toto

Fwiw I flew with my Mini for the first time this past weekend, and used a cigar lighter cable (linked below). No problems so far. I still haven’t fully decided whether the cable or battery approach is better for the long term, but the cable worked fine for my <90 minute hop. https://a.co/d/7l5qiNw

You’re right about the cost. A Starlink Mini in standby mode is only $5/month, and all of the things you want to do you’ll be able to do at 500kbps. The setup for Starlink is more fiddly and probably a bit less reliable than XM or ADS-B. I have a GDL 52, and you basically just toss it on the glareshield and it always works. The Starlink is much larger, and requires a bit more attention to proper placement etc. It’s not really an “always on” solution. I’ve only flown with my Mini once, so I’m far from an expert. From a cost perspective, the Starlink wins. But it’s probably not as reliable or “set and forget” as XM. Ymmv

Flew with my Starlink Mini today. It’s pretty idiot-proof. Saw something like 80mb down and about 8-10mb up, and the satellite connectivity was maintained flying on every cardinal heading. Based on this very rudimentary test, I’m optimistic that it will be a reliable source of internet connectivity if needed in the future. I don’t expect to use the Starlink much when airborne - ultimately this is for the few times a year that we vacation miles away from a cellular signal, as well as a backup for our normal home internet. But it’s so easy to use that I absolutely can see the value in having this available for nervous passengers. For certain flights on certain days, nothing will calm a passenger down like being able to doomscroll their favorite feed.

That’s fair

That’s more debris than I have seen in my own tanks. The most I’ve seen is two or three tiny flakes. The sample is normally completely clean. I’ll be interested to hear from the mx experts whether any action is required.

Maybe I’ll take a tape measure to the airport today. My wild guess is that from either front seat in my J, you’re at least two feet from the Starlink terminal. The pilot seat tends to be much farther forward than the copilot seat, but offset by more than a foot to the right. I’ve never been in a short body, so I’m not sure how the cockpit dimensions vary, but with the seat in a normal position I think 13” is easily achieved in my ac.

I’ll be interested to know what you come up with. I finally activated my Mini today but haven’t tried it in the plane yet. Having it on the glareshield means you’re pretty close to it all the time, but putting in the back windows isn’t really much more distant. The Reddit thread I linked above has some details and some conjecture.

Mostly watching flight training videos

I’m about as far from an expert as I can be I was just reading the output from the power adapter as 30v at 60w and the max input on the unit as 60w. I took that to mean there’s no need to worry about having a power source that produces 100w continuous output.

In case it’s interesting for anyone … I keep reading online that the Mini requires a max of 100w, but the unit I got seems to confirm that 60w is all that’s ever required. Here’s a photo of the power adapter that came with my Mini, and a photo of the back of the Mini itself. Both specify 60w.

There was a Reddit thread about this a while back https://old.reddit.com/r/Starlink/comments/11lbek1/is_the_starlink_dish_safe_to_be_used_near_your/

I have one of those in my cart. I really don’t love the bright white - definitely a glare magnet. But I was worried too about the heat. This is the one I have in my cart. It has a black screen protector (or something like that) along with the case https://a.co/d/5aFcvbw

I haven’t flown with it yet, but I was very surprised at how little space it occupies on the glareshield.. when I put it all the way forward, it was five or six inches in from the edge.

I was going to try to use your code, but it sounds like my Home Depot purchase isn’t eligible… you have to buy direct

Is that only for residential service, or does it work for roam as well?