IFR plates are basically little charts that real-world pilots reference while flying. They are not en-route charts, which are the larger sort of charts roughly analogous to large-area road maps for automobiles. Rather, IFR plates are basically guides to some of the most critical phases of flight, such as taxi, departure, arrival, and (especially) approach to landing. When most people think of IFR plates, they think of approach plates, which contain the series of steps and navigation and communication frequencies that a pilot must reference when flying an instrument (or visual) approach to an airport. For example, when flying on an ILS (Instrument Landing System) approach to a runway at John F Kennedy International Airport in New York or Hong Kong or Heathrow or Schiphol, you need to know what the proper ILS frequency is, what the missed approach procedure is, and what the critical altitudes are for all phases of the approach. Flying an approach properly is hard - in the beginning you may be overwhelmed. But learning to do this is a great way to raise your simming enjoyment and professionalism to a really high level. And, of course, you need approach plates to be able to do this properly. There are other plate types in SimPlates, including SIDs/STARs (Standard Instrument Departures / Standard Terminal Arrivals) and Airport Diagrams.

Yes, some are. However, you'll be hard pressed to find anywhere near the breadth and depth of coverage that Simplates X includes. Check out the see complete list of included airports to get an idea. With SimPlates, you're generally only a few moments away from printing out any plate that you want, and there are many thousands of plates also that are simply not available on the web at all. Simplates is unique in that it contains plates not just for the USA, but for dozens of other countries as well.

Jeppesen is a private company that makes many worldwide approach plates. Some pilots use Jeppesen plates, some don't. The plates included in SimPlates are NOT Jeppesen plates, but are mostly government-issued plates that have fundamentally the exact same data on them. Again, the plates included with SimPlates are real-world plates.

It doesn't. Well, not directly. SimPlates is a standalone Windows program (it should work on all version of MS Windows from about 95 or 98 and newer, but check to makes sure it works on yours by trying the demo first, as the demo is fundamentally the same as the full version). You launch the standalone program, and use it to find exactly the plate you want. From there, most people print the plate to reference while sim-flying. As such, SimPlates X is compatible with, but does not directly integrate to, every PC flight simulator that features reasonably true-to-life NAVAIDs and approach systems. For most people, this means Microsoft Flight Simulator (MSFS) X, 2004, 2002, 2000, 98, etc. However, it also includes sims such as X-Plane, Flight Gear, Elite, ASA On-Top, and even some oldies but goodies like Flight Unlimited and Sierra Pro Pilot (ok we admit it - we just mentioned those last two to give your nostalgia sensors a nudge).

Well, in theory you can just display them on screen, since a PDF is what is generated and displayed by SimPlates (note: Adobe Acrobat Reader is required to run SimPlatesX - this is a free download from Adobe's website. Chances are that you have this installed on your system already - it's the thing that displays pdf files.). And, in fact, we've heard of projects before where clever people have written PDF reading gauges (for MSFS) that could in theory be used for putting any given SimPlate onscreen. However, the reality is that even if you have a giant 30" monitor, viewing the plate onscreen is not really ideal. First of all, it's unrealistic. Real pilots today - from those flying Cessna 172s to those captaining the latest Boeings and Airbuses, carry paper approach charts (what do you think is in those big square airline pilot suitcases anyway?). Secondly, the level of detail on a given approach chart lends itself much more to printing than viewing on screen. Lastly, even if you have a giant monitor and can figure out a place to put the PDF - wouldn't you rather use that extra screen real estate for your sim? I know I sure would. If you're still not convinced, remember that you're always welcome to run you simulator in one window and SimPlates in another and have them onscreen in parallel (or on separate monitors if you can figure out how to do this). This should work just fine, too.

Learning to fly by Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) is a long but rewarding process that takes most real-world pilots many months of intensive study. It's beyond the scope of SimPlates to teach you this. However, there are some resources on the web at the level of serious-enthusiast pilots that may help:

• Online Flight Simulator Handbook
• Flight Simulator Navigation Tutorial

Because some people can't wait for the DVD-ROM (PC-DVD) to be manufactured and also because some people find the DVD unnecessary and would just as soon save a few bucks on its manufacture, we've decided to offer SimPlates X for download as well as via DVD. The downloadable version tops out at a little more than 6gb, so this is certainly NOT for somebody who is on a dialup (6gb is SIX THOUSAND MEGABYTES - or roughly the equivalent of downloading 2000 MP3 songs). However, if you have a reasonably fast Internet connection and don't mind waiting a few hours while it downloads (overnight is a good choice), this may be a good option for you. To learn more about the pros and cons of download-vs-DVD-ROM, click on this purchase page link and read through the descriptions there.

DO NOT USE SIMPLATES FOR REAL WORLD FLIGHT OR FLIGHT PLANNING. Why? While SimPlates are actual IFR charts, they are often out of date. This is just fine (brilliant, actually) for simulator use (I'd reckon that 99.97%+ of SimPlates are perfectly flyable on, for example, MSFS 2004 or X), but NOT for real-world flight, as flying real-world IFR by rule generally requires up-to-date charts, by regulation.

The sources of the charts vary. For the USA, the standard NIMA/NACO charts that most pilots fly IFR with are included. Additionally, there are a hundreds if not thousands of DOD/FLIP charts published by US military agencies for both the US itself and many foreign countries and territories. Additional foreign plate coverage has come through equivalent non-US aviation authorities, and we thank many of them for their help in this. In a relatively small (less than .01%) number of cases, there may be a few hand-drawn plates in there from various sources that are not 'official.' Quality of the chart various according to several factors. Some charts, such as notably the FAA ones and a few others (France, elsewhere in Western Europe, etc) are beautiful crisp vector PDFs - little works of art in their own right. Other charts are the result of physically scanning paper charts, and the resulting quality there varies from plate to plate. As a rough guess, I'd say that 95% of the charts in SimPlates X are nice crisp PDF vector charts, and about 5% are scanned graphics. Of the scanned graphics ones, most are decent, but for some hard-to-find-data-for-locations, such as ex-USSR states and Africa, the quality of the data tends to be lower. Note that SimPlates X's non-USA data is comprised largely of the SimPlates 2004 add-on PlatePack data sets that were built generally between 2003 and 2006 but especially in 2004-2005.  

No. While for the USA and certain other countries generally most if not all plates are included, this is not the case for all countries. In some areas, specifically those areas covered only by US DOD plates only, it is not the case that all plates will necessarily be available.

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