December 2013- If you are a fan of “Antiques Roadshow” or a saver of things with the barely recognized thought that they might someday be worth enough that a grandchild will remember you fondly, give some thought to stashing away any sectional charts you have sitting around. Roll them up neatly and store them, away from sunlight and insects, up in your attic.
There’s probably room next to that old Erector set, alongside your collection of manual typewriters, those two rotary dial phones and that precarious stack of mahogany cigar boxes your dad gave you.
I am no futurist, and my prognostications have often been way off, but the writing, or should I say the pixels, are on the wall … or tablet, or view screen, or smartphone: in the very near future paper charts will be curiosities, like the pay phone or TVs that are not flat.
Over the summer, the FAA announced it would no longer sell paper charts directly to the public. Since October 1, aeronautical charts have only been only available via FAA-authorized chart agents. The change is about “maximizing the efficiency of the FAA division that develops aeronautical chart products,” the agency said in an online notice (read that as “a way to save money”), and it added that digital chart products will not be affected.
In the notice the FAA said digital products would still be available for direct purchase by contacting the FAA’s Aeronautical Navigation (AeroNav) Products’ distribution team directly via email at 9-AMC-Chartsales@faa.gov or by phone at 800-638-8972. Be warned, however: that process is reportedly pretty clunky.
The FAA provides the charts in digital “raster” format for free on its website, but that may change as it is in the process of verifying the pricing for electronic charts and finalizing proposals for digital pricing. Since some aeronautical charting app services use these charts, their cost is likely to increase once the FAA starts charging for its digital products.
If your locaI FBO doesn’t carry charts, and you still carry paper charts in your cockpit, there is a web-based “find-an-agent” doohickey that might help you locate local sources of supply at aeronav.faa.gov/agents.asp. And there are a slew of companies with online stores, from Sporty’s to DuraCharts, where you can still order paper charts for delivery right to your house.
So what’s the big deal? You can no longer get a paper sectional direct from the FAA, but there are plenty of other ways to obtain a fine chart to keep on your knee as you fly along. And the FAA has said that it has no plans to discontinue production of paper charts.
Certainly, but for how long? And do I really believe the FAA?
Well those are interesting questions, not only in the sky but at sea as well. As some of you who regularly read this column might recall, I’m a sailor as well as a pilot and I recently learned that the FAA’s move is not an isolated one.
In fact, about three weeks after FAA discontinued direct sales to consumers, the government announced it would cease printing paper charts for mariners.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Office of Coast Survey, which creates nautical charts of U.S. coastal waters, announced that beginning April 13, 2014, the federal government will no longer print paper nautical charts, but will continue to provide other forms of nautical charts, including print-on-demand charts and versions for electronic charting systems.
“Like most other mariners, I grew up on NOAA lithographic charts and have used them for years,” said Rear Adm. Gerd Glang, director of NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey. “We know that changing chart formats and availability will be a difficult change for some mariners who love their traditional paper charts.”
So what’s the connection between paper nautical charts being phased out and the FAA no longer selling direct to consumers? Glad you asked, as a bit of history will help connect the dots.
But first let me point out that it is the FAA that prints maritime charts!
It all started with then-President Thomas Jefferson who ordered up a survey of the U.S. coast back in 1807, and ever since, a federal agency has been surveying and charting the rocks, inlets, harbors and bays of importance to mariners finding their way by water.
Meanwhile, aviators have been navigating by reference to paper aeronautical charts since 1926, when they were produced by the FAA’s National Charting Office (NACO).
The federal Air Commerce Act of 1926 authorized the Department of Commerce to publish aeronautical charts. That task was assigned to the new Aeronautical Branch, which then turned into the Bureau of Air Commerce, and then the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA). It was then moved to the Department of Transportation as part of the FAA.
The actual charts were created by the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, then named, and then a bureau within the Department of Commerce. Because the Coast and Geodetic Survey was a well-established charting and printing organization, it was reasoned that aeronautical chart production could take advantage of its cartographic and publishing capabilities.
