Definition
A digital product produced by the FAA's National Aeronautical Charting Office that contains scanned, georeferenced images of VFR aeronautical charts (such as Sectionals, Terminal Area Charts, and World Aeronautical Charts) for use on computers, electronic flight bag (EFB) applications, and other digital display systems.
Plain English
These are electronic copies of the paper VFR charts pilots use for visual flying. They are scanned from the official paper charts and tagged with location data, so a moving-map app can show your aircraft's position directly on the chart image.
Context Anchor
Seen when using electronic flight bags, online chart viewers, and digital flight-planning tools for visual flying.
Derivation
The term combines 'digital' (the file format) with 'visual' (referring to Visual Flight Rules charts). The name simply distinguishes these from paper VFR charts and from IFR digital products.
Why Pilots Care
Provides instant access to current information with automatic updates and the ability to overlay weather or traffic data.
Intuition Check
Do not read this as just any map shown on a screen. In aviation, Digital-Visual Charts means electronic versions of aviation visual charts, not a general street map or satellite image.
Example Sentence 1
Before the cross-country, she updated the Digital-Visual Charts on her tablet to make sure the Sectional was current.
Example Sentence 2
She zoomed the digital-visual chart to check the next waypoint and surrounding terrain.