Hello everyone. I have recently been approved to test for two pilotage locations in New York harbor and I’m interested in knowing the best way to get the blank charts. I was thinking about just tracing the shore line of the regular chart on tracing paper then going to a staples or other store to get copies made. The other thing is I’m not sure what features are included and not included in the test. For example like certain piers or other fixed structures. I was hoping some of you have gone through this and have any suggestions. Thanks
That’s what’s normally done.
Call the local REC office responsible for the exam. It’s up to them what’s included in your local area.
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what he said
Thank you very much
Who made these chart outlines? Are they readily available to the public? When I wrote my routes in the 80s and 90s as far as I know you were expected to make your own outlines. I made a light table and bought architectural tracing paper to make my outlines of the chart for the exam. This is a great service for the aspiring pilot.
Just to clarify the blank chartlets are the actual size of the chart not something smaller like regular printer paper.
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Those tracings are outstanding, what a boon for those drawing New York charts.
There used to be a company that did those on-demand for any chart in the US, they shut down during COVID however.
It will be interesting to see what happens as the charts are canceled. I did bug NOAA about whether or not their on demand chart generator ENC based paper chart generator could have a feature for generating these blank charts, and they hinted they are working with at least once Pilot’s association on a “Pilot Pilot Program” for after everything is canceled here shortly.
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Those test charts were created by NOAA for a few RECs around the country. I would check with the REC to confirm they are still up to date.
RITI was the old test chart company. We started offering Pilot Test Charts in 2022. We have a few more products than RITI did. We think these study products will help aspiring Port Pilots study more effectively.
PTC
We have been in conversation with NOAA, USCG REC Chiefs around the country, American Pilot Association, as well as a number of individual pilot associations around the country.
Seems like the plan is to continue to use the last and final versions of NOAA charts until around the end of 2025. Then the plan is to transition over to the Custom Chart Tool on the NOAA site. The initial noaa style base chart catalog will be created with the CCT then tracings of those CCT charts will then be the new test chart.
The CCT has a number of chart layers as options. NOAA believes it has created a layer that meets the needs of RECs and pilotage candidates. However most REC Chiefs do not agree. The detail is very much lacking and the land outlines change completely when switching between layers. The belief is that NOAA needs to improve upon the CCT program before transitioning over to using that.
The way to access these blank test charts will be through a supplier (hopefully PilotTestCharts.com)
Hope this information is useful
PTC
Who has those chartlets for Hampton roads Norfolk
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