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Swiss Official ICAO Chart Overlay


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Adam Erchegyi
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Tim Dawson - 1/21/2026 11:20:36 AM
Over the years we have indeed had a few people ask for the Swiss towns in our chart to match those in the Swiss ICAO chart. It's not clear what those people would expect to happen to the town selection upon zooming in and out, though.

The difference is understandable, and the behaviour is accepted. On the other hand, you need to understand that these towns are regularly referenced by FIS as reporting points. I was asked countless times to report "Weesen" (town west of Walensee, usually used due to being on the edge of an - published! - radio/radar no-coverage zone), "Horw" (very distinct point next to Vierwaldstättersee, used to circumnavigate complex military CTR structure), and many more. The problem is:
  • These towns are not labeled in SkyDemon, even when zoomed in to the maximum possible level
  • They turn up in search inconsistently
  • You don't seem to care to add them, regardless of people sending you lists
So we are left with the usage of custom waypoints (make the map look like hell) or experience - so we know all these points by heart. None of them is really an option for visiting pilots. An optimal solution would be to maintain such a list as part of the SD database and prioritize displaying their label.


paalia
p
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Tim Dawson - 1/21/2026 11:20:36 AM
As far as I can tell, you are talking about towns. Towns are not aeronautical data, and they are certainly not ICAO entities. If they were aeronautically-significant, they would be part of AIP Switzerland and we would include them, likely as VRPs.

Chart authors pick which towns they show in the scenery of a chart either cartographically or algorithmically. Because our charts are vector-based and zoomable to any scale, towns are selected algorithmically based on population size. They are not designed to match the town selections of any other chart.

Over the years we have indeed had a few people ask for the Swiss towns in our chart to match those in the Swiss ICAO chart. It's not clear what those people would expect to happen to the town selection upon zooming in and out, though.

Thanks for your reply. I am not talking about towns per se, I am talking specifically about reference points on the official Swiss ICAO charts (which often happen to be towns).

If I understand you correctly, SkyDemon will display towns or (random?/non VRP) reference points dynamically based on zoom level. 

What I fail to understand is why you couldn't cross reference the ICAO chart, and ensure that the towns/reference points documented there, are persistently displayed on SkyDemon, regardless of zoom level? 

While I acknowledge that these points may not be AIP/REP points; fact is those base chart points are important and generally used in communication when flying VFR in Switzerland.

As others in this thread have noted, lists have been previously provided for that purpose, but it seems nothing was done with that data? I'm not sure how technically hard it is to implement what I suggested above, but I imagine you already have the tools to do so? 

I do have to say, that for a new pilot such as myself, the lack of these points is a bit of a deal breaker..

Edited Yesterday @ 5:15 PM by paalia
Tim Dawson
Tim Dawson
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I do not believe we have ever received any such "list" because there is no official list. They are not aeronautical data. The problem is, it seems ATC in Switzerland often use the same ICAO chart, and have adopted the towns listed on that chart as unofficial VRPs.

There is an implication in the last two posts that we possess tools to pick and choose which towns are selected in our maps at individual zoom levels. We do not. Could we develop those tools? Sure, but at present, Switzerland is the only country in which this seems to be an issue, and even then, we do not hear about it very often. Do ensure you have contacted customer support to let them know about this, so we can ensure that we record your desire for our chart to include those towns.

I appreciate this is more likely to be a problem for new pilots who have probably trained with the ICAO chart and have not yet moved on to charts from other providers, with the inherent differences therein.
GO

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