The Coast and Geodetic Survey and its Aeronautical Chart Division became part of NOAA in 1970 and remained there until 2000, when Congress transferred the function to the FAA.
So, NOAA’s entire printing operation made the move to the FAA 13 years ago, and FAA’s NACO now prints all of NOAA’s marine navigation charts—or will, until next April 13 when such printing will cease.
According to NOAA, the FAA wants to save money and told NOAA in late October it was going to stop the presses. FAA has not commented, other than the notice regarding paper aeronautical charts referred to above.
On NOAA’s “Frequently Asked Questions” page regarding the matter, however, I found this:
Are federal budget constraints factors in the decision to end lithograph charts?
This change has minimal budget impact on NOAA. NOAA’s lithographic charts have been printed by the Federal Aviation Administration, and the FAA decided to stop printing nautical charts “as a direct result of the federal government’s constrained fiscal environment and the FAA’s need to reduce all avoidable or unnecessary costs to the agency.”
Now for the math:
• In 2011, there were about 180,000 registered General Aviation aircraft in the United States, counting piston-single, piston-twin and experimentals (Source: www.aopa.org/About-AOPA/Statistical-Reference-Guide/Active-General-Aviation-Aircraft-in-the-U-S.aspx ).
• In the same year there were about 22.2 million boats owned in the United States. Since not all states require registration of certain types of boats, the figure for boat registrations that year was 12.75 million, and since some households have more than one boat, let’s just round the vessel figure to an even 10 million or so boats. (Source: www.uscgboating.org/assets/1/Page/1520b_USCG_RBS_NationalSurvey_Online_SinglePages.pdf )
I already said I’m not a futurist, and will now disclose that I am certainly no economist, but with about 10 million boats owned by folks, of which some subset might want a chart, there is bound to be a larger demand for nautical charts than aviation charts.
And maritime print charts will cease being produced in April.
So how long do you think you’ll still be able to get a paper sectional?
A Map is a Map, Or Is It?
When I was struggling to learn to fly back in the 1980s there was something comforting about a sectional on my knee. I never liked VORs, and the sectional and my wristwatch connected my in-the-air self to the preflight planning with a pencil and a straightedge that had been done by my on-the-ground self.
It gave me a sense of security aloft to see my waypoints pass by—highway, or lake, or water tower—as I wrote down the time I passed by each next to its mapped image. I only got lost once.
Don’t get me wrong, I bought my first GPS long before I bought an aircraft, and right after I became an aircraft owner I started buying electronic flight bag gadgets. Today I have the redundancies of a dedicated GPS, an iPad with GPS linkage and an iPhone—all containing lots of charts and weather apps.
And I have the latest GPS chart plotter on my sailboat, with the same Apple app redundancies for ocean navigation. And digital charts are updated instantly and have all sorts of cool bells and whistles built in. I do love them.
But a chart, whether in the air or at sea, seems to me to be have an existence that makes it more than a travel-planning tool, more than a device to indicate en route location or whether or not we’ll hit a mountain or run aground on a reef.
Maps make for dreaming. Who among us had not gazed at a map with a heart full of longing for journeys yet to come? Their paper edges “where dragons be” have launched voyages of the imagination that have led to the actual planning of many a voyage by air or by sea.
No matter how I try, I have difficulty picturing myself getting up from the dinner table, having supped with my friends, by saying, “Clear the plates, but keep the wine glasses, while I get the iPad so we can see the route we’ll take tomorrow to Borneo.”
Unroll for me a chart, however, and I am ready to go.
David Hipschman recently passed his U.S. Coast Guard captain’s exam. He has been flying for about 25 years. He teaches journalism at the University of Florida, was the director of publications at EAA, and is the editor of the National Association of Flight Instructors’ print and electronic publications. He lives in Punta Rassa, Fla. and has too many boats. Send questions or comments to editor@www.piperflyer.com.
