The US Department of Defence is to proceed with plans to stop public distribution of flight information publications widely used by general aviation pilots. But opponents of the action are taking consolation from the fact that the withdrawal will now be phased, and will not be total, writes Graham Warwick.
The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) is to withdraw its flight information publications and digital aeronautical flight information file (DAFIF) over a 22-month period beginning in January. But the action will not affect chart products for the USA, Caribbean and South America, or areas of the Pacific, Australia and Antarctica considered part of the US flight information region.
The NGA says it is withdrawing the information from public access because an increasing number of international providers are copyrighting their aeronautical data.
Source: Flight International