Recenlty Navigraph announced some VFR features in the new editions of “Charts”. While I appreciate the VFR view, and some VFR procedures decipted in this view, I really miss the VFR charts. The charts avialable are still only IFR oriented at least in Europe. Of course the airport diagrams are for both IFR and VFR, but I would highly appreciate the charts depicting the VFR procedures in more detail, especialy the visual VFR approach procedures for light aircraft.
Also for VFR-only fields, like my home field EPWS, there are no charts at all, despite thier free availability in the Polish AIP (they are avaible in SkyDemon). Some countries charge for access to AIP, but many don’t. Such procedures are published by national aviation authorities, I don’t know if Jeppesen also provides them. If so - I would kindly ask Navigrpah to extend the available map set to cover also the VFR charts.
Otherwise, while still providing some charts for the VFR sim pilots, the Navigraph service remains too expensive for a VFR-only pilot. You may consider cheaper subscription for VFR pilots (no SID, STAR, approach charts).
Currenlty to have better VFR charts coverage in Europe (still not perfect) I must rely on SkyDemon, which is also not cheap, but it’s also applicable to real world flying.
I’m also not aware of the option to limit the VFR view to display only airspace elements up to some altitude - in the result the view is cluttered by the airspace elements not even reachable in small GA plane.
Navigraph (no charts available for the field, no ATZ sector B depicted on the “VFR” view):
We might add additional VFR charts further down the road, either from Jeppesen or AIP sources, but it is not in the near term.
However, we are planning to improve the VFR map further. For example, in cycle 2309 due next week we will add additional class G airspaces like the ATZ sector B around EPWS:
The visual approaches, traffic patterns, and reporting points are already present on the Navigraph VFR map, along with the airport diagram. What else is missing in your view, making SkyDemon necessary?
The actual VFR charts are the most missing element for me, the global chart will not tell me where is the fuel station at the airfield or how to visually identify the VFR reporting point.
I will probably continue using SkyDemon, as I use it for real world flying. However the charts available in SkyDemon don’t follow the standardized Jeppesen format, so for sim flying round the world Navigraph is very convenient.
Please consider cheaper VFR only subscription without IFR charts (SID, STAR etc.). In my opinion the Navigraph service is currently too expensive for VFR-only pilots.
As a real world PPL(A) SEP(L) pilot I can assure you it’s not all the information you need for truly visual VFR flying (in MSFS I fly visually in VR googles).
The same way for IFR flying you not only use the global vector map in Navigraph Charts, but you consult the actual Jeppesen charts which contain much more information.
The VFR charts contain information about:
the visual identity of VFR reporting points,
the noise abatement areas,
the VFR only airfield charts,
and much more.
Many sim IFR pilots take it very serious with IFR flight planning (Simbrief, loading, reference airspeeds etc.). The same applies to VFR if you take it seriously - charts are a vital tool enabling this.
We just added some class G airspaces with the newly released cycle 2309, so the ATZ sector B around EPWS is now visible.
We might bring in VFR charts from Jeppesen or AIP, as well as US sectionals, at some later stage.
In contrast to IFR, we do get VFR procedures (Europe/US) directly from Jeppesen, and these are the exact same as are shown on the VFR charts. It isn’t the exact same experience as the charts of course, but VFR procedures, reporting points, and airspaces are rendered the same. Also on airports we do show the location of fuel stations (you need to zoom in to the airport to see such detail).
Now after the class G airspace addition, Navigraph vs Polish AIP:
Keeping my finger crossed for the addition of VFR charts from AIP or Jeppessen (however, I’ve never seen Jeppesen VFR charts for Europe, so I have no opinion about their quality).
With the VFR charts added, Navigraph subscription will be a valid option for VFR-only pilots. Without such charts the subscription is just too expensive for me. The IFR pilots receive much more in the same price.
While the procedural information on the 2 pictures above is nearly the same, some visual reference navigational information is missing on the global vector map:
forests - their shape is the primary navigational reference for VFR only pilot,
textual description what actually visual reference points are (for example Romeo above is a massive bridge, visible for VFR pilot from miles away).
May I upvote this please. I note the (free) US VFR Sectionals are available, why not the free VFR coverage of Europe? Appreciate UK VFR charts are not free, but the rest of Europe is. I also fly (virtually) around Europe and would like to have the VFR charts for airfields. For example, LFBU does indeed have the VRPs noted on the moving map, which is great, but the VFR charts contain much more info
