The workload and setup for trouble is real. A pilot who doesn’t fly enough IFR to really stay on top of the game finds himself flying an approach to lower minimums than expected, gets behind the aircraft and then loses it on the missed approach—if he gets that far—because he inadvertently busted an altitude after misreading the chart. Maybe the chart had too much overwhelming data or it was simply too crowded with information.
That’s only one reason why Garmin thought it was time to modernize digital procedural charts, and given the pattern of surface incursions—that certainly includes surface charts. Enter SmartCharts, a project long in development in the Garmin think tank, compatible with the Garmin Pilot app for iOS.