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FAA to charge for digital charts


CT4ME

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According To AVWeb and Aviation Consumer magazine, as of April 5th 2012 the FAA will begin charging for the digital charts previously offered for free. In addition, the charts will no longer be available to individuals, only companies that have signed distribution agreements.

This change may have far-reaching affects to all of us as, once again, many of the services we rely on run the risk of going out of business... Or raising their prices significantly. The online flight prep services like RunwayFinder.com, or SkyVector or Landings.com will no longer have free access to FAA charts. Subscriptions for products like Foreflight, WingX, or Naviator may need to be increased significantly.

Except as a Money-Grab, this doesn't make sense at all. In order to control the airspace, the FAA has to produce the charts and, these days, those charts are maintained in digital format. It costs nothing to allow access to those digital charts. So, now, they want us to pay to have them created, through taxes, then pay again to access them?!?!

I'm sure you'll hear more about this soon...

Tim

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Except as a Money-Grab, this doesn't make sense at all. In order to control the airspace, the FAA has to produce the charts and, these days, those charts are maintained in digital format. It costs nothing to allow access to those digital charts. So, now, they want us to pay to have them created, through taxes, then pay again to access them?!?

 

Tim,

It does cost to provide access.

I have little faith the FAA will do the right thing but I think a fee base on the cost of distribution of the data would be fair. This is analogous to charging for the paper charts (printing, paper and distribution). It would not surprise me if there are a very large number of servers, disk arrays, software licenses and network appliances just to serve the data up. Throw in network, system and database admins and I could see an annual cost as high as $1M. Charge $10K to $25K annually and the FAA would probably more than cover their cost. Foreflight and WingX could bump their fee by a few bucks and still have the same profit margin.

 

 

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'Can't entirely agree... the infrastructure needed to deliver these charts (to their own departments) is already in place. The cost to distribute these is almost nothing. Take for example the many sources, like CHARTGEEK.com, that take these charts now and distribute them for FREE. If there was significant cost, they wouldn't be able to do it. It is likely almost entirely automated.

I understand the reasons behind selling paper maps, as there is a definable significant cost of paper, printing, packaging and shipping.

I suspect the FAA has been making money on the sales of paper charts (beyond cost recovery). Someone finally realized paper charts are going away. They are looking for a way get that money back.

I see this somewhat of a safety issue. There should be little or no barrier for pilots to be able to access chart information. After all, if the FAA is going to expect compliance, there has to be some (easy) way for us to see what the rules are...

 

This boils down to a form of user fees. If they want us to pay for their operations, just say so. But, in exchange, WE should be able to examine their efficiency (they work for us). In my dealing with the FAA, they appear to be incredibly inefficient and management-heavy. Just try calling or emailing them, especially above the grunt ATC level. You will not believe the number of "deputies" and "assistant to the deputys" you'll be passed through.

We all know how they can take a simple thing and drag it out. It took them (in conjuction with the CBP) two years to come up with the World's Worst website for ordering the Custom Decal (needed to fly across the border). How many Million$ do you think that cost? Let's see, we've been waiting about SIX YEARS to get LSA identifiers incorporated into the System. They are "working on it"... to the tune of how many Million$?

This CTFLIER forum costs us a whole $10 a month to operate... How much do you think it would cost if the FAA ran it? :wacko:

What's next, a subscription-based website to access TFRs?

Tim

[edit] upon reflection- the customs decal thing is mostly CBP... let's let them take the hit for wasting that $$$

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Not debating the efficiency, or lack thereof, of the FAA and most government agencies. I don't know the volume of data or load on FAA's servers so it's impossible (from the outside) to adequately estimate the environment. There will typically be 4 server environments for web applications: development, QA, Production and disaster recovery. In the government, development is most likely contracted out at a cost+ model. QA will be some type of logical mirror of Production for functional and load testing. Disaster recovery may be a shared environment. I'm in the software business and run some very large product suites. One of my suites has 86 servers across the 4 environments and is engineered to handle a peak load of 100,000 users. We 'virtualize' the servers with an average cost per server (all licenses) of around $5K/year. Total annual costs is over $400K without people. Most companies lease their equipment over 2-3 years terms since after 3 years the hardware is pretty much out of date. Also, you're going to need a real database to handle the online terrabytes of data. I'd guess Oracle; which can run in the hundreds of $K's even with government discounts.

 

If chartgeek or ctflier go down -- users are inconvenienced so the server farms may be architected differently. The FAA sites go down -- all data sources are effected which may affect public safety.

 

I'm not for the added user fees. I was just making the point that there is a non-trivial cost to just distributing the data.

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All Good points...

It looks like some web-based sources of flight planning and charts are already saying they will go out of business if they have to pay significant $$$. Developers of tablet moving map systems are already crying foul. The FAA is inviting interested parties to a meeting in December to discuss the issues. At least some of the distribution agreement is being passed off as a safety issue - signers must agree to not alter the data. That part MAY cause problems, as some folks enhance the data with more airport info, adding private airports, etc. There is some question as to whether "stitching" the maps (removing the legends) will be allowed.

 

Tim

 

ps... Android users... Naviator is a good moving map program (that utilizes the free chart info)... it's a good product (in early stage of development)... that is only $50 year.

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  • 4 weeks later...

OK, the meeting happened... input was taken, and explanations were given. Bottom line: It WILL probably happen, but the details are not firm yet. FAA basically said they want to somehow collect $150/yr MORE from each one of us who uses the charts. They are wanting to make up for a $5 Million budget shortfall, although they wouldn't answer any questions about saving $$$ via reducing costs.

Most folks agreed that products like ForeFlight and WingX will likely double in cost; small developers will likely be priced out of the market, and many products/companies that depend on free access to the charts will go out of business.

I really can't believe they are doing all of this for $5 million, a microscopic piece of their $18 BILLION budget. Just all the meetings and travel associated arguing the point will cost more than $5 Million. That's government for you.

AVWeb News article

 

Tim

 

ps... all this could just be a ruse to get more $$$ in the FAA budget...

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Where did the money saved by not printing charts go?

 

It would not surprise me in the least if a blackmarket in VFR charts didn't spring up. If the chart is legal but the way you got it isn't according to FAA rules, what can they do about it? If some countries can pirate an entire operating system, I'd think almost anything would be possible. I think the FAA has gotten themselves into a mess. The may win, but at what cost?

 

 

 

 

 

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Here's a great read... Hilton Software's report on the meeting. See how complicated things get? This thing is getting crazy. All over $5 Million. You can see how any solution will easily end up creating some sort of bloated bureaucracy that will easily eat up several more $Million.

Hilton Software report from the meeting

Tim

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  • 1 month later...
  • 2 months later...

So, it looks like someone is listening... :) as per AVWeb news

Senators Rein In AeroNav's Fee Proposal

 

The powerful Senate Appropriations Committee has rapped the knuckles of the FAA over its handling of proposed changes to the delivery of online navigation information services and suggested more congressional oversight on the implementation of those changes. The committee, whose report must be approved by the full Senate and House, says AeroNav, the arm of the agency that publishes navigation and airport information, should immediately restore the 17-day advance availability of the next iteration of online publications, which it abruptly reduced to 24 hours last year. The change made it difficult if not impossible for third-party online navigation information providers to fully update their data bases before the effective dates of the new charts. "The committee is concerned that these changes may conflict with the FAA's mission to provide timely and accurate information for pilots in the interest of safe and efficient navigation," the committee said. It also warned against using online products as a cash cow to make up for lost revenue from diminishing paper chart sales.

 

Yea Congress!

Tim

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