With the impending release of Orbx FTX Global, things are opening up in the world for destinations to fly to/from. Most of my flying is in Orbx PNW / CRM / NRM areas due to the scenery but also because there is a lot of great flight planning info available.

 

For example, skyvector.com gives full sectionals and often approach info and airport diagrams for all of north america. 

 

But when it comes to flying in europe, I haven't come across such resources and was wondering what do people use out there for maps / sectionals and overall airport information for flight planning?

 

Any leads would be appreciated!

 

Thanks,

 

Alex M.

Skyvector has World VFR, World Hi and World Low charts and layers for weather (METAR/TAF), oceanic tracks, wind barbs, SIGMETs and so on.

 

For airport charts, try http://charts.aero/ or http://aircharts.org/. Alternatively, do a web search for the ICAO code and the word "charts" (eg. "LOWW charts").

 

For flight plans, try http://www.edi-gla.co.uk

For flight planning http://rfinder.asalink.net/free/

 

And i discovered this recently, it's really cool: http://www.rocketroute.com/

 

For charts i use google, vatsim charts are allways updated. Just type in google ICAO + vatsim

 

i have vroute premium also: http://www.vroute.net/

 

It gives you flightplans and charts for whole world

http://www.eurofpl.eu/

Official EU charts are here:

 

http://www.ead.eurocontrol.int/eadcms/eadsite/index.php.html

 

Registration's required but it's free.

For VFR you can try this one: It's 1:1000000, but it can be usefull

 

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/onc/europe-asia-africa-index.html

 

This set is 1:500000, not bad at all:

 

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/tpc/

In sims, I actually prefer 1:1,000,000 WAC/ONC-scale, at least with paper charts... the detail-level is good enough for pilotage and the airfield/navaid data is all there (with WACs, anyway). The airspace markings aren't critical (to me) for casual VFR flying, which is the main annotation loss with WACs compared to sectionals. I picked up a full set of Alaska/US WACs a while back, along with a couple of Canada ONCs to fill in the gaps. Cost was a factor, since you have to buy a lot fewer charts at the higher scale.

ONCs are long out of print, though, and the information can be outdated by years or even decades. Bear that in mind, especially for any real-life applications.

I haven't used SkyVector's World charts much, but they do have VFR and IFR HI/LO charts covering the planet. What they don't have, though, is all the individual approach plates and so forth, except for North America.