CFS

I buy one Canada Flight Supplement a year. I know, I’m a hypocrit. I always tell everyone that I’m all about safety when it comes to flying, but then I use a printed “database” that’s six months old. And I suspect that I’m not the only one who does this. Why?

The obvious answer is cost, but for me, that’s only part of it. But let’s look at that anyway. The CFS is printed every 56 days. That works out to 7 or 8 new editions each year. And since each CFS is sold for around the $30 mark, that works out to $210-240 each year. For the average pilot who flies in and around their home airport this is a hard cost to swallow.

For the worst part about a new CFS every 56 days is the waste. In flipping through the CFS I have, there are only minor changes here and there. A new phone number for an operator or updates to procedures at some remote airport. These are all important; if I was actually flying to the remote corners of the Yukon or northeren Quebec. All that paper rendered “obsolete” because of some phone number changes. And that’s just my CFS. There are thousands more floating around out there.

Instead, I’d rather buy a CFS once or twice a year and then simply be able to buy or better yet, download from the Internet and print, the changes. I’m sure that anyone who needs an updated CFS would much rather purchase a brand new one and I’m okay with that. But for the rest of us GA pilots, it would be nice to not have to contribute to the growing landfill problem. So, in the meantime, I’ll just keep buying my updated CFS each spring.

Of course, the worst answer as to why pilots use an old CFS is that they think it’s “cool.” It’s a way to brag about long they’ve been around. If that’s your reason, don’t bother telling me as I think those people are morons.

1 comment »

1. By David Megginson 3 days later:

   
   
   This is the third blog entry on the CFS this year, I think, following this one and this one. I guess it's a hot topic. I sympathize with your position for a VFR pilot -- buying an individual CFS every 56 days is a bit expensive and a big pain. It's cheaper when you subscribe. It doesn't make sense to subscribe just for the CFS, but once you start your IFR training, you'll want current charts (LO) and approach plates (CAP), and those can be very expensive if you buy them individually; once you subscribe and pay the flat $30/year shipping and handling, you might as well throw the CFS into your order. The CFS is $99/year ($14/copy) by subscription; each CAP is $45/year ($6.40/copy); each LO chart is $12/year ($1.70/copy). That's a lot cheaper than individual copies, especially for the IFR material.