We ran this news when it broke last week but so many people are viewing this explanatory video we’re giving it new life. Garmin has reinvented digital aeronautical procedural charts with a new product it calls SmartCharts. Available with the Garmin Pilot app for iOS, the SmartCharts procedures automatically adjust and scale as the pilot zooms and pans within the chart, similar to Garmin’s data-driven maps across its entire aviation product line. This data also allows SmartCharts to highlight details and notes that could be easily overlooked and lost on traditional charts, while also reducing clutter—and reducing the potential for error. In a first for the industry, the approach vertical profile view on the approach SmartChart is geo-referenced, with the aircraft appearing on the profile at its altitude.
Additionally, airport surface SmartCharts add additional visual information in color, like airport lighting systems, hold short lines, other airport markings and windsock locations. Airport diagrams also have Quick Access buttons at the top of the chart that showcase airport information like communication frequencies, runway information and alternate minimums data. This design removes the need to memorize traditional airport symbols like non-standard alternate minimums and makes alternate minima details easily accessible. A standout is the Smart Binders feature, which groups the charts by type—approach, departure, arrival or airport info—in the airport tab for easier and faster searching.
SmartCharts is available via a Garmin Pilot Premium subscription for iOS devices in the United States and the Bahamas at launch. AVweb contributor and Aviation Consumer magazine Editor in Chief Larry Anglisano looked at a handful of procedures during a SmartCharts demo with Garmin’s Kyle Ludwick.
Great concept. Wonder whether it will follow RF legs.
I guess we’ve all become used to charts that were designed for paper, then adapted digitally for display on a mobile device, and now this re-think of chart design created specifically for an interactive digital device. I’m looking forward to learning more about it, from what I see here it seems to reduce pilot workload. I’m a Foreflight user, but will take a look at the Garmin charts.
This is a standout innovation. SmartCharts marks a real leap in usability and safety, exactly the kind of advancement pilots need. Thanks again to Larry for managing the presentation and giving us the context behind it all. This is what AVweb does best.
Is this FAA approved? Is FAA approval actually required?
I think it’s a terrific idea, but I got soured on Garmin Pilot when it stopped in flight over the desert with a message that my subscription had expired! To the minute! It couldn’t even wait until I landed and there was no warning before takeoff. I won’t go back to Garmin, they compromised my and my wife’s safety.
FlyQ+ EFB with a lifetime subscription subscription works fine for me. Maybe Seattle Avionics will come up with a similar new chart design.
The graphic at the top of this article has an IAP where the minimums can change based on the mast height of ships. Is that sort of detail included in the fancy Garmin presentation?
It is! They show that in the video demo, in fact.
I saw an article about this last week that didn’t even mention that this upgrade is ONLY available for the iOS version of Garmin Pilot.
Great! Now make runway/taxiway closures, and other changes to terminal procedures from NOTAMs display in red.