Every now and then you come across something and wonder "Why the hell didn't I think of that?" I just recently stumbled across a company called Sky Sectionals thanks to a buddy in Civil Air Patrol. All I can say is that THIS is the way the FAA should be distributing ALL charts these days!!! What a FANTASTIC product!
So for those of you that are not pilots and wondering why I'm ranting and raving about these guys, here's a little background. Aviation charts are typically these huge folded paper charts that are an insane nuisance and in my opinion a safety hazard in the cockpit. Sadly these are the FAA approved navigation charts and outside of products like Jepp charts (expensive), we don't have many options. To make matters worse, these charts are updated frequently and you end up having to buy them at least a couple times a year. Multiply that by the various number of charts we have to carry and this gets expensive and completely unruly in the cockpit.
In steps Sky Sectionals and puts technology to work for us. They take those very charts and have created digital versions that are distributed electronically. They are updated on the same schedule as the FAA certified NACO charts and they have even created a simple way to navigate the sectionals. You can print out an entire sectional or just the parts you need for your route of flight. I should point out that these are NOT approved by the FAA as your sole means of information so you should be cross referencing them with the certified FAA charts, but these are an absolute must in the cockpit in my opinion. They make managing your workload as a pilot a heck of a lot easier when in VFR flight.
For those of us who fly Search and Rescue, cockpit management becomes even more critical as we need to know precisely what grid we are in and searching. We need to manage flying the aircraft and looking out the window making sure we don't hit anything (especially here in WA where we fly low and slow through the mountains). Having these Sky Sectionals printed, laminated and spiral bound are the way to go. One drawback for us CAP pilots is having to take those paper charts and manually draw our search grids on them. It's super time-intensive and not always pretty or perfectly accurate. Again, in steps Sky Sectionals and gives us a lending hand by providing CAP pilots with gridded sectionals. Here's an example of a gridded sectional in the Seattle area:
If you are looking for a way to manage that workload in the cockpit and keep your charts handy and useful, give these guys a try! They have sectional and TAC charts covering the lower 48. For CAP gridded sectionals, contact them directly for the link to your area. Make sure you follow them on Twitter for updated news and coupon codes!
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