Wondering what folks use for onboard weather

[Marauder]

I'm glad there have been so many responses.  I'm not quite done with my IR yet, but I make frequent 350nm trips from TN to NE Ohio and plan on using the IR for mainly vfr on top type flying.  That said, I am interested to be prepared if I ever find myself in imc for longer than a few minutes.  .  I haven't been surprised with any weather that I didn't already identify in preflight planning...YET..  I don't seem to get adsb data updates quickly or often enough to be useful. I figure it's just my cheap home made stratux.  I've never been able to get an adsb radar picture to show up on screen.    Flying vfr, I figure it's not the end of the world, as long as I maintain vfr with thorough preflight planning.  The reason why this topic came to my mind is because I am just thinking of pops developing and embedding in overcast while enroute.   Not that I would intend to linger in anything that long and an embedded TS sigmet would be a no go for me.  I'm just trying to learn more from those of you with experience.

Neither FIS-B or NEXRAD will give you real time weather. Even if the time element is "0" minutes, there can be a few minutes lag.

Radar, which you can find on some Mooneys, still has limitations. If you are not familiar with the usage of radar, you could not be seeing the whole picture. Proper usage of tilt, understanding that radar has limitations such as shadowing/attenuation and that it can't see frozen precip are critical in getting a good weather picture.

A StormScope helps with the embedded thunderstorm concerns. But it too can have limitations. Like not understanding radial spread. Newer StormScopes help by providing new algorithms to calculate cell activity.

On the pre-flight side, understanding the weather maps and how CAPE and lifted index calculate thunderstorm probabilities will help understand whether or not an IMC flight might take you into an embedded storm.

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[Danb]

Mother Nature is quite fickled, I've done a few trips lately in which the forecasted weather was reasonably suspect. Setting personal minimums is imperative, the last wx briefing from foreflight was 56 pages most of which were not directly related to the flight. 

When utliizing a product enroute I pay close attention  to tafs and metars there easy and useful.

Another problem with ascertaining our enroute weather while enroute is the lack of Pireps, useful as they are I can't understand why most people don't provide them. Sunday for instance the freezing level approximated 16,000 ft, I provided the pirep, in addition I requested them few times this summer none available. 

[Browncbr1]

I've been getting big picture from the outlook discussions and prog charts.   I get metars and tafs and also review radar, sat, and weatherunderground probabilities before calling FSS.   In the air, I've been tuning awos/ASOS/ATIS ahead of me.   It would be nice to have a better adsb box, but yea, the imagery can be 15 minutes old.  Interesting to hear adsb data improvements coming down the road.  

[Cruiser]

Future FIS-B Products

AC 00-63A notes that FAA plans to add five new FIS-B products “in the next few years.” These products include:

• Lightning. Graphical representation of each lightning stroke in a past 5-minute period.
• Turbulence NOWcast. Two-kilometer resolution grid containing an eight-value turbulence intensity scale in each grid cell. The intensity scale depicts a weighted average turbulence for flight levels (FL) of 10,000 ft and above.
• Icing NOWcast. Two-kilometer resolution grids, where each grid represents one of the eight 3,000 ft ranges from FL 030 to FL 240. Within each grid, each grid cell contains the four-value icing indication and the presence or absence of Supercooled Large Drop (SLD) formation.
• Cloud Tops. Two-kilometer resolution grid indicating the altitude of the cloud top to an accuracy of 3,000 ft, ranging from FL 030 to FL 480.
• One-Minute Automated Weather Observing System (AWOS). More frequent updates of METAR-formatted information.

[bradp]

9 hours ago, Browncbr1 said:

 

At first I had set it up that way, but I was interested in what folks are using as primary data.  Operative word being primary. 

What is a preflight briefing Alex.  

Interestingly, having recently sat outside during a thunderstorm and wondering how lagged the Nexrad feed on foreflight was, I did just that.   Watched the sky and watched foreflight.  It's behind by about 10 minutes.  

The cool part was that the "storm" app has a real time radar feed of some sort for which you can select a station and view the various tilts.  This actually appeared to be almost real time.  

The advent of usable in flight internet data may really change the weather game in the near future.  

 

[Piloto]

I use Internet via Garmin Pilot on my Samsung S7 and Stormscope. Up to 6,000ft the Garmin WX is pretty consistent. At 10,000ft I get updates about every 10 minutes. I have my Samsung Velcro to the pilot Sun Visor for better visibility (no sun glare) and better cell tower reception. Besides WX I can send and receive text messages to my party on the ground and check on other websites. I found the voice link to be more reliable than the data link. Many of my pilot friends abroad use Internet WX since there is no ADS-B WX outside the US.

