Okay so I have just recieved the first revision of my Jeppesen subscription and thought I'd collect my thoughts and think about the pro's and con's of these charts, after all I paid a !#$^ load of money for them.
I ordered a 1 year revision service for EC-2, which is Ohio and Indiana.
Well I have the Uber-Plastic binder and its good, no complaints.
The approach plates themselves are good, I like the flow and all the information they give you for the approaches and DP's and STARS. I went crazy because they are laid out differently than the FAA Charts. For example, my home airport is the first listed in Columbus, OH in the FAA charts. With Jepps, it is the last...drove me nuts for a short time while fishing for the proper chart after a diversion. This problem was solved by picking up some colored dividers for the binder and can list Departure, Destination and Alternate airports for easy finds. A little less intuitive than the FAA Method of Alphabetical City and then Alphabetical Airport name, not designator.
The En-Route charts they send leave a lot to be desired in my opinion. They have the Jet routes printed on them...whoopee!!! I am not flying a jet so that is a green line I don't need to be there. Also, I have 3 charts that covers the same area that 2 FAA charts cover, one extra piece of paper to fish through and not lose. Also, they are printed on tissue paper compared to the FAA charts. The FAA charts don't last me very long due to fold-unfold-inventafold while in flight so I am happy if 2 last me for a full revision. These lasted the whole time because I really went out of my way to care for them, but they did tear along the folds after a while. Now, they are smaller and are easier to fold/unfold in flight because they are smaller. I'd call it a draw, but I am not impressed with the lack of substance the paper has. It is paper I'd expect to come in a bag after I bought jewelery for the girlie. (Idea for christmas time for female pilots, boys!)
Any other aviators out there prefer one to the other and for what reasons? I do enjoy the approach plates, but have up to this points always used FAA/NOS charts and its the Jepps that are new to me.