Anyone tried the new DVD from Sporty's that contains a viewer and data for all the NOS plates in the US?  At $9.95/28 day update, it (Sporty's Chart Viewer) seems like a good value.

 

I just got the first DVD and have had mixed success.  With most charts, you select the chart you want from a list and it appears immediately.  But some of the charts (e.g. the Farmingdale, NY airport diagram) are a problem on both of my computers.  On one (a Sony laptop), the diagram doesn't appear on the screen but seems to flash, then open in a window below the chart list window that's being displayed.  On my brand new Fujitsu tablet (with no other software on it), the chart window opens but nothing appears - the computer appears hung (you can't even get out of the program), but if you wait long enough (1-2 minutes), the diagram eventually appears.  The Farmingdale Airport Diagram is not the only problem I've encountered - of the 20 or so charts I've looked at, 3 have caused similar problems.  This is not the kind of action you want to deal with during an approach to some alternate you didn't print off the charts for.

 

Sporty's says maybe it's a bad DVD (btw, the software and data were loaded on the computers, not being run off the DVD), we'll see when they send me another one.  In any case, pilots using Sporty's Chart Viewer in the cockpit should look at lots of plates including all the ones that might be used before launching without paper backup.

 

Any other experience with the Chart Viewer out there?  ...Clark Still (NY, 75-80% LIPVT)