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4 Answers

iPad VFR charts for free?

Asked by: 7494 views ,
Airspace, FAA Regulations

This shows how cheap I am, but does anyone know an iOS app to get free (or at least cheap) current VFR charts on the iPad? Is there a cheaper option than the paper charts? http://skyvector.com/ is sweet, but not official or always available. Love Foreflight, but don't really like $150/yr. Also, downloading all relevant data before would help as I'm also to cheap to buy a data plan just for the ipad. Thoughts?

4 Answers



  1. John D Collins on Sep 27, 2013

    Foreflight is half that price if you don’t need georeferenced approach charts. From their website:

    ForeFlight Basic

    Service includes all software updates, all U.S. terminal procedures and updates, enroute charts and updates, weather, and flight planning. Provides service to one tablet and one mobile phone per pilot.

    1 Pilot ($74.99/yr)

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  2. Ryan on Sep 27, 2013

    I am also really cheap. Foreflight is the way to go. $75 a year gives you more features than you need as a VFR pilot. Bonus points for searching the web and buying iTunes gift cards for 20% off. Plenty of those deals. Going this route makes foreflight $60 a year — the cost of four paper charts.

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  3. Kris Kortokrax on Sep 27, 2013

    Or, get yourself an Android tablet and download Avare for free.

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  4. Mark Kolber on Sep 27, 2013

    Other iOS options:

    Fltplan.com has a free app with national chart coverage. It’s a bit limited in terms of what it can do in flight other than simply show your position.

    A decent low-cost alternative is Skycharts Pro. $20 per year. It was a contender in the early iPad days but when not very much extra $ gets you so much more capability with ForeFlight, WingX, FlyQ, etc, it’s hard for these guys to compete with a bare bones chart product.

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