This makes me wonder about another question - if you discover the charts have expired, would you just request for vectors because you have no charts on board?
Yes, that is certainly an option. Better to request help from ATC rather than to fake it.
In regards to having current charts, there was a recent accident at an uncontrolled airport to which I used to fly (Dunkirk, NY -
KDKK) where two aircraft landed at the same time on crossing runways and crashed into each other at the intersection during rollout.
Fortunately no one was hurt, but both aircraft were extensively damaged, perhaps even totaled. When asked about the accident, one pilot admitted that he used either old charts or an old GPS database (I cannot remember what the airport personnel told me now) to retrieve the Unicom frequency and was transmitting his intentions on a very old frequency. His source must have been two years old or more, because that was when the frequency had changed.
While this certainly does not excuse both pilots of "see and avoid" since it is legal for aircraft with no radios to use uncontrolled airports, there is no doubt that had the one pilot been transmitting on the correct frequency, this accident would not have occurred.
Here is the NTSB report:
http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20051220X01994&key=1Many years ago when I first started my private pilot lessons, I didn't have any money (which is why I eventually suspended training back then) and I purposely avoided buying current sectional charts. I was also flying only once every two weeks, which was another problem. Of course, as Murphy's Aviation Laws states (#145 - Forget to update your charts and the airport to which you are flying will have changed its frequency), the airport to which I had soloed multiple times in the past had changed its Unicom frequency during this period of me flying with old charts.
Here I am calling for an airport advisory several times and scratching my head as to why no one is answering, when someone comes on the frequency and states, "Hey, they changed their Unicom frequency a month or so ago - Get yourself some current charts!" One of a few embarassing moments I had back then.