Hi,

I've been selling and supporting the SPOT and SPOT 2 products for several
years. They are great products. When the DeLorme inReach was announced, I
didn't think it would be competitive with the SPOT units because of its
higher price. After doing extensive research and testing of a DeLorme
inReach - I have changed my mind. The DeLorme inReach is more expensive
(both to buy and operate) but it has some great features that (in my
opinion) make it worth the price.

The key reasons are that it sends not only position, but also altitude,
groundspeed and heading data for every track point, and it can send updates
every minute, or every 1.5 minutes, or every 2 minutes, or every 5 minutes.
Of course, it can also be setup to send track points every 10 minutes - or
even less often. Being able to see all that data every minute will allow
family and friends to know when you get low, when you climb back to altitude
and when you are on final glide. Also, friends viewing your shared page can
"ping" your location (if enabled) even if the unit is not in tracking mode.
That would be handy in an emergency. The unit only needs to be turned-on.

I will be loaning my inReach to Frank Paynter for use and testing during the
Seniors contest in Florida. I am very hopeful that he and Mark Hawkins will
be able to get it to display on their contest tracking web sites.

You can see details on the product and service options on my web site.
http://www.cumulus-soaring.com/delorme.htm

Good Soaring,

Paul Remde
Cumulus Soaring, Inc.

For the pilots who live and fly (or visit to fly) in Southern Africa (Namibia & South Africa) there is satellite coverage unlike the SPOT/SPOT2 system.

Paul -- The Cumulus website does a great job of laying out the technology. Thanks for that. Here's a couple questions that I have:

With Spot there is an anoying delay between the time that Spot transmits and the time that track messages actually show on the internet. How does In-Reach perform in that regard?

The latest and greatest Spot Connect unit offered some interesting capability but in my opinion they made the user interface and setup process much more complicated than it needed to be. How does the setup process for Aviation In-Reach compare to Spot Connect? I certainly don't want to go through the computer nonsense again that Spot Connect required.

Hi Steve,

Please see my comments below.

Paul Remde

"Steve Koerner" wrote in message
...

Paul -- The Cumulus website does a great job of laying out the technology.
Thanks for that. Here's a couple questions that I have:

With Spot there is an anoying delay between the time that Spot transmits and
the time that track messages actually show on the internet. How does
In-Reach perform in that regard?

*** I don't know. It may be tough to test because I don't think it gives an
indication when it sends a track point. But when I send a pre-defined
"inReach message" it gets through in a few seconds (10, 20). I was very
impressed. Likewise, messages sent to the unit get to my connected iPhone
in a few seconds.

The latest and greatest Spot Connect unit offered some interesting
capability but in my opinion they made the user interface and setup process
much more complicated than it needed to be. How does the setup process for
Aviation In-Reach compare to Spot Connect? I certainly don't want to go
through the computer nonsense again that Spot Connect required.

*** I have to admit that since I went with the Aviation data plan and
required firmware upgrade it was a bit of a pain to setup. However the
phone support from DeLorme was excellent. It was nice to talk to a friendly
technical person here in the USA. After the setup was done and they
answered my many questions about the service and features I do find it very
easy to use. The buttons on the front of the unit are very easy to use and
have indicator lights which are clear.

On Feb 12, 9:37*am, "Paul Remde" > wrote:
> *** I have to admit that since I went with the Aviation data plan

This "aviation data plan"... what is it? Where do I find it and how
much does it cost? All I can find on the DeLorme website are the
standard "safety", "recreation" and "expedition" plans.

Bart

Well Bart, look at the Cumulus Soaring website as referenced. All the details are there.

Hi Bart,

To get the aviation plan, you first need to call DeLorme and pay $100 to
upgrade the firmware. Then you sign-up for one of several aviation
byte-based rate plans. You can see details on my web site here:
http://www.cumulus-soaring.com/delorme.htm
A brochure for the aviation plan is available here:
http://www.cumulus-soaring.com/delorme/inReach-Aviation-Subscriptions.pdf
A brochure for the consumer plans is available here:
http://www.cumulus-soaring.com/delorme/inReach-Aviation-Subscriptions.pdf

Feel free to call with any questions.

Paul Remde
Cumulus Soaring, Inc.

"Bart" wrote in message
...

On Feb 12, 9:37 am, "Paul Remde" > wrote:
> *** I have to admit that since I went with the Aviation data plan

This "aviation data plan"... what is it? Where do I find it and how
much does it cost? All I can find on the DeLorme website are the
standard "safety", "recreation" and "expedition" plans.

Bart

I just posted a new 16 page inReach brochure on my web site here:
http://www.cumulus-soaring.com/delorme/inReach-Brochure-16page.pdf

Paul Remde
______________________

"Paul Remde" wrote in message ...

Hi Bart,

To get the aviation plan, you first need to call DeLorme and pay $100 to
upgrade the firmware. Then you sign-up for one of several aviation
byte-based rate plans. You can see details on my web site here:
http://www.cumulus-soaring.com/delorme.htm
A brochure for the aviation plan is available here:
http://www.cumulus-soaring.com/delorme/inReach-Aviation-Subscriptions.pdf
A brochure for the consumer plans is available here:
http://www.cumulus-soaring.com/delorme/inReach-Aviation-Subscriptions.pdf

Feel free to call with any questions.

Paul Remde
Cumulus Soaring, Inc.

"Bart" wrote in message
...

On Feb 12, 9:37 am, "Paul Remde" > wrote:
> *** I have to admit that since I went with the Aviation data plan

This "aviation data plan"... what is it? Where do I find it and how
much does it cost? All I can find on the DeLorme website are the
standard "safety", "recreation" and "expedition" plans.

Bart

On Feb 12, 10:46*am, "Paul Remde" > wrote:
> Hi Bart,
>
> To get the aviation plan, you first need to call DeLorme and pay $100 to
> upgrade the firmware. *Then you sign-up for one of several aviation
> byte-based rate plans. *You can see details on my web site here:http://www.cumulus-soaring.com/delorme.htm
> A brochure for the aviation plan is available here:http://www.cumulus-soaring.com/delorme/inReach-Aviation-Subscriptions...
> A brochure for the consumer plans is available here:http://www.cumulus-soaring.com/delorme/inReach-Aviation-Subscriptions...

Ahhhh, got it now. It's kind of ironic that the information is on your
website, but not on DeLorme's (or if it's there, it's well hidden).
Thank you!

Bart