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VFR Maps

One thing that I would have like to have seen come out of all this euro harmonization is a common VFR map and I'm sure this would improve safety and reduce infringements as well.

I've always thought that the UK CAA maps are pretty good and i'm also a big fan of FAA maps. I especially like the fact that you can get a 1:250 000 TMA maps as well. Wouldn't that be handy for the London TMA?

I've seen that transair have produced a 1:100 000 map that covers the whole of the UK is this the same as the Jean Bossy map that covers France?

I should add as an instructor I never fly off the creases of the map anyway but I do dream about doing an IMC course thats takes us to some cheap approaches in france.

The map I currently have is out of date anyway but I do fly with a digital map which is upto date.

I've always thought that the UK CAA maps are pretty good

Yes, and I think the German DFS maps are great. Ah, and my friend Patrick from Paris considers the French maps to be great.

I think Jeppesen got the business of cross country VFR flying. Their maps used to be terrible but they have gotten better in the last years and while I still consider the German DFS maps to be better, I have been flying with Jeppesen only for years because I know they are consistent.

Most pilots never leave their home country (or home traffic pattern) so there is sufficient business selling country specific VFR maps and I think most CAAs are legally required to produce those maps. The German DFS offers maps of surrounding countries which apparently are quite popular, otherwise they wouldn't keep on producing them.

I think the FAA maps work well because they are uncluttered which is possible because of the widespread Class E to 17999ft, the universal 18000ft Class A base, and various other implied conventions.

The UK CAA maps manage to carry all information up to FL195, somehow... nothing on them is implied, which I quite like. They are dead easy to fly with and I run them as a GPS moving map on all VFR flights.

Yes two of the French maps (SIA and Cartabossy) are 1:1M, just like the new Transair map which for some puzzling reason has been comprehensively slagged off on the other pilot forums... I've seen it and think it is nice. It would make sense to scan it in and run it under Oziexplorer

However I suspect that most French PPLs fly with the IGN maps which are 1:500k. These will soon be revised to carry information up to FL120 whereas currently they go only up to ~5000ft, and I think that's a great idea. French airspace has relatively little in it between 5000ft and FL115 yet VFR is possible up to FL115.

German maps are also very good but exist only for Germany

The Jepp ones are unclear in many places - try to work this out

(actually I hear from locals that there are various mistakes there; some of the "CAS" is only notam-activated) but are standard across a large area of Europe.

I used the Jepp maps for my VFR trips outside the UK and France, but I suspect they contain many more errors than nationally produced maps because naturally most pilots just buy local maps. Most flying schools never utter the "J" word, and with such very low usage errors won't be reported. I recall some NDB in Ireland which was gone years before.

So it doesn't suprise me there is/was a big difference in quality between Jepp's VFR stuff (the Bottlang guides were packed with errors and had obviously not been updated for years when I used them) and Jepp's IFR stuff (which is world-class in quality and accuracy).

Maybe Jepp's VFR maps are more accurate now? It might be worth checking that example above and see what it shows on the last one.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

A few years ago...maybe three...there was an agreed standard for charts to be harmonised across Europe. The standard was set by Euro Control if I remember correctly.

I think DFS were the only people to implement it I think and then it seemed to quickly lose momentum.

EIWT Weston, Ireland

The german (DFS) style maps now exist for Poland, Czech, Denmark, Netherlands, Belgium, France, Switzerland and Austria - all neighbouring countries of Germany.

Mainz (EDFZ) & Egelsbach (EDFE), Germany

I confess that I've been a Jeppessen 1:500,000 VFR chart fan for a few years now - they used to contain a significant number of errors, or perhaps it would be fairer to say failures of clarity, but that seems to be largely in the past now. I find them clearly and user friendly, and like that I can use the same charts and thus layout and symbology across Europe. Plus I'm used to them. They do however randomly omit about half the NDBs in the UK, which is a pain.

But at-least in Europe it's the closest we have to a standard international chart. The format is also very close to the FAA charts, which is helpful.

The Dobossy/Transair 1:1,000,000 chart I bought last year and have another one this year. I find it good for coarse flight planning, or as a "get out of gaol card" when I go off the edge of the half-mil I was carrying, but it's too limited to use as a primary chart. The deliberate efforts to de-clutter it, in my opinion, went a little far.

G

Boffin at large
Various, southern UK.

I've used Jepps in various European countries and, if nothing else, find the uniformity helpful. If crossing three or four borders in a day I really don't fancy having to re-adjust to a different map standard every time. As for Peter's example, well, it's not Jepp's fault that the Swiss love to construct their airspace like an Emmental cheese ;-)

Agreed re the FAA ones, of course helped by the uniformity of the US airspace. I am currently enjoying them, flying in SoCal. Bliss!

Btw, FWIW I consider the CAA ones totally unreadable crap. Must be the most cluttered charts anywhere.

but it's too limited to use as a primary chart. The deliberate efforts to de-clutter it, in my opinion, went a little far.

Which bits do you think are wrongly missing?

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

The deliberate efforts to de-clutter it, in my opinion, went a little far.

I agree. I thought it would be great for longer distant UK trips and not having to cunningly fold maps so you can flip them over in flight without having to open them right up. But the lack of detail, and the absence of some of the smaller non licensed airfields, which would be perfectly good landing sites in an emergency, puts me off. I'll stick with the UK CAA ones for the moment, and whatever it is on the SkyDemon (because I like that). I will try the Jepp ones though, as I hadnt really considered them.

Which bits do you think are wrongly missing?

Well, virtually any town names for a start - they are routinely used for position reporting on RT. I'm also very used these days to using the morse printed on the Jeppessen charts for VOR idents, and that would be good to have back.

I have to use CAA charts for teaching, as my students will normally be examined using them - but agree that they are over-cluttered, over-heavy, and hard to read.

G

Boffin at large
Various, southern UK.
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