Sure; the content is the same, just the layout of the charts and text parts is different.
What I wondered is whether you need the “text pages” supplement, which comes with the full product and is not directly related to the terminal charts.
For example for EDKA I see just 2 pages and the 2nd of them contains this text:
These are merely the notes related directly to the chart. (Things you won‘t know if only having the bare Skydemon product).
These don‘t show opening times, customs status, fuel availability. For that, you need to go to the AD section of the AIP VFR (or the Jeppesen manual).
This is really interesting. I always thought that the “behind paywall” German VFR data was just the charts, but it turns out that even the most basic airport data like opening times is also inaccessible. Just looked up EDKA at the Eurocontrol AIP (at the EuroGA airports database) and there is nothing at all.
Unbelievable!
What prevents an airport having the non-chart info on its website? Or a 3rd party running a website with it. It is textual; the DFS can’t claim copyright to the opening times, or the letters A…Z etc.
On customs/immigration topics, this above post has great links.
Peter wrote:
What prevents an airport having the non-chart info on its website?
Nothing. Most airfields do this.
The problem is: many of them don’t keep the info properly updated. And this could put you into trouble. So, either you phone email them advance to get the information confirmed by them, or you get the AIP VFR/Jepp manual (plus check NOTAMs of course). But still, any of the notes like those on the bottom of the approach charts (see above) will be unknown to you if you only have the bare Skydemon product or if you don’t even have that.
From here
tmo wrote:
Kind of is, as in they decide to “recover their operating costs” by reducing safety of flight (restricting access to the VFR AIP) instead of making up the difference elsewhere
They don’t reduce safety – they just increase cost.
But I can somehow understand that someone who does not seem to be a German taxpayer would rather have the German taxpayer pay for something instead of paying it by himself.
I reckon the amount of money raised by the behind-paywall German VFR AIP is miniscule. Most pilots fly to the same old places all the time, and the rest will try to get data from others – same as people do with Jeppesen.
However, I am informed that German pilots are required to carry the latest official briefing material (whatever that means) and this includes the paid AIP plates. I recall when I was a beta tester on the Autorouter, this was the driver behind the thick briefing pack it produces. Most of it is not needed but was thought to be a requirement for German pilots.
Malibuflyer wrote:
But I can somehow understand that someone who does not seem to be a German taxpayer would rather have the German taxpayer pay for something instead of paying it by himself.
As a Swedish tax payer, I’m very happy for German GA pilots to access Swedish aeronautical information for free and I would hope that feeling is reciprocated. In the end nobody profits from this kind of protectionism.
Peter wrote:
I reckon the amount of money raised by the behind-paywall German VFR AIP is miniscule. Most pilots fly to the same old places all the time, and the rest will try to get data from others – same as people do with Jeppesen.However, I am informed that German pilots are required to carry the latest official briefing material (whatever that means) and this includes the paid AIP plates. I recall when I was a beta tester on the Autorouter, this was the driver behind the thick briefing pack it produces. Most of it is not needed but was thought to be a requirement for German pilots.
Miniscule is a rather small number, but I suspect in any case that 99% of subscribers are German pilots. Apparently the IFR AIP information available via Eurocontrol is a legal obligation of countries to provide free of charge. Unfortunately, there seems to be no such obligation on countries for the VFR AIP and unlike (almost?) every other country in Europe, Switzerland and Germany use this as an excuse to charge VFR pilots for VFR AIP information that IFR pilots get for free (i.e. IFR AIP info).
Airborne_Again wrote:
As a Swedish tax payer, I’m very happy for German GA pilots to access Swedish aeronautical information for free and I would hope that feeling is reciprocated. In the end nobody profits from this kind of protectionism.
I agree. I wouldn’t mind my taxpayer money making this information freely available to Swedish – or any other – pilots, but I guess the 99% of the population who have no direct stake in aviation might see this differently.
