Free downloads of sectionals, flight directories and TAC's
I'm not sure how many others have noticed this or not, but the FAA has started allowing *free* downloads of a lot of their digital products. That includes Sectionals, Aerodrome/Flight Directories, Terminal Area Charts, etc.
FAA Sectionals
http://www.naco.faa.gov/index.asp?xml=aeronav/applications/VFR/chartlist_sect
VFR Terminal Area Charts
http://www.naco.faa.gov/index.asp?xml=aeronav/applications/VFR/chartlist_tac
Aerodrome/Flight Directory
http://www.naco.faa.gov/index.asp?xml=aeronav/applications/d_afd
Note that each chart is about a 40MB download, so it might take a little while. The A/FD is unfortunately done on a page-by-page basis, so you can't download an entire volume easily. But a clever person could probably figure out a way to write a script to download the individual pages and then join them all into a single PDF.
The maps take a second or two to load initially, but once they're in, you can pan, zoom, etc. and it works just like Google Maps.
FAA Sectionals
http://www.naco.faa.gov/index.asp?xml=aeronav/applications/VFR/chartlist_sect
VFR Terminal Area Charts
http://www.naco.faa.gov/index.asp?xml=aeronav/applications/VFR/chartlist_tac
Aerodrome/Flight Directory
http://www.naco.faa.gov/index.asp?xml=aeronav/applications/d_afd
Note that each chart is about a 40MB download, so it might take a little while. The A/FD is unfortunately done on a page-by-page basis, so you can't download an entire volume easily. But a clever person could probably figure out a way to write a script to download the individual pages and then join them all into a single PDF.
The maps take a second or two to load initially, but once they're in, you can pan, zoom, etc. and it works just like Google Maps.
Comments
A clever person has done so. PDF's of approach plates and A/FD by state and by region have been available from NACOmatic for several years. They're formatted for several different platforms as well. The website now has the sectionals and enroutes as PDF's, too. Whatever PDF's you want, you can set them as RSS feeds so that it downloads automatically to your browser.
NACOmatic is free, though contributions to keep things running are welcome. It can be found at:
http://www.realitydistortionfield.com/