Howard, any reason you didn’t buy Jepp VFR which would have allowed to have all the plates on an iPad and see the reporting points et al?
Howard, any reason you didn’t buy Jepp VFR which would have allowed to have all the plates on an iPad and see the reporting points et al?
because I have the Jepp plates on my Aera 795. (I added continental Europe a few days ago.) I can’t print from the 795 of course, so I use the JeppView on PC for printing (backup, study) and for other things that exist in JeppView but not on the charts on the 795. I do like paper. The batteries for paper last for ages :D
I don’t have an iPad. I am typing this on a Mac, but my small devices run Android. For flying I also prefer a dedicated avionic device (795) that is more integrated with flying perhaps, and much less likely to crash seeing as it doesn’t run Tetris or try to get today’s sports news as I take off.. Having said that, both Skydemon on iPad and Jeppesen’s flying app (Pilot?) look very good indeed for live flying. I use Skydemon on PC for all my planning. It’s great.
I flew in to Augsburg (EDMA) today. It’s one of those rare things that we simply don’t have in the UK : a shiny, lightly used, municipal airport with a long (for GA) runway, an instrument approach, gleaming hangers and smiling happy staff. Wow.
The landing fees and parking fees were so ridiculously tiny, I laughed…out loud. I think my plane is €22 to land and €3 per day to park. Sadly they had no spare hangar space, which surprised me.
Finding it and landing were fine, because I had my 795 with me, and I guess Skydemon helps in just exactly the same way, but hows does a GA pilot with just paper charts find something like VFR reporting point N1 where I was directed to today? I have absolutely no idea. (The airport has no radar so can’t give vectors.) Of course, I could find the runway with just my GNS 530W, but that doesn’t do VFR reporting points.
Anyway, I’m happily ensconced in a hotel in Munich. Smiling.
Thanks again to everyone here.
Howard
Glad you like it 
VRPs … yeah, they can be buggers!
The only panel mount kit which displays them AFAIK is the ancient King KMD550 family (KMD150 GPS also). That’s why I chose the KLN94+KMD550 back in 2002, over a GNS430+GNS530 alternative.
Most people solve this with some sort of tablet moving map product. Or any reasonably modern dedicated aviation handheld GPS, 695 onwards, displays them.
You are supposed to find them visually, of course, but often that is simply impossible. Only the locals know them.
Yes, Augsburg has a lot going for it.
I used to work as flight instructor there, 11 years ago. At the time though, they had delusions of grandeur. There was some very limited airline traffic, and that of course spoilt it all for GA. X-ray scanners (each and every time, even if I did 5 sorties on one day), unfriendly staff, ramp transport, and bitchy ATC. After a few years, they finally accepted that the runway was too short to continue profitable airline type operations and they stopped. Since then, they only cater for GA, and thus have returned to being “friendly”.
Depending on weight and noise, they can be a tad pricy though. Landing an SR22 costs between 43€ And 50€. Almost as much as Shoreham. Parking costs a bit more than what you say, but is still reasonable.
Re VRPs (called “VFR reporting points” in Germany), it’s been like that ever since. Small railway crossings, a roundabout, a small lake. Sometimes very hard to find for who is not familiar. GPS solved it all.
Howard wrote:
hows does a GA pilot with just paper charts find something like VFR reporting point N1 where I was directed to today? I have absolutely no idea.
Pilotage? 
Howard wrote:
hows does a GA pilot with just paper charts find something like VFR reporting point N1
Follow radial 143° of the DKB VOR until you see the first motorway?
Rwy20 wrote:
Follow radial 143° of the DKB VOR until you see the first motorway?
Yes, very funny Rwy20. Sadly the Jeppesen VFR chart doesn’t show the motorway nor the VOR radial, nor any routing for reporting points N2, L, O1 or O2, or S1 or S1 or W1 or W2.
A VFR GPS is clearly the only way unless one know the area from local flying. I’m surprised by this.
Mind you, I learned to fly at Wycombe Air Park where the main reporting point is simply “The Golden Ball”, which is basically invisible to the human eye from the air. (It’s a small ball sitting on top of a church and no one has ever thought to change the name of the reporting point to the church.) Here is a picture of the church from the ground. You can see the ball can’t you and you’d know how to see it from the air, wouldn’t you! :D
