Unless you're willing to pay lwayers, or find some to help you with your cause, I wouldn't hold my breath. I too am a fan of freedom and openness in these matters, but the only way I would see to solve your problem is to talk to NavCanada about their liability policy, and how an app like yours might be able to get an exception. I mean some of the data was TC's at one point (decades ago), but at this point TC just contributes the data for whatever infrastructure they own (Are there TC-owned airports any more?) to NavCanada, just like your local airport corporation does. The laws will require whomever builds a tower, deals with non-NavCanada navaids (Airports ILS' for example?), owns/operates an aerodrome, etc. I find it a little more strange that they extend their liability protection to the apps, beyond just the data, however.Īnd I would find it very surprising if their data came from TC. I don't think it's unfair for them to charge for their work. Here NavCanada is a corporation, and is free to charge for their products as they see fit. The US data is free because it comes from government, and they have "free data" laws over there that makes it so. Is there anything that can be done to improve the status quo? Meanwhile, there is no way we can create the infrastructure, or absorb the costs to offer Canadian content through subscriptions, and we really don't want to make Avare into a commercial product. To cut to the chase, Avare cannot offer Canadian content through its free application (who could?). My US co-developers constantly joke about whether Canada has heard of the computer! I am not a lobbyist, or politically minded, but am I the only Canadian Pilot who finds the current status quo 'laughable'? I am not trying to promote Avare, rather promote easier access to electronic Canadian Aviation content - this helps any moving map aviation application whether free or otherwise. you could download Avare for free, and then subscribe directly (hundreds of dollars per year) with NavCanada to download content which Avare would use. Meanwhile, NavCanada has no plans to allow individual private user subscriptions, i.e. Unfortunately, unless I sign a confidentiality agreement, I cannot discover this actual yearly subscription fee, but I can only guess that it is in the 'thousands of dollars' - of course, if I sign such an agreement I wouldn't be allowed to publicise the actual cost They require the product company to have aviation liability insurance (the level depends on the information product package being subscribed to), and they have a single annual charge to the 3rd party product company. They charge annual subscription fees to access this content and distribute it as part of third party applications such as Avare. basically, they do offer various electronic information products including charts and CFS. I have contacted NavCanada and they were very helpful in answering my questions and informing me of what information is available. But we have very little Canadian content, except where the US charts overlap Canadian borders. We have US content in abundance: charts, airport plates, airport info etc - ALL FREE from the US government. Of course, the application is 'for entertainment purposes only' and should NEVER be used as a primary navigation tool - it is not certified by an official body, although it is pretty stable and accurate! Yes it costs us time to maintain, but we intend to keep the application Open Source and invite other developers to join us.Īnyway, I am the only Canadian on the team, and it falls to me to maintain Canadian content (charts, airport info, etc). It is one of many moving map applications for Android tablets, and although I am biased, I think it is an excellent product and the developers goal is to keep it free - no adverts, no subscriptions, no costs. I work with a bunch of 'Pilot Geeks' who develop an excellent (and FREE) moving map aviation application called Avare:
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