Using Avare in Canada

[Gerald Murphy]

Hello Folks,  I am a G.A. pilot living and operating in Canada and have been using (and loving) Avare for several years now.  While most of the maps are fine for my area of travel (Toronto - Ottawa corridor) it would be grand to have the option of switching to Canadian Sectional and TAC maps as well as access the CFS (Canadian Flight Supplement) in the Airports section.

Has any thought been given to expanding the map databases to include Canada?   Are there enough pilots flying North of the border to warrant an expansion pack?

Gerald Murphy

PA28-180 Owner

[Tom 2G]

This is in Avare's description:

Avare offers offline moving map on all FAA charts (VFR Sectional, IFR lo/hi enroute, Approach Plate, WAC & TAC); plus A/FD info, Airport Diagrams w/GPS Taxi, and Terminal Procedures. Also: GPS status, Terrain/Elevation Maps, 50 Nearest airports, Obstacles, and more. Some FAA Charts cover Puerto Rico, plus parts of Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean. All of this is Completely Free with no ads.

Avare includes ONLY FAA charts, so any maps published by Canada are not included.

Tom

[Jeffrey Ross]

Gerald,

The reason the Canadian charts are not available in Avare is that publications are not freely available like they are for the US charts.

There have been previous discussions about the Canadian charts.

Jeff

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[John W SBA]

> Hello Folks, I am a G.A. pilot living and operating in Canada

Hello and welcome to the Forum. :)

> grand to have the option of switching to Canadian Sectional and TAC

Yes!! I sure agree with that, having flown Avare VFR (with official
paper charts, etc.) many times in Western Canada, a few times in the
East, and once all the way across (wish we'd had more wx time touring
the Maritimes). As has been mentioned in a reply to you, and many other
times here on the Forum, it's both possible and problematic. I don't
speak for the Apps4Av team but following are my hopes, impressions, and
my makeshift nearly free strategy.

I still believe it could be done much better, IF one or more Canadians
is willing to take on the work and/or build/hire a team to do so. Having
lived and worked 14 years in beautiful Canada, I'm frankly surprised it
hasn't happened yet. Our U.S. Apps4Av Development Team is a bunch of
volunteer pilots, and some (e.g. me) have very little applicable
technical expertise. But we all enjoy contributing when and how we can.

As mentioned, the main reason that official Canadian aviation charts &
data aren't in Avare is they aren't free online as our FAA stuff is.
We're all-volunteer and committed to ensuring all the Avare apps remain
Free Open Source Software (FOSS) without chart/data subscription fees,
spyware or ads. Keep in mind that just keeping Avare going for U.S.
users is taking all our available team efforts.

We've tried to work out some sort of a chart/data deal with your agency
(NavCanada as I recall), and they were unresponsive. Last I heard
they'd struck licensing deals with one or two of the biggest U.S.
commercial corporations and weren't interested in expanding the list to
include us.

> Has any thought been given to expanding the map databases

Yes, quite a bit. We've reached out to COPA and every Canadian aviator
who's inquired, about seeking ways to legally supplement the sparse free
UNofficial charts & data in Avare that cover Canada.

Perhaps the "easiest" would be Canadian volunteer(s) updating FOSS Open
Street Maps (OSM) to have more detailed, current and consistently
updated maps & data for flying Canada. I believe Avare's Plate tab
already defaults to a small OSM tile for U.S. airports that don't have
an FAA plate, so maybe the basic app code is already there. Another idea
would be finding newer, different or better free topo charts. Any such
options would of course need to be done within legal limits. Maybe
some/all COPA stuff could be legally acquired? I don't know if anyone's
scanned and imported official Canadian paper charts, and though it can
be done, there's legally no way Apps4Av could get involved.

Any "vector" style such maps (e.g. OSM) first need to be converted to
the specific "raster" style used by Avare, and raster maps then matched
to the map projection Avare uses for FAA charts. The Apps4Av Dev Team
might help some with that, including how to automate updates of those
maps in sync with any source updates. If confident of no legal hassles,
they would probably also be hosted free on the Apps4Av servers, and
available via Avare's Download menu.

> Are there enough pilots flying North of the border to warrant an
expansion pack?

I think so, but so far none willing to take on (or find and pay someone
to do) any work.

My solution for flying Avare in Canada thus far: Buy the minimum current
paper materials required, fly primarily Avare with reference to that
paper and any panel equipment (often with long-expired data). All of the
aircraft (all SEL GA) I've flown in Canada have had a GNS-430 with
expired data so that's often 2nd or 3rd reference in busy airspace, in
contact with ATC after having studied the paper and online resources
(SkyVector, etc.) before flight. Sometimes I'll also consult a device
displaying route screencaps done on the ground from SkyVector, etc.
since I often like those better than the paper NavCan stuff.

In quieter airspace a second or third Android device is running OSMand+
with the latest OSMaps (I fly that app in the U.S. too, for looking up
non-aviation stuff including what's near airports). I find that app
fairly intuitive, and often a nice complement to Avare. Obviously I'd
vastly prefer official charts & data in Avare, as in the U.S. :(

There's my verbose 2 cents on this topic, for free. :)

Please post a followup if you have other/better ideas, because I'd sure
like to see Avare get better for Canadian aviation.

Happy Flying
John

[Peter A. Gustafson]

This should be in a FAQ

Unfortunately there are no viable solutions for Canada (currently) until
such time as NavCanada changes their stance. They are a private entity
and theoretically not for profit. But I assume they use digital chart
licensing to fund a large portion of their operation.  It is beyond our
ability/desire to track and charge Canadian users (even if NavCanada
were to accept some per-user fee).

Some compatible grassroots efforts exist in other regions of the world.
https://www.openflightmaps.org/ These could possibly be incorporated if
they were reliable and if a Canada region were established and brought
to a high quality. (I do not know the Canada flight rules to know if
unofficial charts can even be used legally... so this is speculative.) 
I was ready to pilot a few of the other regions that are available, but
then found in the next cycle that their systems failed to deliver. If
this were infrequent, it is possible we could live with it.  But I don't
know the overall reliability yet, so it has not been brought forward.