first of all, I am happy to see simulator charts available for download from the VATPRC homepage. In my opinion, this is a huge step forward for the Chinese community inside VATSIM as it will help many online pilots, from China and abroad, that otherwise do not have access to charts.
In order to further improve the service, let me make the following suggestions, based on how charts are handled at VATSIM Germany (see http://www.vacc-sag.org/airport/EDDF.)
It would be awesome to have a package (zip file) of all charts for each airport (instead of having to click that many download links).
Each chart should be listed with the revision date / date of last modification (this would accelerate the process of checking for updates).
First of all, thank you so much for your suggestions. Actually, the “Charts” link on our homepage is outdated. It is linked to eAIP China website, which has required a valid account to read those charts since 2017. However, registration is only available for the companies which are in the real world. Therefore, we have to keep finding ways to providing charts but do not make any confliction with any law.
Then our pilot center is available for online pilots. Charts reading, as one of the functions in the pilot center, has already been available as well. In that page, if you type an airport name or an ICAO of any airport into the search bar, the table below will automatically filter charts which are related. For example, if you type ‘ZBAA’ in the search box, all charts of ZBAA will appear in the table. For any of those charts, there will be a summary/description written in the result table and a revision date written at the bottom when you view it on your browser. Also, at the top of the page, the website will tell the latest AIRAC cycle number.
Lastly, there is a few things need to clarify:
Those charts will be obtained from a third-party server so that we cannot make any promise to its validation.
Those charts are only for simulation convenience, cannot be used in the real world.
English version websites are on our plan and will be released after we think the functionalities of Chinese websites are complete.
Once again, thanks for your suggestion. And we will take serious considerations to improve our websites. We do hope to make more steps forward and fly higher!
Thank you for your replies. Indeed I was referring to the new charts page which I learned about from the post about this weekend’s Shanghai event (which, by the way, came with an amazing banner - made my day!).
The search for airports works well, and I am already very thankful that you put the chart description next to its title - that already helps a lot. I also noticed the effective date shown on top of the search results. However, equally important would be to see when a file was updated.
Looking forward to seeing the website evolving and hearing you on frequency!
Are you going to add enroute charts to the new page as well or where would one be able to find those?
The enroute charts I use date back to the time when the official site was still open for all users - I would assume there have been changes since then.
Heya! Just bumping this again out of curiosity. China on VATSIM is actually incredibly fun to fly in (especially now that MSFS2020 is out and there’s lots of good scenery for the area).
Unfortunately, the charts thing is still an issue. At current, the only way I see to visit the various domestic airports (with no published navigraph data) is to file to the nearest airport and then visually maneuver towards the city from many miles away to land. Not bad, but not the best…
Can us international pilots get some guides on flying domestically within China? Like I said, it would be incredibly fun (and China’s scenery is absolutely beautiful), but the navigational handicap is a big hinderance…
Thanks for your interest in visiting China! Unfortunately, I am sorry to tell you if the charts or data are not published on Navigraph, then the airport is not public to international pilots. These airports’ data is in the National AIP and you don’t have access to it.