Me too. They're discounted, and shipping is free. Plus, if I order additional charts, I can specify if I want the current or next cycle. If next, they'll ship them with my subscription.
This would work fine for IFR charts, but VFR charts - which depend on color for lots of things - would be much less useful on the black-and-white Kindle. I thought about going this route, but decided not to.
We sell folded charts at cost (read: 40% off), and they usually take 3-7 days to get to you -- this is at wactac.com. We just started doing it, and we're not perfect at it yet, but of 200 orders, I think we've goofed up on 3 of them and made it right either by refunding the order, offering free charts, or just uprating the shipping options on-the-house.
For book products (AFD/TPPs), they're so heavy that they cannot be economically shipped, even via media mail, unless you're buying a lot of them. The local FBO is the way to go if you need them "now", and the NACO subscription service is pretty good for recurring subs, based on the free shipping.
Personally, I am in favor of supporting the local FBO, but NACO is making that increasingly difficult (which is why we started selling them at cost to begin with -- so the FBO could still keep stock and not be penalized the full 40% by switching providers) -- so your options are getting more and more limited for this stuff.
$0.02
- Mike
We sell folded charts at cost (read: 40% off), and they usually take 3-7 days to get to you -- this is at wactac.com. We just started doing it, and we're not perfect at it yet, but of 200 orders, I think we've goofed up on 3 of them and made it right either by refunding the order, offering free charts, or just uprating the shipping options on-the-house.
For book products (AFD/TPPs), they're so heavy that they cannot be economically shipped, even via media mail, unless you're buying a lot of them. The local FBO is the way to go if you need them "now", and the NACO subscription service is pretty good for recurring subs, based on the free shipping.
Personally, I am in favor of supporting the local FBO, but NACO is making that increasingly difficult (which is why we started selling them at cost to begin with -- so the FBO could still keep stock and not be penalized the full 40% by switching providers) -- so your options are getting more and more limited for this stuff.
$0.02
- Mike
Heh, Spike, we're the spiteful sort, and don't go quietly, but rather kicking and biting -- and when NACO told us our existing volume of $2,500/yr was insufficient to remain a dealer, we decided (since charts are 100% returnable for credit) to make a go of it on a mail-order basis and order a fat stack of everything in the catalog. NACO makes it no-risk to try, and they were gonna kick us out anyway.Shipping is free with NACO, and almost always shows up 5-7 days prior to the changeover. The two or three times in almost 20 years they didn't get it to me in time, they overnighted replacements at their expense. "If you can find a better service, buy it." [adapted from Lee Iacocca]
Ah. OK, well I never mail order from them. I find I'm up at LNS often enough that I can get what I need for out-of-area flying, which almost always happens with sufficient notice to wait for an otherwise-planned visit for lunch, the avionics shop, a Grumman fly-in, a formation get-together, etc.
I believe in supporting my local FBO too- but they are always out of stuff 2 days after the update. I use the POA calender to know when the next AFD is going to be available so I go in and buy one before they are all gone.We sell folded charts at cost (read: 40% off), and they usually take 3-7 days to get to you -- this is at wactac.com. We just started doing it, and we're not perfect at it yet, but of 200 orders, I think we've goofed up on 3 of them and made it right either by refunding the order, offering free charts, or just uprating the shipping options on-the-house.
For book products (AFD/TPPs), they're so heavy that they cannot be economically shipped, even via media mail, unless you're buying a lot of them. The local FBO is the way to go if you need them "now", and the NACO subscription service is pretty good for recurring subs, based on the free shipping.
Personally, I am in favor of supporting the local FBO, but NACO is making that increasingly difficult (which is why we started selling them at cost to begin with -- so the FBO could still keep stock and not be penalized the full 40% by switching providers) -- so your options are getting more and more limited for this stuff.
$0.02
- Mike
Hmmm, you're the 2nd person in this thread to say that about Joe Pilot. That had not been my experience which is why I dropped them. I often, not once in a while, would not get my charts from them until a day or three after the change over. Twice they had put the wrong charts in the box. For the shipping it is not like I live in a place where shipping is hard to reach. So I don't know what the issue was. But I figured I gave them several times and was unhappy.
