CAP Pilots Listen up - Gridding Your Sectionals Is A Thing Of The Past!
For any of you Civil Air Patrol Search and Rescue pilots who have spent endless hours gridding your sectionals, life is about to get a whole lot easier for you! The fine folks over at Sky Sectionals have just launched CAP Charts for CAP Pilots (or anyone flying Search and Rescue for that matter) at http://www.capcharts.com/.
These digital charts are the same as your typical FAA/NACO charts but insanely more manageable. What Sky Sectionals has done for us is provide the conventional grid overlay we use (15'x15') further subdivided into 7.5' grids (A,B,C,D). The grids are easily identified with semi-transparent lines and don't obscure key critical information on the chart. This is simply a Godsend to Search and Rescue Pilots and Aircrew. Now you can carry current and updated GRIDDED charts with you at ALL times. I still see some guys flying around with charts that are 10 years old because they don't want to grid a new one (granted they have current paper charts, but still...), all that is in the past! There's simply no excuse for not having up to date gridded charts anymore.
Other nice things about these charts are that they are perfect for folding up and putting them in your kneeboard. Just get your grid assignment ahead of time and print them out before you head out to fly your missions. I've gone the extra mile and printed out the entire Seattle Sectional, TAC and VFR Flyway and laminated each page. I carry them all in one giant spiral bound stack so that if we get reassigned to an unexpected grid, I've always got them with me. The laminated surface works great with a dry-erase marker as well for adding notes and outlining your grid.
If you're jumping up and down like I was to hear about this new product, you can get a full tour by heading over to: http://www.capcharts.com/tour
The Sky Sectionals team has even provided a full video tour of the sectionals:Last but not least, if you aren't already convinced you need to go order these charts, a portion of the proceeds of every CAP Chart they sell is donated to the Civil Air Patrol Foundation. You can make your life easier and contribute further to a great cause all in one! It's great to see a company that has taken the time to address the needs of an organization like the Civil Air Patrol and we should definitely make every effort possible to support them. Happy flying!
