Stratus: Portable In-Flight Weather for ForeFlight

[Skywarrior]

Now available at Sporty's.

Pros? Cons?

Chuck M.

[bnicolette]

I'd certainly like to give that a try and get rid of the $35/month subscription to XM.  XM has been sticking it to us for many years so it will be nice to get rid of that subscription.

Wonder if Garmin will ever enable one of the portables to work with a box like this?  Aera 896 maybe?

[jwilkins]

Different setup, but I also got rid of my XM subscription. I bought an iPad to run Wing X 7, and a Skyradar ADS-B receiver for weather. There is no traffic display for this combination.

I ran it in parallel with the XM / Bendix AV80R for a month and then happily cancelled the XM subscription. It hasn't been perfect; twice we have had to shut down and re-start the iPad to reset communications with the ADS-B box. The XM to Bendix also had problems, and much more frequently than the Wing X / SkyRadar combination. I had daily conversations with Bendix for a couple months and finally gave up trying to get that system to work 100%. It got functional, but not what you would expect from Bendix, even for a portable system. Bendix blaimed WX Worx, who basically said they could verify the issues but had no idea why there were connection and interference issues. I still think the burden should be on Bendix as a major avionics manufacturer to work out any problems with approved 'partner' suppliers and vendors. There shoudl be no finger pointing when a system has faults and the faults can be confirmed and documented

 I know all the manufacturers claim the cost of TSO and certification drives the prices up, but I expected a company like Bendix would put more effort into the portable systems compatability, too. for a year I stopped using the Bendix and bought a Flight Cheetah system. The screen was so daylight challenged that I switched back to the Bendix unit after the annual contract ran out. I understand that Flight Cheetah might have fixed this issue on later displays. 

ADS-B coverage has been very good, and unlike some reports, I pick up weather both on the ground and 200 NM ahead when in the air. Maybe the fact that 'on the ground' is 5K MSL might have some affect on this, too. I tried both Wing X and FF before committing to the annual contract. Both are good; I like Wing X better for my use.

I am not a fan of 'stuff' on the glare shield so I bought the SkyRadar remote antenna. The box is mounted below the panel and the antenna is on the co-pilot side windshield. Originally I tried the antenna on a side window. I liked the out-of-way mounting but the reception was not as good as on the windshield.

After using a variety of portable units my opinion is that none of them are as robust as an installed system, but are functionally effective and very cost effective tools. Unless I someday buy a 'forever' aircraft and the standards settle down, I'm happy with the Wing X and SkyRadar.

At least until something better comes along at a competitive upgrade cost. 

I'm still searching for a satisfactory mounting solution for the iPad. 

Jim

 

[jetdriven]

In a mooney the antenna is everything. That stratus does not have a very good one. X   Look for someone to belly mount an antenna for the skyradar soon. 

[bd32322]

pros: cheaper than skyradar

cons: its propreitary and works only with foreflight - I dont like things locking me in to a particular app. Skyradar just broadcasts ads-b data in standard gdl-90 format which any app can pick up. And I want to try the wing-x split screen and synthetic vision mode too - so I am thinking of switching to wingx

btw - the skyradar page does mention that you can use a belly mounted dme antenna to provide the adsb signal as long as the cable length is not too long.

[ChristianGodin]

I have been using XM with foreflight for a few month and it has been working well since version 4.4 of IPAD. Two questions:

1- Is the informations up dated faster on ADS-B. 

2- Did someone try ipad/ADS-B weather section in Canada. 

Thank You

[Parker_Woodruff]

I talked with ForeFlight about this at SnF yesterday and was very impressed.  For best performance, it will require an updrade to the iPad 2 or 3, but it does work with the first generation.  It's really a lot of information for the original iPad to handle.

[Skywarrior]

Parker (or anyone else, for that matter) -

Do you feel that a pilot would be giving up too much good info by going with ADS-B info ONLY, vice using XM Weather? I'm thinking about lack of cloud cover info, granularity of radar return info, ADS-B's lack of stations in the middle of the country, etc.

[gjkirsch]

Aviation Consumer did a comparision of XM and ADS-B in February and concluded for most GA pilots, the ADS-B would be a better deal.  The drawbacks included not getting weather until 1800 feet above the ground (in the mountains that could be 10,000 feet) Canada and detailed icing.  I ordered the Stratus yesterday and will gladly do a pirep when it shows up (in about a month!)

[aerochet]

Sounds like a great product if it works as advertised.  I had XM weather for a couple of years and loved it, but at $40 and up per month, it gets expensive.  I would order one right now from Sportys, but I hate to be a guinea pig when something is first released.  It doesn't work here in Mexico, and I am not moving back to the States until June, so for me there is no big hurry.

[Piloto]

Is there a UAT box that wiil provide weather to a G530 or G430? No sense on having weather displayed on a separate display that you are not using for navigation. It clutters the cockpit.

