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How do I know if my airport diagram is current?

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FAA Regulations, General Aviation

How can I tell if something has changed on my airport diagrams? If it's obvious, I get it, but what about minor details?

For my EFB, I regularly download the updates per the 28 day schedule. In my physical flight bag I also keep a set of printouts for my local airports' instrument approaches and airport diagrams to use in case my iPad overheats. On my approach plates, there's a version number and change date. For example, the ILS at KCRQ is current version 9D changed on 10NOV(20)16. If something changes, the version number and date shoudl change. Meanwhile, the KCRQ airport diagram doesn't seem to have the same version information.

3 Answers



  1. John D Collins on Nov 11, 2023

    The date on the ILS lower LH corner is called a procedure amendment date. It is the date that the last amendment that affects the navdatabase entry, so that was Nov 10, 2016. Some changes that don’t affect the navdatabase entry may be made to the FAA chart, for example the ATIS frequency. The date that the last change was made to the FAA approach chart is in the upper RH corner is 19115. This is Julian date format and is day 115 of 2019. or April 25, 2019. On the FAA airport chart, the Julian date of the last update is shown in the lower LH corner, which is 22083, or day 83 of 2022 or converted is Mar 24, 2022. So any change made to the airport layout after Mar 24, 2022 would not be reflected in the airport diagram. ForeFlight also includes the currency of either the approach procedure or airport diagram in the LH and RH vertical margins so that you can check if your chart is current. Mine shows this “SW-3 02 NOV 2023 to 30 Nov 2023”. ForeFlight does not include a date on the ForeFlight Diagram. If you know of a discrepancy, you can report it to team@foreflight if you are a customer.

    Jeppesen has their own format for dates.

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  2. Jeff Baum on Nov 11, 2023

    The “Amdt 9D” is the reference for the specific version of that Instrument Approach Procedure. Look at the VOR-A plate. It has “Amdt 8A”. Both also show the date of that amendment.

    To verify the currency of the FAA NACO plate, look at the date range along the sides of the plate. The Jeppesen plates are not issued each 28 days as are the NACO charts, but each update will include a chart currency list which shows the effective date for each specific chart. Jeppesen charts may be up to a few years “old” while still being current if there was no change made.

    So basically, NACO charts are reissued each 28 days whether there has been a change or not. The currency date is along the sides. Jeppesen only issues a new chart if that has been an amendment or change. The currency of that chart has to be verified with the chart currency list. The 28 day updating of our “Jepp’s” used to take an hour, two hours or more, verifying that each chart was current in our binders. We all were delighted when we went to electronic flight bags. No more manual updates!

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  3. John D Collins on Nov 12, 2023

    Jeff, the Procedure amendment date is the date that the database was last updated. There are often updates to the FAA AIS (Aeronautical Information Services) charts (once known as NACO) that are not the result of an amendment to the procedure. With the FAA charts, the currency information is printed on the charts. With Jeppesen, the date range of currency is available on the Download summary in the EFB.

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