Chris wrote:
It seems that I strongly have to adapt my flight preparation to the digital age as much as possible
Look, particularly in France there are airspaces that are activated by Notam.
A trip through France without knowing these airspaces in advance, well, it could get interesting. And checking all Notams on the way by oneself is also not an option anymore. Anything and the birth of a dog is Notammed nowadays. The electronic chart apps are able to display such airspaces, and also highlight whether the airspace will be active in the time of the flight (particularly Skydemon does that quite well).
I cannot recommend Foreflight for VFR flight (although it’s the App that I’m using at the moment, but for IFR flight). I am not familiar with SDVFR, that is promoted quite a lot in France.
Ok, txs to Udo, Bosco, Dan, Gallois – I will checkout SD VFR on my older iPad getting the testversion, – not beginning with Foreflight. For VFR seems that SD works for my needs.
@Chris sure my post was of no help really, but I was sincerely surprised by someone requesting paper charts info…
I learned to fly well before the coming of electronics, moving map and all this jazz. Paper charts, 6 minute ruler and so forth.
But having observed and got struck by how easy and superior the use of a moving map and flying the magenta line is during my pro flying, I was eager to move ahead and integrate the benefits in my private flying.
Started with AirnavPro, which had some Swiss roots at the time, before moving to SkyDemon many years ago. I’ve tried other nav tools, but IMHO SkyDemon beats them all, hands down, for European VFR flying. Affordable, intuitive, user friendly, and more. You might download the trial version and have someone take you thru a simple flight planning process, or watch the many movies available online.
Good luck, enjoy paperless flying, and welcome back here for any question you might have. Thrust me, you will be impressed. Positively 😉
You might also consider EasyVFR.
It’s the original VFR nav app for consumer hardware (Started out on PocketPC if you remember that!). Everyone involved in EasyVFR is a pilot – from design, programming, support, marketing, data management – all pilots!
Another vote for easyVFR.
I‘d also add a vote for EasyVFR. All my local friends use SD, but I‘ve stayed loyal to PocketFMS/EasyVFR for over 15 years since my Navigon days, and it has improved dramatically over the past few years.
Re paper charts, I still can‘t bring myself to give up entirely on paper charts. It helps me a lot to spread a chart out on the table when planning a longer VFR trip…. gives an overview that zooming out on a tablet just doesn‘t match. But for that the Air Million 1:1‘000‘000 charts do pretty well and they have the advantage that they cover most of Europe.
I know that French pilots tend(ed?) to use the IGN charts for 1:500‘000. They are excellent for their detail, not surprising given their IGN DNA. But switching to them from other ICAO 1:500‘000 charts takes some adjusting because at first they look terribly „busy“ and it‘s hard to sort out the forest from the trees. When looking for common format widespread 1:500‘000 coverage, Rogers and Eisenschmidt (and Avioportolano for Italy/Croatia) are the most common. For many countries the national ICAO chart can be downloaded free in pdf format, if you have access to an A3 or larger format printer. They don‘t work so well with A4 unless you want to do A4 size screenshots and print multiple sheets.
SD is the best for flying and FF is perfect for briefing and planning. FF has also good VFR approaches. I have used them both:-)
Depending on your avionics and their database, the 1/1 000 000 radionavigation (France South and France North) may be mandatory in France.
Again, depending on your on-board databases, if you just use SDVFR / SD on an iPad, having 1/500 000 IGN charts (4 charts total, depending on where you go : N/W, N/E, S/W, S/E, total about €100) as a backup is a good idea. I’ve never had problems with them being out of date (sometimes there are big airspace changes but those have mostly already happened), and they’re only updated once per year. It’s a good idea to cross-check frequencies with a digital source anyway (VAC, SDVFR etc.)
You need a way of checking RTBA (airforce training areas, which are big airways crossing vast distances used by military fighters at low altitudes and high speed). This is especially important because the jets are too fast and don’t ensure separation. SDVFR can show them, and they’re activated by NOTAM.
Also, the “complément aux cartes aéronautiques” is mandatory to get information about aerobatics, parachute and glider areas. Active zones are usually broadcast or given by the local controller, or field A/A frequency, but there may be specific instructions to listen to the frequency 5min before contacting or such. The only alternative I’ve found to using the paper “complément” (which outdates quite quickly) is to check the zone number in SDVFR and look up the AIP directly on Google (to my knowledge SDVFR does not provide the zone-specific instructions, ceilings etc.).
In a word, you get two paper sources for France :
Of course all of this is the theory that I’ve been taught, coming from a fresh PPL :)
This much on French airspace changes only occurring once per year:
https://www.aerovfr.com/2024/04/du-cote-de-lyon-et-grenoble/
I understood that the complement was only issued once a year. The handy thing about it is it has all the details about R D P areas plus the frequency to call for transit.
I have not noted any major changes year on year but then that might be the area I fly regularly.
SOFIA can be used to get the NOTAMS and you can set your own band either side of your route to include them.
You can download the IFR route chart free from SIA eAIP. But I have found it always take a long time to load.
