UK Sectional Charts?

[Guest jonthedoors]

Does anyone know where I could find free Sectional Charts for the UK online?I've been around www.skyvector.com recently but they only cover the USA area, and I was wondering if anyone knew a place where I can find similar charts for British airports...Any help would be greatly appreciated. :)

[WhiteKnight77 0]

Have you tried NATS Aeronautical Information Service yet? I think it may have what you want in the new AIRAC cycle.

[mgh 89]

Does anyone know where I could find free Sectional Charts for the UK online?I've been around www.skyvector.com recently but they only cover the USA area, and I was wondering if anyone knew a place where I can find similar charts for British airports...Any help would be greatly appreciated. :)

The Uk does not have the direct equivalent of US Sectional Charts. The link in the previous post will give you all the available official charts and much more.

[Tim Arnot 5]

You can buy digital VFR charts (they're not called sectionals in Europe) from most pilot supply stores -- Flightstore, AFE, Transair etc, or paper ones. But there are no free downloadable ones (I think only the US allows that)

[Guest jonthedoors]

You can buy digital VFR charts (they're not called sectionals in Europe) from most pilot supply stores -- Flightstore, AFE, Transair etc, or paper ones. But there are no free downloadable ones (I think only the US allows that)

That's a shame. I thought that'd be the case. It was almost the same case with approach plates, until I managed to find them through Vatsim. That place seems to be the only free place to get charts outside of the US!

Have you tried NATS Aeronautical Information Service yet? I think it may have what you want in the new AIRAC cycle.

This is a great resource, thanks!

[aentwis 61]

There are various sources of charts that are free of fees in Europe, IFR en route charts and terminal charts, including SID / STAR and aerodrome layout. That said, you will not find many VFR charts for free on the Net for Europe like skyvector provides for the US...One site in Germany provides a link to the VFR chart witha zoom in functionhttp://www.vfr-bulletin.de/web20/index.htmIf you know a bit of German, you can navigate around easily, and there is a drop down menu at the top right that allows you to load the ICAO2009 current VFR map for Germany...Andrew

[red1 0]

Don't really want to start a new topic for this...so hope OP doesn't mind me asking...is there a source for free vfr charts for canada, besides the small sections covered by skyvector and runwayfinder?

[WhiteKnight77 0]

That's a shame. I thought that'd be the case. It was almost the same case with approach plates, until I managed to find them through Vatsim. That place seems to be the only free place to get charts outside of the US!This is a great resource, thanks!

Thanks. I found it when I was planning my trip to the UK last year. After some time searching I found it.

Don't really want to start a new topic for this...so hope OP doesn't mind me asking...is there a source for free vfr charts for canada, besides the small sections covered by skyvector and runwayfinder?

NAV Canada may be what you are looking for.I have found several government sites for airport diagrams, but others are difficult to come by. Germany apparently wants you to join but I can't tell if you have to pay or what to have access.

[Gabe777 132]

Buy the 4 vfr charts for 15 quid each, and digitally scan them into pdf files.

Merge the pdf files into 1 file, and use them in pdf kneeboard (in sim) or as a standard pdf on your tablet.

Done.

When a decent addon aircraft costs 30 to 75 quid, what's  60 quid ?

Pay 8 quid a month for a Navigraph sub, and you have everthing you need: Enroute, and terminal and airports charts, including gps fixes, and now vfr charts..... Plus, fms data for all your addons.

[skelsey 765]

On 13/01/2010 at 6:37 PM, Guest jonthedoors said:

Does anyone know where I could find free Sectional Charts for the UK

Your local flying club! (If you are based in the UK - and admittedly not online). If you hang around/befriend a PPL holder they will almost certainly give you the previous edition chart for nothing.

If you look on your favourite auction site you will most likely find people selling their just-expired charts for a knock-down price as well.

I have Edition 42 (I think -- a couple of years old) of the southern England/Wales 1:500,000 chart which I still keep on my knee for all my sim VFR flying. I find the VFR charts have a much longer shelf life than IFR charts: after all, the ground features don't change very much and neither does the broad airspace structure. It's very usable for navigation with Orbx FTX England.

I don't think you can beat having the paper chart in front of you to be honest: it's much easier to plot a route, measure distances etc when you can put your finger on it!