I work with a bunch of 'Pilot Geeks' who develop an excellent (and FREE) moving map aviation application called Avare:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... m.ds.avare
It is one of many moving map applications for Android tablets, and although I am biased, I think it is an excellent product and the developers goal is to keep it free - no adverts, no subscriptions, no costs. Yes it costs us time to maintain, but we intend to keep the application Open Source and invite other developers to join us.
Anyway, I am the only Canadian on the team, and it falls to me to maintain Canadian content (charts, airport info, etc). Of course, the application is 'for entertainment purposes only' and should NEVER be used as a primary navigation tool - it is not certified by an official body, although it is pretty stable and accurate!
We have US content in abundance: charts, airport plates, airport info etc - ALL FREE from the US government. But we have very little Canadian content, except where the US charts overlap Canadian borders.
I have contacted NavCanada and they were very helpful in answering my questions and informing me of what information is available. basically, they do offer various electronic information products including charts and CFS. They charge annual subscription fees to access this content and distribute it as part of third party applications such as Avare. They require the product company to have aviation liability insurance (the level depends on the information product package being subscribed to), and they have a single annual charge to the 3rd party product company.
Unfortunately, unless I sign a confidentiality agreement, I cannot discover this actual yearly subscription fee, but I can only guess that it is in the 'thousands of dollars' - of course, if I sign such an agreement I wouldn't be allowed to publicise the actual cost
Meanwhile, NavCanada has no plans to allow individual private user subscriptions, i.e. you could download Avare for free, and then subscribe directly (hundreds of dollars per year) with NavCanada to download content which Avare would use.
I am not a lobbyist, or politically minded, but am I the only Canadian Pilot who finds the current status quo 'laughable'? I am not trying to promote Avare, rather promote easier access to electronic Canadian Aviation content - this helps any moving map aviation application whether free or otherwise. My US co-developers constantly joke about whether Canada has heard of the computer!
To cut to the chase, Avare cannot offer Canadian content through its free application (who could?). Meanwhile, there is no way we can create the infrastructure, or absorb the costs to offer Canadian content through subscriptions, and we really don't want to make Avare into a commercial product.
Is there anything that can be done to improve the status quo?
Thoughts, suggestions, disagreements?
Roger
