No more charts?

[Chris Colohan]

I saw this over on comp.risks... Apparently there is a proposal to
have the FAA stop publishing charts for "security reasons".

Am I reading this correctly? Does this mean the end of charts for
navigation? Or just that they will cost twice as much and have to be
purchased from a private company?

http://www.urisa.org/Board_Initiatives/NGA.htm

Chris
--
Chris Colohan Email: PGP: finger
Web: www.colohan.com Phone: (412)268-4751

[Chris Colohan]

Hmmmm. Perhaps I should read more before posting. The AOPA has a
nice summary of the issues here:

http://www.aopa.org/whatsnew/air_traffic/dod_charts.html

Chris
===
Chris Colohan > writes:
> I saw this over on comp.risks... Apparently there is a proposal to
> have the FAA stop publishing charts for "security reasons".
>
> Am I reading this correctly? Does this mean the end of charts for
> navigation? Or just that they will cost twice as much and have to be
> purchased from a private company?
>
> http://www.urisa.org/Board_Initiatives/NGA.htm
>
> Chris
> --
> Chris Colohan Email: PGP: finger
> Web: www.colohan.com Phone: (412)268-4751

--
Chris Colohan Email: PGP: finger
Web: www.colohan.com Phone: (412)268-4751

[George Patterson]

Chris Colohan wrote:
>
> Am I reading this correctly?

No, you aren't. Check out the link on that page to AOPA's take on the matter.
Here's an excerpt --

"Paper Charts — The proposal will not have any impact on domestic aeronautical
charted products (sectionals, IAPs, etc.), which are produced by the FAA
National Aeronautical Charting Office (NACO).

If the military navigation charts are withdrawn from the public, pilots flying
outside of the United States will have to buy charts from private vendors,
usually at a higher cost than the NGA charts. The most immediate impact on AOPA
members will be the loss of popular operational international navigation charts
(ONC), which include enroute charts for the Caribbean and South America, the
supplement of Caribbean airport information, and instrument approach charts for
the Caribbean and South America.

Flight Planning Programs and Software — Vendors who use this information for
their domestic and international flight planning products will have to turn to
more expensive alternatives if their access to that free information were cut
off in October 2005. While the FAA is in discussions with the NGA to try and
preserve the data for domestic products, the FAA does not maintain any
international flight information database and has no plan to develop any at this
time."

The gist of this is that there will be no change in domestic charts (this, of
course, means no change in security). The REST of the world will be arguably
made more secure from U.S. pilots -- at least, those who can't afford to buy
charts from foreign vendors.

GPS and LORAN databases will be a different matter, however, as will be flight
planning programs.

The net effect will be that database and software providers will have to buy
this data from foreign companies.

Is that Pennsylvania congresscritter behind this one too?

George Patterson
Why do men's hearts beat faster, knees get weak, throats become dry,
and they think irrationally when a woman wears leather clothing?
Because she smells like a new truck.

[Ron Natalie]

Chris Colohan wrote:
> I saw this over on comp.risks... Apparently there is a proposal to
> have the FAA stop publishing charts for "security reasons".
>
Not FAA, NGA, formerly known as the Defense Mapping Agency (and then
NIMA: Not into mapping anymore). NIMA produces a variety of aviation
charts: WAC, JNC, ONC, etc.. for the entire world. Most civil pilots
don't see any of these other than WAC's.