Stormscope

[FlyingDude]

Hi,

I'm seeing a lot of used stormscopes for sale but are there any new ones available? Not really willing to fork out 500$+ for a 40 year old piece...

Thanks.

[LANCECASPER]

16 minutes ago, FlyingDude said:

Hi,

I'm seeing a lot of used stormscopes for sale but are there any new ones available? Not really willing to fork out 500$+ for a 40 year old piece...

Thanks.

I paid $10,000 for a WX-1000 back in 1996.

The newest ones made were the WX-500 that have no display and interface with MFDs. I don't see them on L-3's website - so that would also have to be used. (https://www.l3harris.com/search?q=wx-500&size=n_10_n)

 

[jetdriven]

The WX500 was discontinued a couple of years ago so they can sell more WX 1000. And then L3 sold the ownership rights to that to Extant down in Florida who charges about 4000 or $5000 to repair them now. And they used to be about 7000 new and now they're about 5000 used, with the caveat that in any given time you're gonna pay that to get it repaired.

[DCarlton]

Took a working WX900 out of my plane a few years ago and sold it for a couple of hundred.  Still kicking myself for doing that...  

[ArtVandelay]

I’m really surprised that someone hasn’t developed a portable one with ability to wireless connect to your EFB. You can buy $25 lightning detectors.

[MikeOH]

I've been happy with my Insight Strikefinder.  Still available new: http://insightavionics.com/strikefinder.htm

[Fritz1]

I have a WX500 and was debating to take it out since I was getting false returns from the strobes. Works fine once I turn the strobes off. Having ADSB and XM weather almost makes the WX500 redundant, however it is installed and paid for, provides real time information whereas download weather is typically 15 min old. I like the XM, helps me stay away from convective cells, still need to learn how to use the WX500 to add to the picture. Some people that have it like it and keep it.

[N201MKTurbo]

11 minutes ago, Fritz1 said:

I have a WX500 and was debating to take it out since I was getting false returns from the strobes. Works fine once I turn the strobes off. Having ADSB and XM weather almost makes the WX500 redundant, however it is installed and paid for, provides real time information whereas download weather is typically 15 min old. I like the XM, helps me stay away from convective cells, still need to learn how to use the WX500 to add to the picture. Some people that have it like it and keep it.

It’s time to replace the strobes with LEDs.

[LANCECASPER]

1 hour ago, Fritz1 said:

I have a WX500 and was debating to take it out since I was getting false returns from the strobes. Works fine once I turn the strobes off. Having ADSB and XM weather almost makes the WX500 redundant, however it is installed and paid for, provides real time information whereas download weather is typically 15 min old. I like the XM, helps me stay away from convective cells, still need to learn how to use the WX500 to add to the picture. Some people that have it like it and keep it.

The WX-500 and other similar devices show you what is going on right now - what is building, even trends to show you what to expect a few miles ahead. ADSB and XM show history - what happened 1/4 of an hour ago. How far will your Mooney Bravo go in 15 minutes? 50 miles.

Read the WX-500 AMFS in your POH (https://www.seaerospace.com/documents/bfg/wx500pg.pdf) and anything else you can get your hands on to learn how to use it. The information on other newer models of the Stormscope (WX-1000, WX-950, WX-900) use the same principles.

By no means is the WX-500 redundant to the ADSB and XM. They are all critical pieces of the weather puzzle. I recently installed a WX-500, obtained from someone who foolishly paid a shop an hourly rate to take theirs' out. They got rid of 2 pounds of weight with the two components plus wiring. As I've mentioned before, they could have done much better with a $20 colon cleanse 

[exM20K]

I find the Sirius XM lightning product to be superior to my old stormscope, but mine was not the latest version (had green screen with black dots).  This is from the Sirius xm site:

“The Lightning feature contains the latitude and longitude of both cloud-to-cloud and cloud-to-ground lightning strikes detected over North America, including the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. It is updated every 2.5 minutes. SiriusXM has recently upgraded its lightning provider to the most accurate and reliable large-scale lightning detection network in the world. Improvements to the lightning service include: 40% cloud-to-cloud lightning detection improvement, 20% lightning strike location accuracy improvement, 5% cloud-to-ground lightning detection improvement”

 

while there is some latency, I’m not getting *that* close to a buildup. I believe these ground-based strike detection systems triangulate rather than estimate for location, which should be better.

-dan

[LANCECASPER]

7 hours ago, exM20K said:

I find the Sirius XM lightning product to be superior to my old stormscope, but mine was not the latest version (had green screen with black dots).  This is from the Sirius xm site:

“The Lightning feature contains the latitude and longitude of both cloud-to-cloud and cloud-to-ground lightning strikes detected over North America, including the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. It is updated every 2.5 minutes. SiriusXM has recently upgraded its lightning provider to the most accurate and reliable large-scale lightning detection network in the world. Improvements to the lightning service include: 40% cloud-to-cloud lightning detection improvement, 20% lightning strike location accuracy improvement, 5% cloud-to-ground lightning detection improvement”

 

while there is some latency, I’m not getting *that* close to a buildup. I believe these ground-based strike detection systems triangulate rather than estimate for location, which should be better.

-dan

Are you displaying that on your G1000? 

[exM20K]

31 minutes ago, LANCECASPER said:

Are you displaying that on your G1000? 

yes.  i'll post a photo once annual is done and wx cooperates.

-dan

[FlyingDude]

Well... I gave it a shot but it failed. I found this sf2000 on eBay from a shop with high ranking, who was guaranteeing operation and giving 30 day warranty. I was going to ship it to insight for testing and 8130... The item arrived  with obvious defects. Got my money back, of course. I'll keep living without one for now.   I'm not able/willing to dump $4500 on a new item, either.