José 

Edited September 17, 2016 by Piloto

[Browncbr1]

On September 16, 2016 at 10:11 AM, donkaye said:

At present XM has more weather information and displays it with more resolution.  I use ADS-B for backup, so rarely use it.  The Stormscope is a must for me when traveling cross country, since it is real time.

Does the $10/M xm marine show metars?  

Edited September 17, 2016 by Browncbr1

[LANCECASPER]

15 minutes ago, Browncbr1 said:

Does the $10/M xm marine show metars?  

It does

[Browncbr1]

Cool, I think I may go ahead and do this for my aera510 since its turn key.       

Down the road, if the FAA actually does fully enforce the 2020 mandate, I'll get a stratus esg that comes with a stratus2, but by then, I'm sure better solutions will be on market at lower costs.  So, less than $500 in xm script costs over 4 years are worth waiting for better stuff and lower prices instead of investing more in adsb now since I already have backup ahrs (D2)..  It sounds like XM is a little better and reliable right now..

 

I found it it interesting that most people posted that a stormscope is pretty essential, but the vast majority voted adsb in the poll.  I guess my poll question missed its intention.  

[Danb]

3 hours ago, Browncbr1 said:

Cool, I think I may go ahead and do this for my aera510 since its turn key.       

Down the road, if the FAA actually does fully enforce the 2020 mandate, I'll get a stratus esg that comes with a stratus2, but by then, I'm sure better solutions will be on market at lower costs.  So, less than $500 in xm script costs over 4 years are worth waiting for better stuff and lower prices instead of investing more in adsb now since I already have backup ahrs (D2)..  It sounds like XM is a little better and reliable right now..

 

I found it it interesting that most people posted that a stormscope is pretty essential, but the vast majority voted adsb in the poll.  I guess my poll question missed its intention.  

B1

If your pool missed its intention ok, it did provide the wide array of products we use and why for our inflight weather picture which was of value. What it depicts is the difference between the overall picture (Adsb, wx) and evading weather (stormscope or radar) enroute after viewing the big picture. 

[carusoam]

Mr. b.  types faster than me!

 

Mr. Brown,

weather is a two pronged approach...

 

1) Big picture (near impossible to fully grasp using the com radio and knowledge of the landscape, in foul weather, system of the old days).

  - ADSB and XM are the only choices within ordinary budgets.

  - suffers from minutes of lag time wich are important when storms grow intensely in ten minutes.

  - avoid any area that is going to be red when you get there.  Yellow and orange are things to be avoided as well.

 

2) Tactical picture 

advantage: Lightning strikes appear on your hardware in real time.

disadvantage: minimal data, except for storm strength that requires some interpretation.  Some strike finders are better than others.  Get one that has been upgraded to follow heading.

  - storm scope

  - Strike finder. (Brand name) 

  - avoid lightning strikes that are in front of the plane

You are in the clouds already.  T-storm cells won't look any different from the inside of the cloud.  But, their thousands of feet per minute vertical velocity and wind sheer are hazardous to your plane's health.

 

Third prong....

get the equipment, and the training/practice before going in the clouds.  I used to stop, get a printout, then continue flying with a chart and aging printed weather on it....

Once you have seen a thunderstorm from the inside you will remember Scott Crossfield's name and why... I got my ADSB after one of those flights.

Best regards,

-a-

[Browncbr1]

Thanks for all the advice fellas.  I've decided I will get a marine xm script now.  I was completely unaware that it includes metars and lightening strikes and several other things. (Albeit not at real time)...     I think I can also set my aera510 to do a playback loop to help identify trends.   

Regarding a storm scope, yea, I had seen that some of the older ones didn't bootstrap heading...   I did see that a wx-500 would display on a gns430, sandel 3308, aspen and others though, which might be better than having a dedicated display..  I don't have a panel GPS now, but maybe in a few years, which might be best use of dollars.   

Edited September 17, 2016 by Browncbr1

[gsengle]

ADSB plus downloaded weather maps on Foreflight preflight, and stormscope.

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[Bennett]

I use FIS-B on the GTN 750, 650, and Foreflight via the Garmin 201 Flight Steam. I keep my subscription for XM, and display it on he AERA 796. Total overkill for most California coastal flying, but handy on cross country trips. Personally, I prefer XM to TIS-B

[Piloto]

Question:

I noticed that many of you post the pictures on your devices directly without having to need camera. How do you record the picture in a file? Is this possible on a smart phone? Is it an application feature?

