Do you suspend your SiriusXM during the winter?

[Scott Dennstaedt, PhD]

If you are a subscriber of the SiriusXM datalink weather, do you suspend your membership once warm season thunderstorms tend to wane as cold, (somewhat) stable air tends to be the norm?  Just curious if anyone uses this option.

For those that are unaware, you can call SiriusXM and suspend your account for up to six months and not incur any cost during that time. 

[Hank]

What possible benefit is there to turning off your in-flight weather???

[flight2000]

I think his point may be that many pilots just don't fly in the winter, so why pay the monthly fee if you don't need it.  I generally fly on CAVU days only due my severe hate of ice.  Let's just say I had a mind altering experience in a C182 many, many moons ago when I was much younger and dumber....

I would suspend mine, but I still fly in the deep south 2-3 times a month, so I keep it turned on.  T-Storms chances are way down, but precip still happens and I'd prefer to avoid it if I can.  Just another tool I can use so mine stays on year round.

Cheers,

Brian

[Jerry 5TJ]

Cancel?  60s on 6 is broadcast all year round. 

[Scott Dennstaedt, PhD]

1 hour ago, Hank said:

What possible benefit is there to turning off your in-flight weather???

$$$

[Hank]

18 minutes ago, scottd said:

$$$

For $35/month, you don't want to know what's ahead on your route, where VMC is, etc? Because there's never a thunderstorm or heavy precipitation (liquid or solid) except in the summer?

Do you put your plane away in the winter, like many of my coworkers ask me? They are dumbfounded when I explain (briefly!) that the plane performs so much better in cold weather.

If year-round weather subscription costs too much, how do you pay for your annual? At least flying with a handheld GPS, the data package is cheaper . . . .

[Scott Dennstaedt, PhD]

14 minutes ago, Hank said:

For $35/month, you don't want to know what's ahead on your route, where VMC is, etc? Because there's never a thunderstorm or heavy precipitation (liquid or solid) except in the summer?

Do you put your plane away in the winter, like many of my coworkers ask me? They are dumbfounded when I explain (briefly!) that the plane performs so much better in cold weather.

If year-round weather subscription costs too much, how do you pay for your annual? At least flying with a handheld GPS, the data package is cheaper . . . .

Hank,

Don't underestimate the cheapest nut in the airplane...the nut in the left seat!  I get to talk to thousands of pilots every year and it's truly amazing how many will pinch pennies to save that $10/month fee. I've offered discounts to my subscription-based website and it's inevitable if they missed the promotional deadline I offered last month, how many still email me and want that $10 off...and if you tell them the promo is over, they don't join or renew despite the advantage.  

I agree with you Hank; I wouldn't suspend the account during the winter months (although my flying starting in mid-November through about mid-January tends to be minimal).  Flying in the Southeast, I see convection most of the year (although it's not as widespread). I was curious to know (#1) how many know they can suspend it and (#2) how many do suspend it.  

[donkaye]

2 hours ago, Hank said:

What possible benefit is there to turning off your in-flight weather???

My case is different in that my airplane is down for over 3 months, but I did call XM and had the service suspended until the plane is back in the air.  No problem.

[larryb]

I need all the help I can get. So I happily pay for XM, ADSB install, and of course WeatherSpork, year round. Compared to the total cost of aviation these are the cheapest components.

[Scott Dennstaedt, PhD]

44 minutes ago, larryb said:

I need all the help I can get. So I happily pay for XM, ADSB install, and of course WeatherSpork, year round. Compared to the total cost of aviation these are the cheapest components.
 

Me too Larry!  I like your thinking ;-)

[flyboy0681]

Interestingly, when our plane was down for repairs for several months the weather subscription reverted back to the base product due to the lack of a signal to the GDL 69 during that time.

[mooniac15u]

I recently suspended my SiriusXM weather permanently. My homemade Stratux ADS-B receiver provides sufficient weather information for my operations.

Canceling SiriusXM was not easy. They don't allow you to cancel online and the phone number they provide on the website is not the number you need to call.  In the end I had to talk to 3 different people to cancel my subscription.

[flyboy0681]

1 minute ago, mooniac15u said:

Canceling SiriusXM was not easy.

Obviously this is by design, whether for cable service, credit card, phone - what have you. We are forced to endure the hard sell by the "retention" department, which interestingly is usually the only call center not located in India.

[jaylw314]

In the Pacific NW, it's backwards--one might consider cancelling weather subscriptions during the summer.

