps.

[AirFrame]

That is because the cost of the maps were subsidized by all taxpayers. Now you have to pay your own way - boo hoo.
If you can afford an expensive hobby like flying than I don't think you should complain about paying your fair share for all the publications - especially when they are updated every 56 days.

Why should private GA pilots who don't generally travel outside their local area, let alone all the way across Canada from coast to coast, be required to "fund" commercial operators who do? I can't pass the costs along to my passengers, like Air Canada can.

I know very few pilots who fly with current charts or CFS' in their aircraft at all times (not that it's required anyway)... Buying new when the old ones wear out works just fine for a lot of GA Pilots. Forcing one subscription offering that becomes unusable when it expires is just a convenient way to force those pilots into a continuing revenue stream. It'll work fine for the commercial operators. Not so much for those of us flying on a budget.

Expensive hobby, my *ss. Warbirds are an expensive flying hobby. People flying small Cessnas and Pipers are no different than people taking their fifth wheel on vacation, or trailering their speedboat to the beach. They're getting into a hobby at the cheap end of the spectrum.

[Old Dog Flying]

Further to Airframe's post...being called CHEAP by someone who does not know me really is a bit rediculous. I've paid my way in aviation for more than 60 years and will continue to do so for many more..hopefully. I worked for nearly 50 years to be able to afford my toy and being called cheap puts me in the same category as an AC Capt..my God..that is akin to having a brother in the Navy!

I don't need 677 pages of crap that I will never use...but if I ever need the info to do another single engine cross Canada flight I'll be buying whatever I need...when I need it.

Safe flying folks
Barney

[whatthe...]

Further to Airframe's post...being called CHEAP by someone who does not know me really is a bit rediculous. I've paid my way in aviation for more than 60 years and will continue to do so for many more..hopefully. I worked for nearly 50 years to be able to afford my toy and being called cheap puts me in the same category as an AC Capt..my God..that is akin to having a brother in the Navy!


Safe flying folks
Barney

I never called you cheap. All I am saying is that $150 is not that much money for what you get in return.

[AirFrame]

I'd shake your head and walk away, Barney. He's either a commercial pilot who has his charts paid for by the company, or he's too new to flying to realize that $150 a year for the paper CFS, $150 a year for the digital charts in Foreflight, $150 a year to keep his Garmin GPS updated, etc. all adds up to no money for gas at the end of the day. I started out the same way, with the yearly CFS subscription and I always had new charts. Reality intervened.

For $150/year, you're getting access to digital charts. The cost to produce the digital product is $0. They have to be produced anyway to make the paper charts. There is a non-zero distribution cost for the bandwidth as people download them, but $150/year would pay for enough bandwidth for every pilot in canada who wanted a copy to download them. Especially since most people would only download the ones they needed anyway.

[whatthe...]

I'd shake your head and walk away, Barney. He's either a commercial pilot who has his charts paid for by the company, or he's too new to flying to realize that $150 a year for the paper CFS, $150 a year for the digital charts in Foreflight, $150 a year to keep his Garmin GPS updated, etc. all adds up to no money for gas at the end of the day. I started out the same way, with the yearly CFS subscription and I always had new charts. Reality intervened.

For $150/year, you're getting access to digital charts. The cost to produce the digital product is $0. They have to be produced anyway to make the paper charts. There is a non-zero distribution cost for the bandwidth as people download them, but $150/year would pay for enough bandwidth for every pilot in canada who wanted a copy to download them. Especially since most people would only download the ones they needed anyway.

No money for gas? Give me a break.

However, I do agree that digital charts should be cheaper - huge savings for the company on printing costs.