Vifir
Vifir
Vifir is a new program in beta testing and may not be fit for normal use. Testing and bug reports are encouraged.
We are proud to announce the release v0.4. This release adds bugfixes, aircraft profiles, computing route travel times, an integrated on-screen keyboard, METAR download & display, a simple flashlight feature, and performance improvements.
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).
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 www.navdatausa.com
Vifir uses gpsd for GPS support. Once you get it working with gpsd it will automatically work with Vifir.
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.
This is FAA (NACO) policy for their digital chart products.
See the Obtaining Data section above.
NACO doesn't currently publish these electronically, so they are not available. Feel free to send them a polite email asking them to start! I have no interest in distributing scanned/georeferenced images myself due to liability issues. If you are aware of another reasonable source, please let me know!
The approach plate PDF's are technically broken. Xpdf displays then fine, but most viewers don't; typically the airport diagram is missing or improperly drawn. I believe this is related to the poppler library, but this is not yet confirmed. Xpdf works well enough so it's a low priority - send a note if you feel otherwise.
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.
