SkyDemon Forums

Development Suggestion - France ICAO IGN map 1/500000

http://forums.skydemon.aero/Topic38582.aspx

By Tim Dawson - 12/16/2025 11:19:20 AM

We've never been interested in integrating other people's paper charts into SkyDemon. Like you say, there are many products that do offer that.

If there is a specific aeronautical entity on a paper chart that you believe should be included in SkyDemon charts, do feel free to suggest it here.
By dvah - 12/14/2025 6:14:52 PM

According to the latest newsletter I've read, SkyDemon dev team is happy with the product and no feature is missing. I agree with that and I find it fantastic to fly with. 

However, I can say that French pilots are missing one feature that is available in other softwares which is the official VFR ICAO IGN map 1/500000 (eg. VFR Next / Garmin Pilot). 

I'm not sure it's feasible to add it in the software, but I mention it as SD competitors usually offer it. Quite sure as well that SD dev team thought about it. 
By lve0200 - 1/8/2026 3:12:12 PM

 
Tim Dawson - 12/16/2025 11:19:20 AM
We've never been interested in integrating other people's paper charts into SkyDemon. Like you say, there are many products that do offer that.

If there is a specific aeronautical entity on a paper chart that you believe should be included in SkyDemon charts, do feel free to suggest it here.

Hi,
please refer to the 2 attached pictures. I  find the SD way of indicating airspace extremely difficult to read, especially during flight. The IACO way is much better!
By erchegyia - 1/8/2026 3:30:21 PM

 
lve0200 - 1/8/2026 3:12:12 PM
I  find the SD way of indicating airspace extremely difficult to read, especially during flight. The IACO way is much better!

You might be the only person on this planet
By lve0200 - 1/8/2026 6:32:26 PM

 
Adam Erchegyi - 1/8/2026 3:30:21 PM
 
lve0200 - 1/8/2026 3:12:12 PM
I  find the SD way of indicating airspace extremely difficult to read, especially during flight. The IACO way is much better!

You might be the only person on this planet


YOU should probably gather a bit more intl. experience, before writing such comments. IACO is an international body and its airspace annotation are not a local flavor. You can refer to here:
By erchegyia - 1/8/2026 8:48:52 PM

 
lve0200 - 1/8/2026 6:32:26 PM
 
Adam Erchegyi - 1/8/2026 3:30:21 PM
 
lve0200 - 1/8/2026 3:12:12 PM
I  find the SD way of indicating airspace extremely difficult to read, especially during flight. The IACO way is much better!

You might be the only person on this planet


YOU should probably gather a bit more intl. experience, before writing such comments. IACO is an international body and its airspace annotation are not a local flavor. You can refer to here:

Even the latest version is more than a decade old. It was made for paper charts and is obsolete.
By grahamb - 1/8/2026 11:17:44 PM

Tim and team do not promote their charts as ICAO compliant, so they have no need to follow those guidelines. They can concentrate on clarity, which they do admirably when one takes into account the other tools available in the product, such as filtering, the virtual radar and the What’s Here pop-up. 
By grahamb - 1/9/2026 3:45:12 AM

A genuine question to Ive0200 - have you tried any of the other SD chart styles? You might find that one of them suits you better. 
By lve0200 - 1/9/2026 11:40:24 AM

 
grahamb - 1/9/2026 3:45:12 AM
A genuine question to Ive0200 - have you tried any of the other SD chart styles? You might find that one of them suits you better. 
Dear grahamb,
I'm using SD since several years and I agree "It's a great tool" and I selected it over SDVFR and others. So far so good. I have sometimes the impression, as soon as one suggests a new feature/change, a crowd of "defenders" stands up, crying that SD is the most beautiful tool of the world, as if the author wanted to badmouth the tool.  I'm using the DFS map style of SD. 
But!
I REALLY liked the IACO airspace annotation. May be you guys in UK don't need it, because in your country you don't have such a crazy stacking of restricted airspaces, as many European countries have. Take a look at Belgium or France for example.
Tim was suggesting that people could use this thread suggesting things they miss from IACO charts, rather than reproducing them. That's what I did, nothing else!
What's bad adding this annotation (since its recommended by EuroControl) into the e.g. DFS map style, which is too me the closest to IACO standards.
By dvah - 1/9/2026 3:57:20 PM

 
Tim Dawson - 12/16/2025 11:19:20 AM
We've never been interested in integrating other people's paper charts into SkyDemon. Like you say, there are many products that do offer that.

If there is a specific aeronautical entity on a paper chart that you believe should be included in SkyDemon charts, do feel free to suggest it here.

I get it. The SD map is beautiful and it would change the experience. Why I'm saying this, is that depending where one decides to fly in France, it is not possible to fly only with SD and the paper map has to be ready somewhere for cross check. Some other apps propose the official French ICAO map so that a cross check is possible during planning or during the flight. Anyway, it's a small thing and I'm happy to fly with the paper map next to me as SD brings so much more than ICAO map. 

Another thing that would be actually even better is to be able to link the Restricted and Prohibited airspaces on the map (in France again) with their definitions and details in the document 5.1 (section "enroute" in the Civil AIP database). Sometimes, we need more details and we have to manually look and search in the document for radio frequencies and the activation date and times. You already do it superbly with the SUP-AIP with temporary TRA. 
By pgroell - 1/9/2026 4:48:49 PM


One may prefer one chart style or the other, I am quite happy with Skydemon Ground Cover.

One information missing on SD charts and that is available exclusively on the France OACI 1/500 000 chart is the minimum overflight height as France is differing from ICAO and SERA.

This has already been brought to the attention of Skydemon (http://forums.skydemon.aero/Topic37060.aspx#37062), unfortunately there is no possibilty to add this information to the SD charts.