I was just wondering if there was something I've missed to get additional visual items displayed on the SD charts (both on my PC for planning and on the iPad for Navigation).

The best example I have is the various white horses around me as whilst Avebury is noted as a VRP, the white horses aren't marked in SD but they are on the CAA charts (my 1:500,000 chart has them clearly).

As a secondary observation, the appearance of roads and rivers can be quite different - comparing the river betwen Avebury and Marlborough, the CAA map has a lot of detail (despite not being zoomable in any way) whereas the SD one is a lot of straight lines (very obvious when zoomed in).

The same is evident on the A361 between Avebury and Wroughton, there is a marked bend in the road, clearly visible on the CAA map but completely absent on the SD plot.

I understand that it needs to be sampled as straight lines, but it seems that not enough sampling points have been used to give a true indication of the river shape, though maybe this is to reduce the data footprint.

I guess as SD is being used with GPS, it is not as important to have totally accurate mapping - but as there is an option to print the route, I was a little suprised they are not that accurate...

While I sympathise with the view that the SD maps may or may not have various bends missing and that they should be as accurate as possible, let's not lose the plot and remember that VFR flying is precisely that -- FLYING MAP TO GROUND --- and the only map that should be used for this purpose is the CAA approved and endorsed maps.

I have no issue with missing bends as I can see the ground (I assume that is how you know it was missing) and the only thing that I do ask of SD is that the vertical data and geofixed reference points (VRPs etc) and aeronautical data (airspace etc) are accurate so that when SD reports my current location I know that I haven't busted air space or missed my reporting point, requested by the radar service, that I should report at. Afterall, there are stop "STOP SIGNS" etc down there along the roads on terra-firma, but I've yet to see one at 4500 ft QNH at the class A airspace boundary saying "NO ENTRY" or "BUS LANE - BUSES ONLY". This is where SD comes into it's own, as long as the GPS is reporting the correct lat/long location to the SD software.

Furthermore, if I use SD in IMC (which of course I don't -- Do I?) I can't see the bend in the road anyhow due to big white fluffy things getting in the way, so it really doesn't matter whether it's there or not. But then I don't use it for IMC flying do I......

Just a thought

Biggles -- EGKB