In article . com,
"Denny" wrote:
If your hobby and interests are computers and electronic gadgets, then
these systems are probably fascinating - but you really need two
pilots, one to stare at the gadgets and the other to look outside and
fly the airplane... But, if you actually fly for the love of aviating
they add little to nothing to your trip(s) and will cost significant
amounts of money to buy and to operate... The clutter in the cockpit
will be considerable with power cords/data cords to the screen, GPS,
etc...


I'm not looking for a toy, I'm looking for something that is worth the
money... because I'm ultra-cheap when it comes to this kind of stuff.
Obviously, I'm not convinced that it's worth it yet.

I will say that I think reliable weather service is worth a tremendous
amount if you fly IFR. I'm sorry, but in my experience flight service
is NOT reliable in the air. It took me 10 minutes on the right
frequency just to get a response from FSS/Fligh****ch on the radio, and
when I asked for winds aloft, I got surface winds... so then I had to
ask again. That all happened on a CAVU day; I can't imagine what kind
of service I would have received if the weather was down the tubes.

What I don't know is whether the XM weather on a PDA is practical enough
to warrant the money, because if I talk TabletPC, I'm talking a lot more
money for something that I probably don't need. Based on my research,
WxWorx on the Tablet looks more impressive than, say, AnywhereWx on the
PDA, but I doubt that an online photo does either product justice.



JKG