Re: Satellite Radio to broadcast weather data

[Richard Kaplan]

"John Harlow" > wrote in message
...

> Were they of any help other than telling you to "wait for production
units"?
> Seems their customer relations could use a little help.

They offered me the "first production unit" by express mail (maybe to arrive
this week?, we will see). I offered to be a beta tester so I would have
more experience by the time my Oshkosh talk rolls around, but they were not
interested.

Compared witih the current datalink competition, $50 per month flat rate is
actually pretty good or at least competitive.

--
Richard Kaplan, CFII

www.flyimc.com

[Ronnie Brown]

And compared to the high cost of a $5000 to $10,000 installation of a storm
scope/ strike finder and its limited information, $50 per month for a wealth
of weather data is not that bad! That would cover about 5-10 years worth of
monthly fees. And you know the monthly cost will go down as more
competition gets in the business.

Ronnie Brown

[Richard Kaplan]

"James M. Knox" > wrote in message
...


> Yeah, but aren't we missing something? Ignoring the fact that I got my
> stormscope (installed) for a total of around $2800 (which would probably
be
> more like $3200 in 2003 dollars), we still have the capital and
> installation costs of the XM unit? What does the "aviation FAA PMA

1. There are no installation costs for the XMRadio unit -- it is portable,
and unlike the WSI In Flight system, the XMRadio antenna is not permanently
installed so it is truly a portable device, just like a handheld GPS.

2. The XMRadio unit should cost notably less as a capital investment than a
stormscope -- they are saying under $1000 but the final details are unknown.
But really the comparison in price is not to a Stormscope, but rather to
panel-mount weather datalink units, where there is no comparison -- say
$1000 for XMRadio vs. over $10,000 for most panel-mount weather datalink
systems with an MFD.

3. Comparing this to a Stormscope also does no make sense because weather
datalink is NOT a replacement for sferics -- sferics is clearly more
important and probably more useful than ANY weather datalink system.

4. Lots of pilots rent airplanes or for other reasons fly or instruct in
airplanes they do not own. In that case, the XMRadio system seems to have a
major portability advantage over most of the competition.

5. It is true that the XMRadio system requires a laptop computer or PDA for
its display, but is it really fair to include that in the price considering
that many (most?) pilots probably already own a PDA or laptop for other
reasons?

--
Richard Kaplan, CFII

www.flyimc.com