the importance of current charts...

[keith]

Just heard this on the PSP feed....

"PSP tower, I'm unable to reach PSP approach on 118.60, so I thought I'd try  you, am unfamiliar with local procedures."

"say your request"

"We're going to Bermuda Dunes."

"Ok, the 118.60 freq was decommissioned several years ago, you can try PSP approach on xxx.xx, and you might wanna update that book you're using."

[Tomato]

Yikes, imagine using old charts with the same frequency, and being cleared for a STAR or something?    This makes me wonder about another question - if you discover the charts have expired, would you just request for vectors because you have no charts on board?  

[KSYR-pjr]

This makes me wonder about another question - if you discover the charts have expired, would you just request for vectors because you have no charts on board?  

Yes, that is certainly an option.  Better to request help from ATC rather than to fake it.

In regards to having current charts, there was a recent accident at an uncontrolled airport to which I used to fly (Dunkirk, NY - KDKK) where two aircraft landed at the same time on crossing runways and crashed into each other at the intersection during rollout.

Fortunately no one was hurt, but both aircraft were extensively damaged, perhaps even totaled.  When asked about the accident, one pilot admitted that he used either old charts or an old GPS database (I cannot remember what the airport personnel told me now) to retrieve the Unicom frequency and was transmitting his intentions on a very old frequency.   His source must have been two years old or more, because that was when the frequency had changed.  

While this certainly does not excuse both pilots of "see and avoid" since it is legal for aircraft with no radios to use uncontrolled airports, there is no doubt that had the one pilot been transmitting on the correct frequency, this accident would not have occurred.

Here is the NTSB report:

http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20051220X01994&key=1

Many years ago when I first started my private pilot lessons, I didn't have any money (which is why I eventually suspended training back then) and I purposely avoided buying current sectional charts.   I was also flying only once every two weeks, which was another problem.  Of course, as Murphy's Aviation Laws states (#145 - Forget to update your charts and the airport to which you are flying will have changed its frequency), the airport to which I had soloed multiple times in the past had changed its Unicom frequency during this period of me flying with old charts.

Here I am calling for an airport advisory several times and scratching my head as to why no one is answering, when someone comes on the frequency and states, "Hey, they changed their Unicom frequency a month or so ago - Get yourself some current charts!"  One of a few embarassing moments I had back then.

[digger]

There is no "legal" requirement to fly with current charts, per se. However, that need is covered in FAR 91.103 Preflight action.

"Each pilot in command shall, before beginning a flight, become familiar with all available information concerning that flight."

In other words, if things turn out badly, the pilot who says, "my chart was not current", is not providing an acceptable excuse, but rather admitting negligent behavior.