That 1:1M UK chart was produced by Cartabossy in France, for Transair. I have seen it and it looks great for “touring” type use, i.e. with a GPS, but it has very little detail suitable for traditional navigation so it will never be used in the training establishment. Accordingly it has attracted a lot of criticism in the usual places.
You need the 1:500000 for additional detail, and reference to things like disused airfieds or some unlicensed airfileds or farm strips that might make good landing sites in case of aircraft problems
Wouldn’t you really want the VFR chart running as a GPS moving map, in such an emergency scenario? I run such a chart on all my IFR flights, for exactly that reason. Also when departing from an untowered airport, before one is able to collect the IFR clearance, one has to maintain VFR/OCAS (well, OCAS anyway 
). Same on any Z or Y flight plan…
Wouldn’t you really want the VFR chart running as a GPS moving map, in such an emergency scenario?
Yes, but for the trips I do (which sometimes are relatively short compared to longer trip outside of the UK), I tend to use the details on the chart to a) mentally note licensed or otherwise areas I might land at in an emergency or b) slighly modify a route to pass by such places. I did use to use Memory Map on the iPad but dont bother updating it now as its another payment for a map I already own a paper copy of (and at the time I was a;so paying to upgrade my NATS aware on each cycle) so thats 3 x payment for 1 x the same map :-(. If I was doing much longer regular trips then I’d bite the bullet and use that Jepp VFR product, but only on a 2nd iPad as its not good feature rich enough right not to consider binning Sky Demon as a main VFR nav aid.
Colm,
Mooney Driver, EasyVFR by PocketFMS can do that. You can edit and hide NOTAMs that you don’t think are relevant, and then only show the remainder overlaid on the map.
I know 
I am a by now 3 year PFMS owner and love it and I am well aware of it’s capabilities. Also I did get quite a few Swiss addicted to it and wrote it’s review for FlightXpress (both Airspace Avoid and Pocket FMS). From where I am standing, it is by far the best VFR planning software available at this time, best value for money and ultra capable once you get the hang of it. Once Rob sorts out the aircraft performance as he promised me 3 years ago, it will be unbeatable.
The thing I envisage however is NOT to disable what “I” think non relevant, but to have the software do it in an interactive way: The software would have to read the actual airspace availability out of Notams, AIP Data and other possibly not even yet available means and then directly use this information to display or hide airspaces. As a sample: most low level military routes have Mo-Fr activities, so they should NOT be displayed on the map for a flight planned for the weekend. Equally, NOTAM activated airspaces should be crosschecked with the notam DB and only be shown if it is active. Some AIS’ issue maps like that, for example the Swiss DABS which is issued daily. If for instance you had the capability to read and apply the Polish restricted airspace document, the French airspace availability lists e.t.c, this would open people’s eyes on just how many of these red airspaces are 90% of the time inactive and make flight planning a LOT easier.
Of course the way this HAS to work is a bullet proof verification of what is active and what not!
Seeing what I have seen of PFMS so far, I would not be surprised if it was them who would first come up with something like that. IF it can be done, it would be a fantastic improvement (I won’t use the word “killer app” here for good reason but you get the idea.)
EasyVFR is included in your PocketFMS subscription, so if you have an Android or iOS device just download it and work away ;)
LOL, well, let me tell you, I had the very first version of Airspace Avoid before it ever saw the light of day and tested it for Rob on the Samsung as well as a Chinese tab.
Am I totally wrong or are you the guy who is a central figure with PFMS and did a lot of the flight plan forms? I think we even met in Friedrichshafen 2 years ago?
Best regrads
Urs
Peter,
no, I won’t rely on a moving map, but what I do is before every flight I plan with Pocket FMS; I print the enroute parts out and take them along together with the printed airport charts. Works really well and you get the tailored chart you really want.
Equally, NOTAM activated airspaces should be crosschecked with the notam DB and only be shown if it is active.
There is a huge liability problem here. You want the software to do a checking which is your responsability as a pilot. How will you be sure that there is no mistake? What will happen if a zone which not even displayed on your map because the software thought it was inactive is actually active? Who will be responsible?
Am I totally wrong or are you the guy who is a central figure with PFMS and did a lot of the flight plan forms? I think we even met in Friedrichshafen 2 years ago?
Hi Urs,
That is probably me. I did some of the NavLogs, and I was at Friedrichshafen.
Colm
There is a huge liability problem here. You want the software to do a checking which is your responsability as a pilot. How will you be sure that there is no mistake? What will happen if a zone which not even displayed on your map because the software thought it was inactive is actually active? Who will be responsible?
True. Flying through an active restricted area is a severe criminal offence and nothing like flying through airspace Delta or Charlie without a clearance.
I would never fly through a restricted area unless some controller either told me clearly that it was not active or cleared me through it. Never would I rely on a piece of software for this, even if it were allegedly “connected” with live servers.
But then if you can’t trust some notams coming via a flight planning app, can you trust any of them?
The ones that are really going to get you into trouble in the UK are the prohibited areas. They are actually called “restricted” but only the police etc can go there. Most of the UK ones are air shows, with the Red Arrows display team, and they are in the summer. If you miss the notam on one of these, the fine (on past history) for a bust could be £5000.
I don’t know what particular apps do but the standard procedure would be to sign up to the Eurocontrol B2B service, get notams from that, and do some logging of the user’s activity. Then the app vendor has his 6 o’clock covered, because Eurocontrol guarantee the quality… supposedly.
For the user, there will never be a 100% guarantee because he can get some problem at his end. However I would think a website operated by the national agency would be good enough and certainly most people regard e.g. the NATS one as good enough (and that site logs your briefings too).
But then if you can’t trust some notams coming via a flight planning app, can you trust any of them?
Obviously, there notams and notams.
With restricted areas, it works two ways: when the software (or whatever) tells me that restricted area xy is active, then I will assume it is indeed active and fly around (unless cleared).
However, when there is no information about area xy being active, then I can’t be totally sure it is inactive.
Sure…. but the UK airshow RAs are the worst because they are totally unpublished, are not on any maps – until they pop up and then they are active.
