Pocket Plates runs well on PDAs with ARM processors. Screen slewing and navigation to view plate details is quick and easy.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but the entire business of dealing with charts, plates and navigation databases has become a giant, expensive pain in the butt. Not only are we expected to buy a full complement of paper charts but the FAA (and the industry) has the idea that current nav databases are a must, too.

If you fly much distance—semi-transcontinental—it’s easy to spend a grand a year on a ton of navigation data, only a tiny sliver of which you’ll ever use. …