Thanks for chiming in EdwardTheHead!
For part 91 private flying (other than in a jet), I’m not aware of any FAA regulation requiring a pilot to even have a chart. There is, however, a regulation requiring a pilot to “become familiar with all available information concerning that flight.” There is also a regulation prohibiting careless and reckless operation. The FAA takes a pretty broad interpretation of these regs when they want to nail somebody to the wall, so it’s in your best interest to carry current charts (it’s also good form to not crash into new towers!). Most light airplane folks these days are using tablet apps such ForeFlight, FltPlan.com, etc. The aeronautical information on these charts typically comes from the US government’s aeronautical charting office, and is updated every 6 months. The apps also contain a plethora of additional information, such as local aviation service providers, rental car agencies, hotels, restaurants, and even reviews of all of those businesses.
On the more regulated side of things, the FAA issues different requirements to each airline or charter company. Typically, they require at least two independent electronic chart sources for an aircraft to go paperless. This can be two tablets, a tablet and a built-in chart server, or two independent chart servers that interface with the cockpit displays. All of my company’s airplanes have dual independent chart servers, and each pilot is also issued a tablet with a chart subscription. On very long legs we carry three pilots, so we have quintuple redundancy in those cases. We still carry paper enroute charts (the big maps), which we only break out on international legs in unfamiliar or remote areas. These charts contain important notes (check in with Tehran 10 minutes before you approach the border or else) which can be hidden or easy to miss on the electronic versions. We’ve found we just prefer to have a physical chart for those situations. If I were an airline pilot flying an airliner along a well-trodden route with established procedures that the local controllers are used to, I probably would be ok with keeping the paper charts tucked in the cabinet, but I fly a business jet with an unfamiliar callsign along less-used random routes. North America, Australia, and western Europe are used to seeing bizjets everywhere, so operations there are fairly easy. The rest of the world is still getting used to us, and often we kind of have to be creative and negotiate our routing and handling as we go. This makes it imperative that the chart notes are easy to find and hard to miss.
The vast majority of airlines & business aircraft operators use Jeppesen charts; they’re the only ones in the FAA-approved game besides the US government charts. Jeppesen sends updates every 14 days for paper IFR charts, and I believe it’s every 7 for electronic charts. As EdwardTheHead mentioned, government IFR charts are updated every 28/56 days.
Both publishers are slowly decreasing their paper charting services as time goes on. The government stopped selling paper charts directly to customers about 12 months ago, one can now only procure them through a distributer or electronically. Jeppesen will soon or has already discontinued their “Q-Service” which sends selective paper terminal chart updates every 14 days. Paper is expensive, cumbersome, and heavy. Most airports worldwide require at least a few pages, and many large airports have well over a hundred different charts, note pages, and procedures. A worldwide IFR chart set weighs somewhere in the vicinity of 60lbs and fills a large duffle bag.
