I was wondering if the VFR AIP for Germany is now available for free in SkyDemon (as DFS provides it for free as of January 1), like for many other countries? I still only see the paid option on the SkyDemon website.

Apologies if this is a frequent question - I did not find a mention of it.

Many thanks

Jan

"We are writing to you as a customer of the DFS VFR AIP in Germany. As you may know, a German authority has decided that this product should be available free of charge to pilots because it contains essential safety information. Many of you have been writing to us this year to enquire whether we will therefore be making it free of charge in SkyDemon.

After a period of negotiation with Eisenschmidt/DFS we now know that the DFS will be releasing the free of charge version of the VFR AIP on their website starting in January 2023. However, the free version will be a low-quality PNG-based product (like a photo of a document), instead of the higher-quality PDF product that is currently available through SkyDemon. We asked them to produce a representative PNG and PDF so we could show you the difference between the two products, but they refused. Additionally, they will not be making updates to the free version available until they have already taken effect. In our opinion, they intend to satisfy only the bare minimum required by the authority, in the hope that people continue to purchase the paid product.

Licensing and distribution of the VFR AIP is controlled by Eisenschmidt. Currently the only licensing option available to us is the annual subscription, which we will continue to offer. We did succeed in securing a reduction in price from €59 to €39, but this will not be available until January. We must wait until then to see what the free version will look like, and whether it is possible (and desirable) to integrate it into SkyDemon.

We are disappointed in this outcome, as we had been hoping to make the regular VFR AIP available free of charge to everybody using SkyDemon. We know many customers expected that too, but it is not currently possible. If you share our disappointment, we would encourage you to make your suggestions to Eisenschmidt directly at info@eisenschmidt.aero."

Thanks a lot Adam - I guess I didn't receive that newsletter/info as my German AIP subscription through SkyDemon had expired shortly before.

That development is quite a disappointment, to be honest. The AIP is now online here: https://aip.dfs.de/basicAIP/

The quality of the PNGs is actually quite decent, so in my mind that is not a plausible reason to not include it. Personally, I would be fully fine with this level of quality (vs. paying EUR 39,- per year for a minimal quality increase...). 

@SkyDemon team: it would be great if you could reconsider! Maybe there could be a choice for those who want the higher quality through the PDF subscription?