José

 

[Parker_Woodruff]

ADS-B should be fine.  Your preflight planning should adequately cover you for the time that it takes to climb to 2000 feet or so.

[jetdriven]

I have used ADS-B on a Skyradar box and it is a great tool. The Gulf Coast is pretty saturated with stations. Antenna placement is my big concern with ADS-B.  I am not so sure that the Stratus internal antenna is going to cut it.  FWIW you get everything but lightning (which I hear has limited value) and cloud tops.

I know of no interface between ADS-B weather and a Garmin.  They will sell you a GDL-69 for big $ $$$ however.  And then the XM subscription.

[Piloto]

Quote: jetdriven

I have used ADS-B on a Skyradar box and it is a great tool. The Gulf Coast is pretty saturated with stations. Antenna placement is my big concern with ADS-B.

[Piloto]

Quote: jetdriven

I have used ADS-B on a Skyradar box and it is a great tool. The Gulf Coast is pretty saturated with stations. Antenna placement is my big concern with ADS-B. I am not so sure that the Stratus internal antenna is going to cut it. FWIW you get everything but lighting (which I hear has limited value) and cloud tops.

I know of no interface between ADS-B weather and a Garmin. They will sell you a GDL-69 for big $ $$$ however. And then the XM subscription.

[231Pilot]

I haven't used the GDL-69, but my last 2 planes have had WSI and the XM subscription, and this one has a stormscope too.  The WSI works pretty well, haven't tried the SS yet.

[MARZ]

Quote: jetdriven

I have used ADS-B on a Skyradar box and it is a great tool. The Gulf Coast is pretty saturated with stations. Antenna placement is my big concern with ADS-B.  I am not so sure that the Stratus internal antenna is going to cut it.  FWIW you get everything but lightning (which I hear has limited value) and cloud tops.

I know of no interface between ADS-B weather and a Garmin.  They will sell you a GDL-69 for big $ $$$ however.  And then the XM subscription.

[Greg_D]

Quote: jetdriven

In a mooney the antenna is everything. That stratus does not have a very good one. X   Look for someone to belly mount an antenna for the skyradar soon. 

[jetdriven]

Should have written "doesnt look like it has a good antenna.".

From my experience with the Skyradar ADS-B, the signal is not very strong. Once you get away from the Houston or Dallas area, the weather has trouble updating due to shadowing by the airframe. Turning 90 degrees or banking 45 degrees can make it fill in.  Out by McAllen we would go 20 minutes before recieving the next station. This is with the Skyradar on the glareshield or on the side window. 

 

This seems like it might be an issue with the Stratus as well.  The ANN video shows one in a 172 and the Stratus is propped up against the windshield.  Stratus also offers a remote antenna. I just have a hard time beileving an internal antenna recieving the 978 MhZ band sitting on the glareshield flat can do a good job.  There is too much obstruction in a Mooney.

How do you recieve a station behind the aircraft? shadowed by the wing?  It seems a belly mount antenna is the only true solution.

 

Again, this is from observation by a competing product but in a Mooney.

 

[jetdriven]

Quote: maropers

Byron - how far to the north do you go and not have ADS-B?   thinking Oshkosh here.....

[gsengle]

Quote: jetdriven

Should have written "doesnt look like it has a good antenna.".

From my experience with the Skyradar ADS-B, the signal is not very strong. Once you get away from the Houston or Dallas area, the weather has trouble updating due to shadowing by the airframe. Turning 90 degrees or banking 45 degrees can make it fill in.  Out by McAllen we would go 20 minutes before recieving the next station. This is with the Skyradar on the glareshield or on the side window. 

 

This seems like it might be an issue with the Stratus as well.  The ANN video shows one in a 172 and the Stratus is propped up against the windshield.  Stratus also offers a remote antenna. I just have a hard time beileving an internal antenna recieving the 978 MhZ band sitting on the glareshield flat can do a good job.  There is too much obstruction in a Mooney.

How do you recieve a station behind the aircraft? shadowed by the wing?  It seems a belly mount antenna is the only true solution.

 

Again, this is from observation by a competing product but in a Mooney.

 

[gsengle]

On another note, I'm annoyed at ForeFlight (and considering switching to WingX) because they don't support Skyradar, which is evidently using a standard data format!  Anyone else wanna help me to continue to pressure them?  Bet they are getting a kick-back for the exclusive....

[carusoam]

Sky radar and WingX are getting better each quarter.  Whish it worked in the car...

Good weather overlays onto good charts using the IPad.

-a-

[jetdriven]

Our Skyradar dual band is for sale  PM me

 

[gjkirsch]

I used the status on a long cross country last week (GRR to ORF to MTN to GRR).  The unit worked fine.  I had good reception from a few hundred feet above the ground and used the information to deviate around some weather.  I just set the unit on the glareshield.  No overheating problems (I did push the sun visor on the passenger side to shield it from direct sun).  The only think I missed was information on the tops of weather.