Sunday, February 3, 2008

Aeronautical Charts

Maps designed for aviation use are charts (a term that can also refer to their marine counterparts). These maps provide pilots with navigation information including topographic features, major roads, railroads, cities, airports, visual and radio aids to navigation, and other flight-related data. You can find such aeronautical chart types as
  • VFR (Visual Flight Rules)
  • IFR (Instrument Flight Rules) Enroute
  • Terminal Area Charts
You can find more about aeronautical charts by visiting the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) National Aeronautical Charting Office (NACO) at www. naco.faa.gov.

FAA aviation charts aren’t freely available for download. The FAA offers a monthly service that provides all charts and updates on DVDs for a year, but the cost is over $300. A number of companies such as Jeppesen (www.jeppesen.com) and Maptech (www.maptech.com) make commercial flight-planning software packages that include digital charts, or you can try the www.aeroplanner.com, a Web service that provides digital charts and other services to pilots. Another noncommercial source of FAA sectional charts is http://aviationtoolbox.org/raw_data/FAA_sectionals.

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