Thanks, Ron.

As for the usability issues, I am going to test that on a trip this weekend.
Last night, I simulated use of one at my desk. I called up the chart, did
my enroute approach briefing by an orderly scrolling through the chart, made
notes on my (simulated) kneeboard for minima, missed approach, and
frequencies that I couldn't immediately put in the radios, then panned the
chart so I could see the plan view and profile view, where it would stay
during the approach. Readability for that seemed to be adequate. This is
not how I would want to do it routinely, but for infrequent backup use, it
seemed fully usable at my desk. In-flight evaluation remains. But I have
used the iPAQ in flight for about three years with the AnyWhereMap product,
and am quite familiar with its usability issues.

The Seattle Avionics products look very nice. I see they have a Pocket PC
version of their SmartPlates as an additional purchase. I don't understand
what they are talking about when they say they have preprocessed the files
for 5X download speed. I compared file sizes for their example chart vs
NACO, it was 388.4K vs 388.8K. Looks like they trimmed some border off is
all.

I would pay for DVD updates rather than very large downloads. Also, I don't
like having to generate backups for individual trips, I would rather have
the whole thing available, or at least a large area. For an alternate
airport when conditions are really poor, I often choose one that is more
than 100 nm away, a Class B or C, where I can find good approaches with good
approach lighting and food, transportation, and lodging, and hopefully out
of the weather system that is causing the problem at my primary destination.
Generating a per-trip backup pack for that size corridor about my route
would be a lot of downloading.

Stan

"Ron Rosenfeld" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 6 Dec 2004 10:58:04 -0600, "Stan Prevost"
wrote:

Stan,

A few thoughts:

1. I'd worry about usability. I think the charts look OK on a PDF -- when
at home. But the situation I'd be using them in the air is that weather
or
some emergency has put me in a position where I have to divert to some
probably unfamiliar airport. It would add to my workload to not have a
realy easy to see and interpret cockpit chart presentation, at a time when
the workload has already gone up.

I do carry backup electronic charts -- but I have them on a tablet PC,
where I can see the entire chart clearly, and don't have to scroll around.

2. Check out SeattleAviation's SmartPlates program as an alternative to
Sporty's DVD's. You can download all the NACO US charts, and then do the
cycle updates also over the Internet. The cost of the program is $100 and
then there's no subscription fees. Also, if you are away from home when
the updates come out, you can download them from wherever you happen to be
located.


--ron