I've got a 7+ year old Toshiba laptop that I only use for charts, manuals, and RW weather reports. I also use it occasionally for web browsing during long flights. I think I picked it up for like $100 on ebay a couple years ago. I tried using my Kindle since it's much smaller, but flipping back and forth through the PDF charts is a pain and a bit slow. I download my charts from flightaware which come from the FAA charting office (USA and territories only). Totally free and always up to date. I always keep the departure and arrival airports' airport diagrams, SID's, STAR's and IAP's pulled up individually as well as the QRH. I just Alt+Tab through them while in the air. The nice thing about the flightaware packaging of the charts is they lump them into large files...one each for the SID, STAR, IAP and airport diagram for any given airport. It makes downloading them a breeze and relatively easy to navigate.

Wait, you download a chart for each SID/STAR seperately, but how do you know which SID/STAR to pick. In order to know that you first have to view all SID/STARs, at least, that's what I do.

There is a small, free program called Desk Pins. With the click of a mouse, it enables to you select one or more pages that will stay on top of any program including FSX in full screen or windowed mode. You can de-select them just as easily. This allows me to use AIRNAV or SKYVEcTOR charts while flying - plus you can re-size your Internet browser.Hope this helps.Be well.

When flying around Canada I used to have the set's of old printed approach plates. I picked up an iPod couple years ago though and basically just been using that with pdf's since then.Register with www.fltplan.com and you'll have access to updated US and Canadian charts online; so that's what I use now.

PDFKneeboard worked great for me, until I realized it was corrupting my graphics drivers in full screen mode. I had a difficult time trying to figure out why my payware airports were suddenly flickering all the time. If you don't have this issue in full screen mode, then I think you have a perfect solution. Me, I'm still looking for a replacement app. I'll take a look at the Desk Pins noted above.

Sorry trees, but I print out charts. I would definitely like an iPad or similar device for charts. I have an iPhone, but it is kinda inconvenient because of the screen size, and I don't have a second monitor.

What about an iPhone? I was thinking about buying one anyway? Or a Samsung Galaxy S II or whatever? Would that be good? Or is it too small? (I know you can zoom in but still...)

Nope, it's perfect!mitch bowman

Wait, you download a chart for each SID/STAR seperately, but how do you know which SID/STAR to pick. In order to know that you first have to view all SID/STARs, at least, that's what I do.

No, no, flightaware lumps all the SIDS into a separate file, plus all the STARs into a spearate file, etc. So for instance, for KDFW, I have one PDF file that is 53 pages for the SIDs, one PDF that is 17 pages for the STARs, and one that is 50 pages for all the IAPs. Then one more one page document that is the airport diagram. And generally speaking, I fly FSX flights that are copies of real world flights at all times. I'll search flightaware by airborne aircraft of the type I want to fly, then take the airline and flight number and find out how many seats are filled if that airline's website specifies for the next flight of the same route/aircraft, the scheduled time of dep/arr, the gate, and then go back to flightaware for the actual filed flight plan and altitude which includes any SIDs/STARs. Of course, this is a planning method that I have refined over the course of about 15 years now to get to this point of accuracy; I get through all of that quite quickly now Although I will admit that before flightaware had all the charts lumped like that, I would download each individual procedure from naco.faa.gov. What a pain that was to update an airport such as ATL or DFW! I can tell you I was very happy when flightaware started packaging them together. And before I had the laptop, I had about twelve 2.5 inch three-ring binders full of paper charts. Oh the trees.....

I use printed charts as well, got a mono laser printer at home and I only fly to a few select locations where I have addon scenery.

Navigraph and CDU on Monitor 2

got a mono laser printer

Show off!

Show off!

Entry level mono laser printers can cost as little as $50 new, a lot cheaper than an ipad or a laptop and cheap to print as well. If I need something printed in color I'll print it at work or upload it to Gmail/Google Docs (disposable account in case of keyloggers) and go to a library.

No, no, flightaware lumps all the SIDS into a separate file, plus all the STARs into a spearate file, etc. So for instance, for KDFW, I have one PDF file that is 53 pages for the SIDs, one PDF that is 17 pages for the STARs, and one that is 50 pages for all the IAPs. Then one more one page document that is the airport diagram. And generally speaking, I fly FSX flights that are copies of real world flights at all times. I'll search flightaware by airborne aircraft of the type I want to fly, then take the airline and flight number and find out how many seats are filled if that airline's website specifies for the next flight of the same route/aircraft, the scheduled time of dep/arr, the gate, and then go back to flightaware for the actual filed flight plan and altitude which includes any SIDs/STARs. Of course, this is a planning method that I have refined over the course of about 15 years now to get to this point of accuracy; I get through all of that quite quickly now Although I will admit that before flightaware had all the charts lumped like that, I would download each individual procedure from naco.faa.gov. What a pain that was to update an airport such as ATL or DFW! I can tell you I was very happy when flightaware started packaging them together. And before I had the laptop, I had about twelve 2.5 inch three-ring binders full of paper charts. Oh the trees.....

I wrote a small tool that downloads all the charts for a certain airport. I'm getting a single chart for each procedure, which I much prefer to the merged charts that flightaware provides. But yeah, its painful to download each and every map manually

I wrote a small tool that downloads all the charts for a certain airport. I'm getting a single chart for each procedure, which I much prefer to the merged charts that flightaware provides. But yeah, its painful to download each and every map manually

Care to elaborate on this tool you wrote?? I like having the SIDs and STARs lumped together, but if I had a way to quickly download individual IAPs that would be optimal. It's easy enough to find the SIDs/STARs during preflight since flightaware's are alphabetical. But when on approach it can be a real hassle to scroll through up to 50 pages of approach plates to find what ive been cleared for since those are not organized in any logical fashion that I can tell.

iPad if you have the money. Plus, more and more iPads are getting issued to real-world pilots as EFBs.For those like me without tons of money - paper charts printed from the internet.

Care to elaborate on this tool you wrote??...

Yes, you just enter the ICAO code and the tool download all the charts to your hdd. It only works for US charts. There's a small bug in the current version that can cause charts not to get downloaded, however, I have only seen that happen with one airport so far (i have used the tool to download charts for 100s of airports). I'm planning to fix this bug as soon as I have reinstalled my development environment (I just had to reformat my system). If youre interested then send me a PM and I'll hook you up