Support

On a Dynon SkyView, go to Setup → System Information. Your serial number is listed there.

On an AFS system, navigate to Set → Cal (hold) → System Information.

Alternatively, insert your existing USB stick into your computer and look for a file named backup_XXXXX.zip. The 5-digit number in the filename is your serial number.

If you have multiple displays in the cockpit, any one serial number will work. All connected units are authorized automatically.

Activation codes are generated and emailed within 5 minutes of a successful subscription. First, check your spam or junk folder for an email from EFISCharts.

If it has been more than 15 minutes and you've checked spam, please use the contact form below and select Checkout Issues. Include the email address you used at checkout and we'll resolve it promptly.

Yes. Use the contact form below, select Checkout Issues, and include your activation code and the correct serial number. We'll regenerate your key file promptly.

Payment processing is handled by Stripe. Declines are usually caused by one of the following: incorrect card details, your bank blocking an unfamiliar charge, or an expired card.

Try re-entering your card details carefully, or contact your bank to authorize the charge. If the problem persists, use the contact form below and select Checkout Issues.

All billing is managed through the Stripe Customer Portal. Log in with your email address to update your card, download invoices, or change your billing details.

Yes. All payments are processed by Stripe, one of the world's leading payment processors. EFISCharts never sees or stores your card details. Stripe is PCI DSS Level 1 certified, the highest level of payment security certification available.

You can cancel at any time through the Stripe Customer Portal. No phone calls, no fees, no questions asked.

Your charts will remain usable until the end of your current billing period. After cancellation, the key file will not be renewed for the next AIRAC cycle.

Yes. Just buy a new IFR subscription and contact us using the form below to process a pro-rated refund for the unused portion of your old subscription.

Head to the EFISCharts download page and choose the macOS (.pkg) or Windows (.exe) build. The links are also in your confirmation email.

macOS: open the .pkg and follow the installer. Windows: run the installer. Then launch the app and enter your activation code when prompted. It handles all chart downloads and USB stick transfers automatically.

iPad & iPhone: dedicated apps are coming soon.

macOS: macOS 12.0 Monterey or later. Both Intel and Apple silicon Macs are supported. Most Macs from 2015 onward can run Monterey or newer.

Windows: Windows 10 version 1809 (64-bit) or later, including Windows 11. Nothing to install first. The .NET runtime is bundled inside the installer, and no administrator rights are needed, because it installs for your user account only.

USB stick: a 16 GB or 32 GB stick formatted FAT32 with a Master Boot Record partition. 32 GB is the largest size we support; exFAT, APFS and NTFS sticks are rejected. You'll also need a free USB port and an internet connection.

Free disk space depends on how much chart data you select. A single VFR region is around 2 GB; a full US VFR + IFR selection across all four regions is roughly 15–22 GB.

Recommended: about 10% more free space than your selection. Call it 25 GB for a full US set, or a few GB if you fly one region. That's the fast path: charts cache on your computer, then copy to the stick.

Minimum: the app adapts instead of failing. It purges old cycle caches first; if space is still short it streams through a bounded buffer, which needs about 5 GB free; below that it writes straight onto the USB stick and needs almost no free space at all. It only refuses outright when there's under 5 GB free and no stick plugged in. Low-space modes are slower, but they work.

Not sure which version you're running? See How do I check which version of macOS or Windows I have? below.

On a Mac: click the Apple menu in the top-left corner of the screen and choose About This Mac. A window opens showing the macOS name and version number, for example macOS Sonoma 14.5. The same window lists your Chip or Processor, which tells you whether the Mac is Apple silicon or Intel. You need 12.0 Monterey or later.

If your Mac is older than that, open System Settings → General → Software Update (or System Preferences → Software Update on older versions) to see whether a free upgrade is available.

On Windows: hold the Windows key and press R, type winver, and press Enter. A small box shows your Windows edition and version, for example Windows 11 Version 23H2. On Windows 10 the Version line needs to read 1809 or higher.

To confirm you're on 64-bit Windows, go to Start → Settings → System → About and look at System type. It should read 64-bit operating system. Nearly every PC built in the last decade is 64-bit.

Make sure the USB stick is formatted as FAT32. Mac and Dynon both require FAT32. ExFAT and APFS will not work.

Try ejecting and re-inserting the stick. If your Mac has only USB-C ports, ensure your USB-A adapter is working correctly with another device before troubleshooting the stick itself.

If the stick still isn't recognized after reformatting, use the contact form below.

We buy sticks off the shelf and test them ourselves on Dynon SkyView and Advanced Flight Systems displays. Everything below reflects our own bench testing, and we'll keep growing this list as testing continues.

Any plain USB 2.0 or USB 3.x stick of 16 GB or larger will generally work, but a slow stick makes chart loading take considerably longer. If you already have a stick that works, there's no need to replace it.

Other 32 GB drives in common use. We haven't bench-tested these ourselves. They're listed because they're the mainstream 5 Gbps options pilots are most likely to already own:

Read speeds above are the manufacturer's advertised peak. Sustained write speed (which is what actually governs how long a chart load takes) is usually well below the headline number and is rarely published.

