Nexrad Aloft

[Jerry 5TJ]

On a trip from CA to NY and back this month the XM weather presentation worked great.  The view outside matched the XM presentation pretty well, and the on-board stormscope agreed with XM lightning inside of 200 miles.  

On arrival in NY (N82) there were cells showing on XM about 30 miles north and 50 south, and that was what we could see between the broken layers.   There's been a lot of talk about XM image age but compared to no view I've found the XM weather images are transformational for long-range flying.

The images show some storms in the northern Great Plains.   Visibility aloft was great so the cells could be seen and correlated with the XM images from far away --  Which is where I prefer to stay.

 

 

[Oscar Avalle]

Really interesting. Obviously they are working on reducing the time lag. 

[Steve Dawson]

The closer to the weather you are the more the delay matters. On a recent flight from Milwaukee home I was closer to the CB's then was shown on nexrad which made your my planning more important.

[wiguy]

 In general I find the XM data on the conservative side. That which is very light rain readily shows up on XM. The time delay is something to keep in mind, though easily dealt with. In other words, it works for me.

[rainman]

In the two plus years I've had a subscription, XM has dropped my service a few times. Each time I was unable to fly or the plane was down for a couple of months, and when I went flying I discovered XM did not work.  When I called XM I was told that if you don't use the service every 4-6 weeks it can drop you off and you need to call to be reinstated and need the serial number of the device, etc...(not always handy). I'm careful now to always access XM weather during my taxi/run-up so I'm not surprised later.  That being said, it's great when it works and the weather is threatening. Has anyone else had this experience?   Ray

[Piloto]

One handy feature of XM is the Echo Tops screens. They indicate the top of the cloud cover. Very handy to decide wether to climb over or circumnavigate. The higher the top the more turbulence activity in the clouds. I found it to be accurate enough for decision making.

José

[jetdriven]

If it has lightning, you aren't climbing over it in a Mooney.

[flyboy0681]

I have XM weather feeding into the GTN 750 and found the updates getting more frequent starting a few months ago. Where I used to see 8-10 minutes it's quite often down to 4. However, about a month ago I did notice 20 minutes, which is unacceptable, but seems to have been an anomaly.

Like Jerry said, the weather is pretty much exactly where the display says it should be, which I find pretty impressive.

[jnisley]

I've been using XM weather in the cockpit for a number of years, I've found that the receiver has to be re-activated if it's not used for at least once every 4-6 weeks, I've found re-activating to be quite simple, call their toll free number (it's programmed in my speed dial) and follow prompts, (for me it's home phone number for log in, then tell the computer voice you want to re-activate and make sure the receiver is on within 15 minutes of activation) I expect if you have multiple receivers (XM radio etc.) on the same account you need to specify which receiver.

John

[Piloto]

I've been using XM weather in the cockpit for a number of years, I've found that the receiver has to be re-activated if it's not used for at least once every 4-6 weeks, I've found re-activating to be quite simple, call their toll free number (it's programmed in my speed dial) and follow prompts, (for me it's home phone number for log in, then tell the computer voice you want to re-activate and make sure the receiver is on within 15 minutes of activation) I expect if you have multiple receivers (XM radio etc.) on the same account you need to specify which receiver.

John

Good input John. Never had the problem but maybe because when I am at the hangar I turn on the 560 just to see the weather around.

Two weeks ago it was pouring at my hangar and I had to close the hangar doors. To my surprise the 560 was till showing valid GPS and XM signals in a closed metal hangar. I have my 560 connected to an external antenna and always get full scale while in flight. Good unit and very user friendly.

José

[flyboy0681]

Speaking of on-board weather, a lot has been written lately about ADS-B in the GA rags, all of it good.

I find it interesting that as late as a few short months ago, naysayers here were saying that it would be a complete failure and would never be rolled out and implemented. Just yesterday I read an article in AOPA magazine about the new portable Garmin GDL 39. The review was very positive and the author stated that the weather depicted was identical to that received on the XM unit. The only limitation he reported was that the ADS-B uplink is through ground based stations, not beamed down from the sky.

We all like to complain about the feds and their grandiose, pie in the sky plans, but free weather and traffic via ADS-B appears to be a reality.

[jnisley]

José,

My receiver is a Garmin GDL69 feeding a Garmin MX20 MFD, it has an external antenna but has to be outside to pick up a good satellite signal, therefore I'm not as apt to turn it on as I would with a more portable unit. (especially in the winter when there's two feet of snow out side the hanger door.

[rainman]

Jose, I presume you have one of the upgraded subscriptions. I have the Aviator Lite subscription on my panel mounted 696, and that does not include echo tops. Aviator Lite is $34, and Aviator is $54, the Aviator Pro is about $99/month. Very useful on long cross countries. My confidence deciding which direction to alter my flight plan while flying back from California to central Texas was strongly influenced by the radar image 150 miles out. Ray