Vifir

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• News
• Features
• System Requirements
• License
• Obtaining Data
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Status:

Vifir should be suitable for normal use, however USE AT YOUR OWN RISK. Testing and bug reports are encouraged.

News:

July 20^th, 2010

We are proud to announce the release v0.7. This release adds improved support for the latest versions of gpsd.

Features:

• Displays US NACO Sectional Charts and Terminal Area Charts with present position, heading, altitude, and other data driven by GPS.
  • Flyway charts are also supported, but there is no position indication as these are not georeferenced.
• Quickly search, display and allow printing of Approach Plates.
• Easily create and plot great circle routes with an arbitrary number of waypoints.

System Requirements:

• Software
  • Vifir should run on any modern Linux OS.
  • The primary development/testing platform is the latest Fedora Linux. Success/failure reports and tips & tricks for other platforms are encouraged.
  • Vifir depends on a number of libraries, most notably:
    • gtkmm
    • gpsd
    • GeoTIFF
• Hardware
  • Any reasonably recent system should be able to run Vifir. For reference, it is routinely run on a Celeron 1.2Ghz tablet with 1.28G of ram.
  • The data size can be quite large - complete coverage of the USA is around 10G. Most people will want to load the current data and the data for the next cycle, so 20G of drive space devoted to Vifir is recommended for optimal coverage.

License:

Vifir is released and distributed under the Open-Source GPL v3 license. Note that there is NO WARRANTY and that Vifir is NOT an FAA-approved Electronic Flight Bag (EFB).

Obtaining Data:

A small archive (~20M) of sample data may be downloaded here and installed using the "Import" option in the Data Manager.

Vifir is compatible with the flight database, sectional charts, and approach plates available at naco.faa.gov and the airport data from data.x-plane.com.

Frequently Asked Questions:

• How do I setup my GPS?

  Vifir uses gpsd for GPS support. Once you get it working with gpsd it will automatically work with Vifir.

• Is this legal for use in-flight?
  

  To begin with, the following should not be construed as legal advice. Consult a qualified aviation lawyer or Certified Flight Instructor for their opinions.

  As of June 2008 there is no requirement in FAR part 91 (General Aviation) for any particular navigational chart to be on board. Pilots must be familiar with "all available information" and the use of portable electronic devices is up to the Pilot in Command.

  The data used by Vifir is provided by the National Aeronatical Charting Office, which is the same people that produce the paper charts.

  Vifir is NOT an approved Electronic Flight Bag and does not meet the charting requirements of FAR part 135.

  The data provided by Vifir should be considered as an aid to situational awareness, just as with any portable GPS device.

• Why does Vifir claim that my VFR sectionals are only valid for 28 days? The image of the chart clearly shows that it's good for longer than that.
  

  This is FAA (NACO) policy for their digital chart products.

• Where can I get charts and other information to use in Vifir?
  

  See the Obtaining Data section above.

• Where can I get Low Level Enroute (IFR) charts?
  

  NACO distributes these as PDF files that aren't georeferenced - as a result they are not currently supported.

• When will there be a Windows port?
  

  The code for Vifir itself should be able to be ported quite easily. Vifir relies on a number of libraries - porting them to Windows is a significant challenge, though certainly not impossible. Anyone who would like to work on this is encouraged to do so.

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