In-cockpit Weather Uplink

[AlabamaMan!!]

Anyone have WSI or XM Weather uplinked to your flight deck? Just wondering which is preffered.

Ordering on Friday, leaning towards WSI. Any input or opinions would be appreciated.

Thanks

 

[SabreFlyR]

I can't comment on WSI, but I am using XM and have used the Honeywell uplink also. The XM is great, it updates every 5 minutes as advertised with the exception of the Satellite maps that sometimes run a couple minutes behind.
I am using it on the FG 4000 with a bluetooth gps receiver and the portable WXWORX receiver wired in to ships power. Went this way because it works just as good as the certified boxes but at a significant cost savings. I believe the XM product is significantly cheaper also.

The only complaint I have is when using the gps receiver with the XM and then switching to Flight Deck, the gps info comes up ok, but when going back to XM you have to close flight deck to get the XM to pick up the gps signal again. I hope to correct this when we get the second efb and gps receiver.

I also know some guys running the WSI and they love it also.
I think both are good products, I just liked the portability of the XM system.

 

[421Driver]

Flew with the MX500 with uplink from ground based stations. Worked great >5k. The old garmin system was very slow and not so nice. The new XM and WSI are leaps and bounds ahead, the XM looks like the best product.

 

[h25b]

could someone post a link to each of these providers' websites ??? sounds pretty interesting. anyone knoe what the costs of equipment and service are ??


thanks

 

[SabreFlyR]

could someone post a link to each of these providers' websites ??? sounds pretty interesting. anyone knoe what the costs of equipment and service are ??


thanks

For XM go to www.wxworx.com
I am running XM weather on an ADR FG4000 efb and have a second one coming.
The first one cost us $9000, this included the EFB, certified mounting arm, WX Worx bluetooth XM Weather receiver, bluetooth gps receiver and 2 bluetooth pcmia cards. If I remember right the EFB was $6000, the mounting arm was $1500 and the WX Worx bluetooth rec. was $1100. The rest was for the gps receiver and pc cards plus shipping. The XM Weather subscription was $600 for the year plus a $75 setup fee.

I elected to go with the portable system because it is totally portable. We plan to change planes in a couple years and I can take it to the new plane with no hassle. There is a certified permanent receiver available for $5000 plus install.
I have ships power for the efb's and receiver and I just put the XM antenna(1"x1") in the corner of the glareshield and set the gps receiver(2.5"x2.5") up there and both work great even with the heated windshield.

Radar updates every 5 miutes as advertied, plus the radar loop function is cool to have. Metars and tafs are in plain language and aviation text.
After using the Honeywell uplink for a year, the XM is leaps and bounds ahead of Honeywell. I just hope they offer the Mexico weather soon like WSI is doing.

 

[h25b]

I have just started looking at different options. Due to extremely limited space in the Lear 31A, I'm looking for systems that use simple PDA's. One company I talked to today offers an XM system using a HP PDA at $2600.00 ...


I just want something small and reliable that gives me Metars/TAF with a moving map capable of having radar overlayed.

Any suggestions ???