José 

[Marauder]

29 minutes ago, Piloto said:

Question:

I noticed that many of you post the pictures on your devices directly without having to need camera. How do you record the picture in a file? Is this possible on a smart phone? Is it an application feature?

José 

On an iOS device, you simply hit the home and power button simultaneously. It puts the picture of whatever you are displaying on the screen in your Photos library. You can then just select it.

I use Tapatalk and it makes it easy to select the photos. 

[Piloto]

It works on my Samsung!!!

Thanks Marauder

José

[LANCECASPER]

9 hours ago, Browncbr1 said:

Thanks for all the advice fellas.  I've decided I will get a marine xm script now.  I was completely unaware that it includes metars and lightening strikes and several other things. (Albeit not at real time)...     I think I can also set my aera510 to do a playback loop to help identify trends.   

Regarding a storm scope, yea, I had seen that some of the older ones didn't bootstrap heading...   I did see that a wx-500 would display on a gns430, sandel 3308, aspen and others though, which might be better than having a dedicated display..  I don't have a panel GPS now, but maybe in a few years, which might be best use of dollars.   

The marine subscription would not display Nexrad on the aera 510 or 796 for me, only the 396 or 496.

[Browncbr1]

6 hours ago, LANCECASPER said:

The marine subscription would not display Nexrad on the aera 510 or 796 for me, only the 396 or 496.

Oh no.  

 

[Danb]

Jose "M", knows all the tricks. Chris u flying today

[Danb]

1 hour ago, Browncbr1 said:

Oh no.  

 

I contacted XM a couple months ago to see I could swing a deal with them, of course I mentioned I didn't need xm since I had Adsb. Blah blah,,the story ends I acquired most of the products for a year commitment my charge was about $100!per month now $25 a month, the price is no on there website it's a charge I negotiated. I guess there business model is real weak.

[Marauder]

Jose "M", knows all the tricks. Chris u flying today

Dan -- I got caught and had to serve my marital servitude sentence today. At least I got to play with the toys!

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[gsxrpilot]

I've done quite a bit of weather flying in the last three or so years. I've got XM weather on a 530W, I've got a Stratus2 connected to my iPad, and I've got a WX-10a stormscope.  Oh, and finally, I've got ATC in my ear.

I find that all I really use is the Stratus2/ForeFlight/iPad and listen to ATC. They've got much better weather information than they did say just 10 years ago and between ATC and my iPad, I've really got all I need.  I find the stormscope doesn't have the resolution to confidently let me sneak between cells, and XM on the 530 isn't very good resolution either.

Just my $0.02. I'm gonna pull the WX-10a out of the panel and sell it, and I won't be renewing the XM subscription.

[Jerry 5TJ]

Aloft I use XM and Stormscope and do my best to remain VMC to confirm the big picture with my own eyes.  If in clouds I stay even further from strikes shown on the Stormscope.  

This and my last plane are both FIKI equipped and in the past five years I've used the ADDS Aviation Weather CIP/FIP Icing forecast tool as part of preflight if icing is possible.  When I've encountered ice it was generally where and about as intense as forecast.  A few times ADDS predicted 50% probability of ice when none occurred, but so far never the opposite.  The freezing level contours on that site are quite detailed, too, unlike the broad sweeping statements issued as forecasts a decade ago.  

Contrary to what some have posted, I've generally been happier following my own visual,  XM and Stormscope clues rather than take ATC's weather suggestions.  Their verbal description of what they see has not been very helpful, and at times directly contradicted what I could see ahead.  

[Marauder]

Aloft I use XM and Stormscope and do my best to remain VMC to confirm the big picture with my own eyes.  If in clouds I stay even further from strikes shown on the Stormscope.  

This and my last plane are both FIKI equipped and in the past five years I've used the ADDS Aviation Weather CIP/FIP Icing forecast tool as part of preflight if icing is possible.  When I've encountered ice it was generally where and about as intense as forecast.  A few times ADDS predicted 50% probability of ice when none occurred, but so far never the opposite.  The freezing level contours on that site are quite detailed, too, unlike the broad sweeping statements issued as forecasts a decade ago.  

Contrary to what some have posted, I've generally been happier following my own visual,  XM and Stormscope clues rather than take ATC's weather suggestions.  Their verbal description of what they see has not been very helpful, and at times directly contradicted what I could see ahead.  

Especially after that last flight!

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