FlightSim.Com Reviews: Desktop Wings Approach Plates
REVIEWS

Desktop Wings Airport Approach Plates

By Nels Anderson (4 March 1999)

Desktop Wings does it again! One of the items most in demand by serious flight sim pilots is a source of real aviation charts. In the past, Desktop Wings has released VFR charts and IFR charts. Now, to complete the picture they have released two sets of instrument landing charts in their new Airport Approach Plates for Flight Simulator.

WHAT'S INCLUDED

There are two collections available, one for the eastern United States and one for the western United States. Anyone familiar with the actual series of approach plates knows that there are an awful lot of them. The U.S. government issues cover a much smaller area of the country. What Desktop Wings has done is extract just the plates for the largest airports, those that are known as Class B airports. In the eastern U.S. this means 18 airports and the western U.S. it's 15 airports.

Obviously this omits a lot of airports, and yet the full collection of of charts is over 2 inches thick!

Included Airports
Eastern United States

Atlanta, Georgia
William B. Hartsfield Atlanta International

Boston, Massachusetts
General Edward Logan International

Charlotte, North Carolina
Charlotte/Douglas International

Chicago, Illinois
Chicago-O'Hare International

Cleveland Ohio
Cleveland-Hopkins International

Detroit, Michigan
Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County

Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis International

Miama, Florida
Miami International

New York, New York
John F. Kennedy International
La Guardia
Newark International

Orlando, Florida
Orlando International

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia International

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh International

Tampa, Florida
Tampa International

Baltimore-Washington D.C.
Baltimore-Washington International
Washington Dulles International
Washington National

Western United States

Denver, Colorado
Denver International

Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas
Dallas-Fort Worth International

Houston, Texas
George Bush Intercontinental
William P. Hobby

Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City International

Las Vegas, Nevada
McCarran International

Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles International

Minneapolis, Minnesota
Minneapolis-St. Paul International

New Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans International

Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix Sky Harbor International

St. Louis, Missouri
Lambert-St. Louis International

Salt Lake City, Utah
Salt Lake City International

San Diego, California
San Diego International

San Francisco, California
San Francisco International

Seattle, Washington
Seattle-Tacoma International

Each of the two collection includes only the chart pages, which are printed on pages that are about 5.5" by 8.5". A three ring binder is available separately, or is included at no charge if you buy both chart sets at the same time.

The charts are printed on good quality paper, much thicker than the tissue thin paper of the government issue charts. Thus, they'll last longer than the real charts which tend to get damaged easily. Storing them in a three ring binder makes the charts convenient to use.

HOW GOOD ARE THE CHARTS?

This is a simple question to answer. Unlike most things we use in flight simulation there is no compromise to reality here because these are the real charts that real pilots use. Other than not being up to date there is no difference at all. This is a real pleasure when so often we have to accept compromises when flight simming.

If you'll look at the sample charts shown in this review you can see some of the types of pages included. Each chart collection starts with a thorough legend and set of terms, which are quite useful for anyone new to these charts (they are not the easiest thing to understand). The largest part is the actual approach plates. Each possible instrument landing approach gets its own dedicated page. In addition, there are support pages with airport diagrams (nice for taxiing around) and charts of standard arrival and departure procedures.

CONCLUSION

It's really impossible to find anything wrong with these chart collections. They are as real as can be and they're high quality (even higher than the originals). The only thing "wrong" is that so many airports have to be omitted but Desktop Wings has done that in the interests of practicality since a full set of all U.S. plates would be impossibly large and prohibitively expensive. The collection provided gives you charts for every part of the country and if you fly airliners probably every chart you'll ever need.

The Airport Approach Plates are published by:


Desktop Wings, Inc.
PO Box 422
Dublin PA 18917
Phone: 800-848-6198 or 215-453-1405
FAX: 215-453-0286
Web: http://design-web.com/DesktopWings

Review by Nels Anderson
nels@flightsim.com

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