Yes. These are the sticks that failed in our testing. We'll add to this list as we find more.

USB naming is genuinely a mess. The standards body has renamed the same speed tier several times, and manufacturers print whichever name they prefer, so one stick can be sold as “USB 3.0”, “USB 3.1 Gen 1”, “USB 3.2 Gen 1” and “USB 5 Gbps” and be exactly the same hardware.

These are the two tiers that matter for chart loading:

Both tiers are sold in USB-A and USB-C, and in dual-connector sticks that have both. Buy a 5 Gbps stick. USB 2.0 works and your EFIS won't know the difference, but it's roughly ten times slower on paper, and a full US VFR + IFR load is 15–22 GB of mostly small files, so the wait becomes hours rather than minutes.

One caveat: the tier only sets the ceiling. A cheap 5 Gbps stick can still write more slowly than a good USB 2.0 one. Advertised speeds are read speeds; write speed is what a chart load actually depends on.

A hub helps whenever you load more than one stick at a time: an airplane with a stick in each display, or several aircraft in Fleet Mode. It saves a lot of swapping. If you only load one stick, plug it straight into your computer.

One warning from our own experience: a hub or card reader advertised as “high speed” often is not, or only some of its ports are. A single USB 2.0 port hiding in a hub sold as USB 3.0 will slow a chart load to a crawl. We buy from brands that publish per-port specs, we read the reviews before we buy, and we measure the hub ourselves afterwards. One of the units below is on this list for exactly that reason.

The three below are the units we are testing next. They are not yet endorsed. We'll update this answer with results once they're on the bench.

And these are hubs we have used and do not recommend for chart loading:

First, check that your USB stick has enough free space. A full US VFR + IFR selection across all four regions runs roughly 15–22 GB. Delete any old cycle folders you no longer need.

Also confirm the stick is formatted FAT32, not exFAT or APFS. If space and format are fine but the transfer still fails, try a different USB stick to rule out a hardware issue, then use the contact form below.

This is normal Mac behavior. When you delete files from a USB stick on a Mac, they aren't erased right away. They're moved into a hidden .Trashes folder on the stick itself. The files stay there, still taking up space, until you empty the Trash. That's why the app can still report the stick as full even though you've deleted everything.

To actually reclaim the space, empty the Trash while the USB stick is still plugged in:

1. Leave the USB stick inserted. Don't eject it yet.

2. Click and hold (or right-click / Control-click) the Trash icon at the end of your Dock.

3. Choose Empty Trash and confirm.

Emptying the Trash clears deleted items from every connected drive, including the USB stick, and frees the space immediately. Now re-run EFISChartSync and the transfer should have room to complete.

⚠️ If you eject the stick before emptying the Trash, macOS may leave those deleted files behind on the stick. Re-insert it and empty the Trash again to clear them. If the stick still shows as full after emptying the Trash, the surest fix is to reformat it (see below), which wipes everything and gives you a clean, empty stick.

Your USB stick must be formatted as FAT32. Both Dynon and AFS EFIS units require FAT32. ExFAT and APFS will not work, even though macOS may default to those formats.

Reformatting on a Mac:

1. Insert the USB stick and open Disk Utility (search for it with Spotlight, ⌘Space).

2. Select your USB stick from the left sidebar. Make sure you select the drive itself, not a partition beneath it.

3. Click Erase at the top of the window.

4. Set the Name to something simple like DYNON.

5. Set the Format to MS-DOS (FAT). This is FAT32.

6. Set the Scheme to Master Boot Record.

7. Click Erase and confirm. The process takes a few seconds.

⚠️ Warning: Erasing will permanently delete all data on the USB stick. Make sure you've selected the correct drive before confirming. After reformatting, run EFISChartSync to transfer a fresh set of charts.

Reformatting on Windows:

1. Insert the USB stick and open File Explorer.

2. Right-click the USB drive and select Format…

3. Set File system to FAT32.

4. Leave Quick Format checked and click Start.

Note: Windows may not list FAT32 as an option for sticks larger than 32 GB. If that happens, use a free tool like Rufus (rufus.ie) which can format any size stick as FAT32.

The FAA updates aviation chart data on a fixed 28-day AIRAC cycle. You should sync your USB stick at least once per cycle, ideally within a few days before a new cycle begins.

The EFISChartSync app always keeps the current and next cycle ready for download, so you can sync a few days early and be current from day one of the new cycle.

No. The EFISChartSync downloader automatically grabs this file directly from Dynon and installs it on your USB sticks. No additional step needed.

The most common cause is that the key file for the current AIRAC cycle hasn't been transferred to your USB stick. Open the EFISChartSync app, make sure it shows the current cycle, plug in your USB stick, and run a sync.

If the sync completes but the EFIS still shows expired data, try power cycling your EFIS after the transfer. Some Dynon units cache the previous key file until a full restart.

