Hi all.

I never really used charts.

So this would be fairly new to me. What is the best way to get started? 
I have iPads besides my computer, and wouldn’t mind a payed subscription.

I just want to get the best experience out there.

Thanks.

Navigraph.

for more guidance watch some videos from easyjetsimpilot, 320 sim pilot and filbertflies On YouTube, plus anything else you need to know, these 3 make great knowledgeable content.

Edited January 20, 20224 yr by garlicbread11

May I recommend you to take a look and a free trial of Aivlasoft EFB v2, it's all in one package, you will have all procedures (STARs and SIDs) and approaches to all airports, all en route charts, you will be able to follow your flight on an iPad or secondary PC networked to your sim, build your flight plans or import them from Simbrief. Using it is simple and there are simple tutorials available. The developer is friendly and helpful.

Finally as indicated you have a free trial available, so no risk on your side, if you don't like it, dump it.

There is no subscription necessary, it's a one time purchase. If you wish (but it is not necessary) you can also subscribe to a Navigraph Airac update.

Edited January 20, 20224 yr by Bernard Ducret

With Aivlasoft EFB you don't need to subscribe to Navigraph charts, am I right? Aivlasoft EFB has dynamic charts that uses info from the AIRAC cycles?

2 hours ago, captain420 said:

With Aivlasoft EFB you don't need to subscribe to Navigraph charts, am I right? Aivlasoft EFB has dynamic charts that uses info from the AIRAC cycles?

Correct. I tried Navigraph Charts for a month but to me it wasn't worth the money: having charts is nice and all but in the end I can do without them: the additional information they give aren't really necessary for my kind of flying. I can get previews of the charts in Little Navmap or the MSFS planner or the G1000 NXi whenever I need them. It's nice to see all constraints etc. on the charts but a lot of that information you'll get on the FBW A320 screens anyway and in other situations that information isn't really needed (again: for my kind of flying). I think charts may become a bit more mandatory when you are flying on VATSIM.

I may take another look at Avliasoft EFB though because it is a one time purchase, but I am not sure if it offers anything I can't do without...

As it is now I plan to do a one month Navigraph subscription once a year or so just to keep the AIRAC on SimBrief a bit up to date but other than that I even can do without the Navigraph AIRAC updates: MSFS has updates of its own and it works fine for me.

3 hours ago, PapaRomeo said:

What is the best way to get started? 

Option 1: check video's about the usage of charts on YouTube and see if it may apply to how you are flying.

Option 2: find free only charts using for instance SkyVector (for the US) and see if you actually find them useful.

Option 3: you might try the Avliasoft EFB free trial and again see if you actually find it useful

Option 4: if money isn't a problem get Navigraph charts: you will get AIRAC updates every 4 weeks and access to their charts program which not only has the charts but also a convenient interface to find the appropriate ones.

But Navigraph also injects the latest AIRAC into all Sims and Addons. That's for me the main reason to use Navigraph.

Edited January 20, 20224 yr by MySound

3 hours ago, Bernard Ducret said:

May I recommend you to take a look and a free trial of Aivlasoft EFB v2, 

Thanks for the reminder. I have to look into it. I like very much LNM except that it does not work to my taste on an iPad  client. 

Edited January 20, 20224 yr by Dominique_K

As tup61 mentioned in his post above, a good option to learn how to plan your flights, starting from scratch, would be to use SkyVectors, this is a free online manual flight planning tool offering worldwide information on airports including Notams, weather METAR or TAF (you can select and superimpose a real time weather satellite map showing icing, precipitations, Sigmets, turbulences, etc) and coverage of updated IFR low and high airways. Should you fly VFR, an excellent world relief map is available too with all airports, TMAs and safe altitudes. 

It can happen that a few areas may not be available for the IFR coverage, this is occasional but not permanent.

Very often, when I am not satisfied with what SimBrief offers me as a routing I use SkyVectors to make my own, copy and paste it into SimBrief, then transfer to MSFS and Aivlasoft EFB. This is even more fun.

Edited January 20, 20224 yr by Bernard Ducret

Chartfox is a free service that you can check out. It requires a VATSIM login though.

ChartFox - Free Flight Simulation Charts

[Edit]: It's worth noting that Chartfox is not only for the USA.

Edited January 20, 20224 yr by JSmith2112

I use both Navigraph and Aivlasoft EFB v2 with MSFS, both work impeccably.

29 minutes ago, Dominique_K said:

I like very much LNM except that it does not work to my taste on an iPad  client. 

Dominique please have a look at this thread regarding how to use an iPad with the Aivlasoft Client, that may give you some hints.

27 minutes ago, Bernard Ducret said:

Dominique please have a look at this thread regarding how to use an iPad with the Aivlasoft Client, that may give you some hints.

Thank you. In a first approach, it seems that LNM works better running its own webserver in the desktop. I will have a look anyway.

49 minutes ago, Bernard Ducret said:

As tup61 mentioned in his post above, a good option to learn how to plan your flights, starting from scratch, would be to use SkyVectors, t 

 Skyvector is excellent when flying in the US. Anywhere else, the information about procedures is very muck lacking in my experience. Same for the VFR maps.

 

1 hour ago, Dominique_K said:

Thanks for the reminder. I have to look into it. I like very much LNM except that it does not work to my taste on an iPad  client. 

If I take a look at the names of Transitions in LNM at one side and the Prosim CDU on the other side they always have different names.

SIDS and STARS have the same names.

 

I need some help here.. I have been struggling with the constantly updating MSFS AIRAC cycles. In the past I've always used a static AIRAC cycle for my other sims and everything was syncd beautifully.. in MSFS, the AIRAC changes every month and my static AIRAC (simbrief, etc) are not in sync anymore. I cannot get a navigraph subscription due to issues with their payment gateway in my country. 

What's the solution you w'd recommend for me? Will a one time purchase of Aivlasoft EFB2 solve my problem? How does it keep the AIRAC updated if i dont have a navigraph sub? Does EFB2 always read AIRAC & nav data from MSFS automatically? THat might explain how I can get away with a 1 time purchase and not a sub.. 

5 hours ago, captain420 said:

With Aivlasoft EFB you don't need to subscribe to Navigraph charts, am I right? Aivlasoft EFB has dynamic charts that uses info from the AIRAC cycles?

wait, does that mean i dont need navigraph charts sub, but may still need navigraph fms data sub for EFB v2 to work?