In my case, I've never paid for XM weather, but I still get it through my GDL69 for unclear reasons.  I used to think the former owner had paid for some kind of lifetime subscription, but somebody else said they experienced the same thing when they stopped paying.  I have to admit, the info displayed on the G530W is nowhere near as helpful or easy to access as that on a tablet EFB, so I don't find it particularly helpful.

[kpaul]

21 minutes ago, jaylw314 said:

In the Pacific NW, it's backwards--one might consider cancelling weather subscriptions during the summer.

In my case, I've never paid for XM weather, but I still get it through my GDL69 for unclear reasons.  I used to think the former owner had paid for some kind of lifetime subscription, but somebody else said they experienced the same thing when they stopped paying.  I have to admit, the info displayed on the G530W is nowhere near as helpful or easy to access as that on a tablet EFB, so I don't find it particularly helpful.

We have cancelled Sirus/XM subscriptions in the past, but the radio continued to receive service.  

[jaylw314]

3 minutes ago, kpaul said:

We have cancelled Sirus/XM subscriptions in the past, but the radio continued to receive service.  

Yeah, too bad I don't get any music, but I can stream what I want through Google Play Music from my phone anyway, as well as listen to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

[carusoam]

Jay, are you streaming at altitude?

José gets good connectivity at altitude in FL.   In NJ... not so much.

Just wondering who has control of the cell towers aimed upwards... 

Best regards,

-a-

[jaylw314]

35 minutes ago, carusoam said:

Jay, are you streaming at altitude?

José gets good connectivity at altitude in FL.   In NJ... not so much.

Just wondering who has control of the cell towers aimed upwards... 

Best regards,

-a-

No, I only get data reception down low, below 3-4000' or so.  I was talking about streaming stuff saved on my phone to my headset via Bluetooth

[flyboy0681]

6 hours ago, carusoam said:

Jay, are you streaming at altitude?

José gets good connectivity at altitude in FL.   In NJ... not so much.

Just wondering who has control of the cell towers aimed upwards... 

Best regards,

-a-

Jose gets reception using an Android phone. I use an iPhone and struggle to get a signal above 3,000.

[aviatoreb]

An aside - a related aside.

i have a garmin 510 which I use for my xm.  I get the marine xm weather subscription that is $9.95/month.  And it’s identical to the aviation standard product including showing textual metars at inland airports.  In fact I’ve been itching to upgrade to the garmin 560 as my panel mounted back up gps but I don’t since I think the 560 can’t get marine weather.  The 510 was market to boat people as well as airplane people.

i also have adsb but I do fly places where there is no reception so I like the redundancy and the price is right.

[Piloto]

For winter I use https://www.aviationweather.gov/icing/fip

on my Samsung 7 cell phone on the ground and while inflight.

José

[steingar]

One of the happier days of my life was the one during which I got to cancel XM permanently. I had never before witnessed such a dysfunctional company. Why anyone would bother with them in the age of ADSB is beyond me.

[neilpilot]

8 minutes ago, steingar said:

One of the happier days of my life was the one during which I got to cancel XM permanently. I had never before witnessed such a dysfunctional company. Why anyone would bother with them in the age of ADSB is beyond me.

Guess we've been lucky.  Haven't had a problem with XM weather service or billing.  On several recent flights with significant weather I've compared ADSB to XM, and the ADSB radar was definitely inferior. 

On the flight down to Panama City for the Summit, I flew through a relatively weak segment of a strong cold front near Montgomery to get on the east side before continuing south.  Based on 4 inputs (XM, ADSB, Stormscope and visual) the ADSB image was substandard since it not only painted a partial picture but seemed to include a much greater delay than XM.  The weather was where XM showed it, and not where it was depicted on my ADSB. 

[Piloto]

I used to subscribe to XM but found that the weather on the Garmin Pilot on my Samsung S7 cell phone was more practical for me since I can change the routing due to weather or winds aloft before arriving at the airport. Or make deviations ahead  due to weather shown while inflight.

José

[M016576]

1 hour ago, steingar said:

One of the happier days of my life was the one during which I got to cancel XM permanently. I had never before witnessed such a dysfunctional company. Why anyone would bother with them in the age of ADSB is beyond me.

The only company worse than Sirius XM to deal with is Jeppeson!  Talk to three different sales people, get three different answers for pricing/packages... and then what finally shows up in your subscription isn’t even the right nav data... man, I REALLY wish we had an alternate source for panel mounted nav data.

Edited November 17, 2018 by M016576