Super large wall planning VFR charts for a hangar

mandm

mandm

En-Route
PoA Supporter
Joined
Feb 7, 2020
Messages
2,836
Location
Chicago
Display Name
Display name:
Michael
Have you ever seen a super large wall planning VFR charts in a hangar, and I’m talking something that is easily 8’ tall + and spans an entire wall?

Wondering if these are sold as one piece or if people take VFR sectionals and glue them together? I’ve seen some wall planning charts but they are pretty small maybe 4’ or so and not detailed. Would like to find something that takes up an entire wall or close to it vs something the size of a small TV.
 
Once upon a time every FBO in the country had one. IIRC most were pieced together from sectionals, and all of them had a nail through "your location" and a string with a pencil on the end as a weight for "flight planning purposes."
 
Last edited:
Warren Dunes said:
Once upon a time every FBO in the country had one. IIRC most were pieced together from sectionals, and all of them had a nail through "your location" and a string with a pencil on the end for a weight for "flight planning purposes."
Click to expand...

I’ve seen those before and they didn’t seem to have creases in them, whereas the sectionals are all folded. I guess I will try it one day.
 
I made one like that in my apartment, back in my bachelor days. Made it out of sectionals.....or maybe it was WACs.....pretty sure it was sectionals.
The map projection was a little weird as I recall. Get the latitude lines aligned precisely and the longitude lines wouldn't match up. Lots of either puckering or misalignment. I guess it was trying to form a globe at a 1:500,000 scale
Regardless, I enjoyed having it.
 
Pretty sure they are all available via download now. So if you wanted to, you could "glue" them all together in software, then have them printed giant poster size. That would be kinda cool.

The business I grew up in did a lot of rural deliveries. So my grandfather put together a giant wall map of 7.5 minute (I think) usgs topo maps. Covered a wall easily 12' long and 8' high with them. Was pretty cool. People would sometimes pop over just to look at the map wall.
 
Some of the FBO's that I visited years ago had a screw eye in the airport, and the pencil tied to the string was on top of the eye.
Below the eye, there were markings in miles down to the sinker, at the zero mark.
You took the pencil out to the destination, the sinker indicated the straight line distance.
One airport in Illinois or Indiana had tacks in every VOR, you held the pencil on the destination, put the string above or below the enroute tacks, and had the airway distance.


That FBO had an unforgettable set of pictures, taken out the tail of a twin engine bomber.
First picture, front view of the bomber behind him, bomb bay open. Altitude about 500 feet.
Second pic, huge blast, the anti aircraft shell hit the bomb still in the bay.
Third pic, the bomb from the first plane exploding on the target bridge.
Low level bombing of Jap positions in the south Pacific.
The manager was tail gunner of the lead bomber.
He posted the pictures after someone told him the fly guys had it easy in the war.

I have forgotten which airport, but the pictures......Never.
 
Albany Tom said:
Pretty sure they are all available via download now. So if you wanted to, you could "glue" them all together in software, then have them printed giant poster size. That would be kinda cool.

The business I grew up in did a lot of rural deliveries. So my grandfather put together a giant wall map of 7.5 minute (I think) usgs topo maps. Covered a wall easily 12' long and 8' high with them. Was pretty cool. People would sometimes pop over just to look at the map wall.
Click to expand...

I did that for Michigan, used the electronic versions to make one larger map- being our state is part of several sectionals. It wouldn’t be accurate for precise navigation but for a wall it’s dandy… I made it and have yet to print it lol. I used a knock off photoshop to skew it in areas so things flow but that means there’s some airports who’s rings are more oval than circle… but again for a wall it will work dandy…
 
There was one that covered an entire wall at the FBO I did most of my training at. It was just sectionals glued together, but it was really cool.
 
Brad W said:
The map projection was a little weird as I recall. Get the latitude lines aligned precisely and the longitude lines wouldn't match up. Lots of either puckering or misalignment. I guess it was trying to form a globe at a 1:500,000 scale
Regardless, I enjoyed having it.
Click to expand...
Yes, as Pythagoras and Eratosthenes found, the planet is annoyingly (overwhelmingly) spherical. But the string method works pretty well even with gaps and seams because after you plot A to B you can deduct the gaps.
 
Brad W said:
I made one like that in my apartment, back in my bachelor days. Made it out of sectionals.....
Click to expand...
I did the same thing when I was single, covered one whole kitchen wall. I thought it was pretty cool when I was 21...

When I learned to fly, the school had the charts on the wall with string thing, the string had marks every 10 miles.
 
The FAA stopped making the VFR/IFR Wall planning chart (two panels) a long time ago. I had one hanging in my office for a long time. I eventually replaced it with a three panel DMA planning chart.
 
Brad W said:
I made one like that in my apartment, back in my bachelor days. Made it out of sectionals.....or maybe it was WACs.....pretty sure it was sectionals.
The map projection was a little weird as I recall. Get the latitude lines aligned precisely and the longitude lines wouldn't match up. Lots of either puckering or misalignment. I guess it was trying to form a globe at a 1:500,000 scale
Regardless, I enjoyed having it.
Click to expand...

Same - I did that when I was in high school - covered a huge wall of my bedroom with this massive map cobbled together out of a whole bunch of sectionals. I then marked up all the places I had flown. Now I have a much more compact (and less sectional-y) version in my home office.
IMG_0740.jpeg
 
Just talk to one of the many 'custom wall mural' companies found with Google. Point them to the downloadable PDF version from the government.
 
mandm said:
.....vs something the size of a small TV.
Click to expand...
Hi.
How about a LAAAARGE TV. I installed one a few years back when things were not as inexpensive as they are now, but for about a $300-400.00 you can get an old 50-60 in flat screen tv and an old PC and you can use your Phone Hot spot to keep it updated as needed. I would not mess with paper any longer for that project / task.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top