Also confirm the USB stick is inserted correctly. Dynon SkyView units can be particular about seating.

All chart data is sourced directly from FAA official publications and processed through human and computer validation. If you spot an error, please report it using the form below and select Chart Error Report. Include the chart name, the specific location or identifier, and a description of the issue.

If the error exists in the FAA source data, we'll also report it upstream to the FAA.

US VFR includes Sectional Charts, Terminal Area Charts, Chart Insets, VFR Flyway Charts, USGS Satellite Imagery, 890+ geolocated FAA Airport Diagrams, and 3,300+ geolocated EFISCharts Airport Diagrams (every registered US airport without an FAA airport diagram), everything you need for VFR flight.

US VFR + IFR adds High and Low IFR Enroute Charts, geolocated Instrument Approach Plates, Standard Instrument Departures (SIDs), and Standard Terminal Arrival Routes (STARs), full IFR coverage on top of the complete VFR package.

An EFISCharts Airport Diagram is a geolocated satellite image of an airport with the same reference information you'd find on an FAA airport diagram, airport identifier, name, communication frequencies, magnetic variation, and field elevation, laid over a real satellite view of the field instead of a drawn diagram.

The FAA only publishes airport diagrams for about 890 airports. We generate an EFISCharts Airport Diagram for every other registered US airport (3,300+ of them) so you get a geolocated airport reference at virtually every field in the country, with your airplane icon moving across it on the map just like it does on the FAA diagrams.

No. One subscription covers all displays in your aircraft. Use the serial number of any one display at checkout. The authorization file generated works for all networked Dynon units sharing the same USB stick.

Currently, EFISCharts supports Dynon SkyView, Dynon D-series, and Advanced Flight Systems (AFS) EFIS only. Garmin and Aspen use proprietary chart formats that require their own subscription services.

Support for additional platforms is something we evaluate regularly. If you'd like to see your system supported, let us know through the contact form.

Yes. Use the contact form below and include your activation code and the serial number of your new unit. We'll update your key file to the new serial number at no charge.

Yes, turn on Fleet Mode. Open the EFISChartSync app, go to Settings, scroll to the bottom, and switch on Fleet Mode. Choose how many aircraft you have, then fill in each airplane's tail number and its own activation code.

Each aircraft is a separate subscription with its own activation code, because the key file written to the stick is tied to that subscription. Press Verify once and the app checks every code in turn, filling in the serial number and plan for each row.

Each airplane keeps its own regions and chart products. Open an aircraft's page to set them, so a plane based in the Northwest need not carry the Southeast's charts, and one aircraft can be on VFR while another is on VFR + IFR.

Anything two airplanes have in common downloads once and is shared, so a fleet is far quicker than updating each aircraft on its own. Where several airplanes use the same selection, the fleet is no slower to download than a single one.

You drag it there. In Fleet Mode each airplane gets its own page in the left sidebar, and a stick the app hasn't seen before shows up on the Downloader page as unassigned.

Grab the stick's tile by the handle at the top of it and drop it onto the airplane's name in the sidebar. That's the whole assignment step. The stick now belongs to that aircraft and will be loaded with its charts and its key.

To release a stick, drag its tile back onto Downloader. That removes the aircraft marker and the key file, so the stick is no longer licensed to that airplane. The chart data itself is left alone.

The app writes a tiny empty file named after the tail number, for example N123AB.txt. At the top level of the stick. That marker lives on the stick itself, so the assignment survives unplugging it, moving it to another Mac, or leaving it in a drawer for six months.

It is an ordinary empty text file. Your EFIS ignores it completely, and it takes up no meaningful space. If you delete it, the stick simply shows up as unassigned again the next time you plug it in.

Outside Fleet Mode these markers are ignored entirely, so a stick that has been in a fleet still works normally on a single-aircraft setup.

Dimmed. No sticks for that airplane are plugged in right now.

Normal. At least one of its sticks is inserted, and still has work to do.

Green with an outline. Every stick for that airplane is loaded and ready to pull. This is the one to watch for: when all your aircraft are green, the whole fleet is done.

This is rare, and it does not mean your plans have to match. Mixing plans is fine: one airplane can be on VFR while another is on VFR + IFR, and each aircraft picks its own regions and chart products on its own page.

What the error means is that one aircraft's subscription isn't compatible with the others in the fleet. That row turns red and its sticks are skipped rather than written with the wrong data, so nothing incorrect reaches the airplane.

If you see it, use the contact form below with the activation codes for the aircraft involved and we'll sort it out. In the meantime you can load that airplane on its own with Fleet Mode switched off.

Fleet Mode allows up to three sticks per aircraft plugged in at the same time, so a six-airplane fleet can have eighteen sticks inserted.

The app writes to six sticks at a time. Any beyond that show Queued and start automatically as slots free up. You don't need to do anything. This keeps a large fleet from overwhelming your Mac's USB bus all at once.

A powered USB hub is strongly recommended for anything beyond a few sticks. Bus-powered hubs often can't supply enough current for many flash drives at once.