ForeFlight now using digital sectional files

Badger

Badger

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"The FAA has greatly improved its digital-Visual Chart (d-VC) production process and we are pleased to incorporate the new style of charts into ForeFlight Mobile with data cycle 1404 effective April 3."

http://blog.foreflight.com/
 
They look much better! Far more sharp and crisp.

But...

The missing information at the overlaps is still missing. I wonder why if it's a digital file?
 
timwinters said:
They look much better! Far more sharp and crisp.

But...

The missing information at the overlaps is still missing. I wonder why if it's a digital file?
Click to expand...

Because they still have to be stitched together. That's more an FAA problem to fix.
 
Just updated wing x and they are also digital now. The resolution could be higher but still a big improvement.
 
timwinters said:
They look much better! Far more sharp and crisp.

But...

The missing information at the overlaps is still missing. I wonder why if it's a digital file?
Click to expand...

They're still defined for the specific sectionals. Something in the lower right corner may have its I for put up and to the left. On the adjoining chart that same info may be moved down and left since the overlap puts it in the upper right corner. Inevitably something somewhere is going to short-shrift with the number of charts and overlaps.

They'd have to design one master, then have edited versions for each sectional.
 
sharper and they look brighter, but that's probably my perception.
 
timwinters said:
The missing information at the overlaps is still missing. I wonder why if it's a digital file?
Click to expand...
I'd heard that each sectional is now issued a single digital file, so they don't have to stitch north and south halves together any more. But on the borders between sectionals there will still be an issue.
 
I wonder if the file size (space requirements) will be larger or smaller than the past?

edit: found my answer:
"digital files, resulting in a crisper, brighter image, improved geo-referencing, and slightly smaller file sizes"
 
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Man, it's about time they up'ed the resolution on those sectionals. Looks GREAT!

Foreflight and Skyvector look amazing now! It only took 10 years to go paperless.... sigh
 
I just got back from a trip down to Charlotte and thought maybe my eyesight got much better from all the flax and fish oil omega goo my wife keeps sneaking into my diet.

The IFR low and VFR chart seemed much clearer on my ipad mini then the week before even through some bumps above the blue ridge mountains yesterday (I could read it this time). Didn't occur to me there was a chart up date that happened.

Guess im gonna have to the tell the wife unit my eyeballs are still bad regardless of her cooking.:yikes:
 
Archammer said:
Man, it's about time they up'ed the resolution on those sectionals. Looks GREAT!

Foreflight and Skyvector look amazing now! It only took 10 years to go paperless.... sigh
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They still have that fuzzyness when you're zooming in. There seem to be certain points where it snaps to a sharp image, but slightly more or slightly less zooming from those points leaves them fuzzy.
 
Yep, sharper and brighter. My little navigator wife even noticed. We like it!

Like noted above, FF still has the blurry transition.
 
LDJones said:
They still have that fuzzyness when you're zooming in. There seem to be certain points where it snaps to a sharp image, but slightly more or slightly less zooming from those points leaves them fuzzy.
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That's a generic feature of images with a lot of pixel-scale structure. It's called "aliasing." The blur means they know what they are doing. Without it, you get some "interesting" artifacts.
 
Really a significant improvement!
 
MAKG1 said:
That's a generic feature of images with a lot of pixel-scale structure. It's called "aliasing." The blur means they know what they are doing. Without it, you get some "interesting" artifacts.
Click to expand...

Seattle Avionics Software's engineers have figured out how to avoid that problem. Take a look at FlyQ EFB sometime. The sharpness difference is amazing.
 
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MAKG1 said:
That's a generic feature of images with a lot of pixel-scale structure. It's called "aliasing." The blur means they know what they are doing. Without it, you get some "interesting" artifacts.
Click to expand...


Not on mine. If I zoom out just slightly, I see the old "blurry" scanned version with the "good" contour line contrast.
 
Lol, I've been using ForeFlight all week and didn't even notice. I read this thread and opened it up and it's like night and day. Now I can't stop noticing how sharp it looks!
 
If you are still seeing the old scanned versions on zoom out just change the base map to something else other than VFR sectional. After you change back to the sectional the issue will be resolved. I had the same issue.
 
cmathis said:
If you are still seeing the old scanned versions on zoom out just change the base map to something else other than VFR sectional. After you change back to the sectional the issue will be resolved. I had the same issue.
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Worked for me too. Thanks for the tip.
 
I was in the Foreflight booth today, they really look good zoomed in.
 
Are the files larger or smaller than before? I imagine bloatware shows up everywhere . ..
 
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