I was talking to a American Airlines 777 pilot and he said all his charts were on his I-pad and he no longer carries paper approach poates.  Where does he down load them from?  Does AA supply buy and supply all the approach plates and the pilots download the needed charts?  Also how does one know when a there is a change to a particular chart and his chart is now obsolete? 

 

 

Jeppesen, one of the primary chart vendors out there makes an iPad app that is FAA certified to use instead of paper charts. Not 100% how it works, but it uses the same chart cycles as the paper charts, meaning it gets updated every 14 days. AA indeed buys licenses for the charts, and they are EXPENSIVE, but you save a LOT of money by not printing 1000 sheets of paper every month per pilot.

Here is the app by the way! http://ww1.jeppesen.com/aviation/products/flitedeck-pro/index.jsp

Gents-

 

As Karl described, the process of updating electronic charts is actually easier than updating paper charts. 

 

The cycle for Jepp matches the FAA update cycle of 7, 14, 28 or 56 days for non-flight-safety related updates.  The app that controls the charts constantly checks for available updates, and when one is pushed out to the users, they are given notification that they should pull a data update.

 

This system is far more satisfactory from a data currency standpoint because the crews don't need to be constantly popping binder rings to replace charts- and it is FAR easier to ensure that all crews have current data.

 

(I used to hate coming back from vacation and having a bunch of update cycles in my inbox... )

 

As for cost- each company will negotiate rates with the data provider, and obviously the bigger the fleet the lower the per-pilot cost...  but the industry average right now is about $1,200 for global data per person....

 

The cost, not surprisingly, has not come down much since the paper days- but this is due to the lack of competitors in the marketplace.

 

As a pilot, I like the Jepp data FAR more than all other types- but this is simply Law of Primacy.  i was raised on Jepp charts- so they are easiest for me to utilize.  That being said, Jepp has fallen hopelessly behind in the application of electronic charts to newcomers like ForeFlight and the rest.  I have both FF and Jepp on my iPad and I use FF for flight planning and awareness, but use Jepp for the charts and approaches..  

 

Maybe one of these days ForeFlight will bring in Jepp data....

 

Once can always dream.  :rolleyes:

 

 

As a pilot, I like the Jepp data FAR more than all other types- but this is simply Law of Primacy.

 

Busting out with the FOI are we?

Even Lido chart from Lufthansa can be downloaded on Ipad, I don't know about the cost of cycle but it's not for this hobby <_< ,

There is an App (Lido/iRM) 18€ kind of one time purchase, that gives regular update of lido charts of most important airport mostly in Europe.

Here the list ( maybe if you buy it in the USA app store you will have more US airport,I don't know)

CYUL EBBR EDDF EDDM EFHK EGLL EHAM FAJS FIMP HAAB HECA KBOS KJFK KLAX LEMD LEZL LFMN LFPG LGAV LIRF LKPR LOWW LSGG LSZH OMDB RJAA RKSI SAEZ SBGL SBGR SKBO VCBI VHHH VIDP VTBS WMKK WSSS YMML YSSY ZBAA

I prefer Jeppesen for the info and drawing organization.

I wondering, what they are waiting to enable private to buy single airport for a single cycle to their needs.

With electronic device is much more easy and there is no shipment or goods to organize.

I've been looking at LIDO and they seem MUCH nicer than the jepps.

OK, thanks for that reply> I assume the pilot downloads the 2 airports she's flying into plus an alternate airport. I guess there's 1 click for all the charts to an airport But once airborne, if you forgot a chart you needed, can the I-pod get internet access at FL410 over the Pacific and then download it?

OK, thanks for that reply> I assume the pilot downloads the 2 airports she's flying into plus an alternate airport. I guess there's 1 click for all the charts to an airport But once airborne, if you forgot a chart you needed, can the I-pod get internet access at FL410 over the Pacific and then download it?

 

No, you download everything. At least everything you would have in the binders (might vary depending on the company/aircraft). So basically at a minimum every airport the company flies to, plus all suitable alternates. In other words, a lot. For updates, the app says "here's an update", you click on download, and it updates all charts accordingly. As for the internet access, theoretically if the aircraft is so equipped you could download something you needed (but again, you'd already have it), but from what I've read even aircraft equipped with wifi the pilots are not permitted to use it in the flight deck.

I've been looking at LIDO and they seem MUCH nicer than the jepps.

 

LIDO's are definitely more modern. On the 777's EFB you can customise charts! 

 

I'm happy using the Jepps at the moment though  ^_^ Actually got to use an ILS chart from my iPad in the real world a few weeks back for an approach into LGB. I can see why so many pilots love using it. 

LIDO's are definitely more modern. On the 777's EFB you can customise charts!

 

I'm happy using the Jepps at the moment though ^_^ Actually got to use an ILS chart from my iPad in the real world a few weeks back for an approach into LGB. I can see why so many pilots love using it.

I've been doing pretty well with the FAA charts I prefer even those over jepps.

I use NACO charts, I'm used to them, but I'm used to Jepps because my neighbor used to hand me his expired charts to use in FS before I started flying RW.

 

I don't really have a preference, but ForeFlight is NACO, so it's what I use.

Mr. Rsrandazzo's right.1200 per person but you can share this license between 3 other guys(4 person max on each license)

there are 2 versions:

JeppFD which is a ipad app and have some special features such GPS usng during flight and so on

JeppView which is a Mac and windows app and its more complex than jeppfd

but i have to add it's worth to buy it(its necessery for me but its optional for a simmer!),300$ per year is fair

NACO for US and Jepps for the rest of the world. IMHO, I think every pilot (RW or Flightsim) must use those charts format he/she feel more comfortable with. Curiously, sometimes it seems a little bit hard to me to find "more or less" updated US airports charts in Jepp format. Perhaps, that's why now I'm pretty used to fly (FS World) within US area using pretty updated NACO charts

Looked up LIDO but it seems like they don't support android devices.

I prefer Jeppesen, I actually hate electronic charts and NACO charts. I know a pilot for FedEx and I have all the Hi/Lo LIDO charts for North and South America. They are just as good as the Jeppesen enrout charts, I just don't like the approach and airport charts LIDO makes. I buy all of my Jeppesen charts on paper. They cost a lot of money! It is worth it though when you are sitting back on FSX looking at all the charts on the yoke, feeling like you are a real pilot for Southwest Airlines.

 

One day that dream will come true, one day... :rolleyes: