Legal to print and sell sectionals

A-aron · February 3, 2015

Does anyone know if it is legal to print sectionals using a large printer and then sell them?

500F · June 11, 2015

I don't know about selling sectionals, but you could offer to print them off and charge a $1 print fee for a 8 1/2X11 and 10$ for full size if you were an FBO with a commercial printer. However, start listing online or something like that and you are going to have issues.

A-aron · June 11, 2015

I was just curious because the pilot shop at my airport started doing that instead of buying them through a distributor and the quality SUCKS. Colors are off and the paper is thin enough you can see through it and they also do not seem to be durable......

Gomer Pylot · June 12, 2015

From the http://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/flight_info/aeronav/faq/#q1h'> FAA website FAQ:

Can the FAA's digital products be used in private industry software products?
What are the copyright/licensing regulations for these products?
All digital products published by the FAA are in the public domain and are not copyright protected. Therefore, a written release or credit is not required to incorporate them into your own digital products. The FAA cannot endorse or recommend a private industry product over another. Also, since all of our products are date sensitive we recommend that you seek legal advice prior to marketing your own products. To protect the integrity of our aeronautical products, all notations and symbology in the original products are to be included in any tailored versions.

avbug · June 17, 2015

Care should be used from those printed products to ensure that the scale in each dimension is correct; they may appear so, but may not actually be accurate enough for planning or navigation. This can become especially pronounced at higher latitudes if any errors occur during the printing.

Given the simplicity of using products such as Foreflight on an ipad, the ease of updating, and the multitude of options that this format makes available, it's a const effective option. Given that so many documents, including the AFD, sectional, WAC, low altitude terminal enroute, approach charts, etc, can all be stored in one place, and the speed with which they can be accessed, plus all the options, it's hard to make an argument in favor of a locally copied or printed chart. Make a yearly subscription for considerably less than the cost of paper, have it updated on a constant basis, and have all the other perks of that platform, too.

I like charts I can mark up, but it's also hard to argue against the present options available. I have a company issued ipad that has abilities to file a flight plan on the go, check weather products and radar, reference current, updated regulations, company documents, handle expense reports, scan receipts, transmit real time images of maintenance issues, provide traffic information and terrain calculations, back up emergency instrumentation, precise navigation, quick access to enroute fuel prices or weather, winds aloft, all sorts of things that I can't get from a paper chart. I've got paper, too, but the ipad is fast and easy. Put it in a good container or mount, and it's fairly shock resistant, water resistant, chargeable in flight, and even equates to the size of a kneeboard with an ipad mini. I think I pay a hundred fifty a year for the foreflight pro subscription, which is fairly cheap. There's a data charge each month for the ipad, and of course the initial cost.

If you're staying within a small geographic area, you probably don't carry a lot of charts, but you might still need a variety of documents. Having access to everything on a tablet or pad still makes sense, even if the cost is a little more.

eagle5 · June 17, 2015

Fore flight is pretty cool and having a sh*t load more info at your fingertips than ever before is great...just don't forget to look up every so often! Funny that old George of the Jungle cartoon song just suddenly came to mind.