I just read a report that the FAA is shutting down and will have shut
down 2/3 of TIS stations by 2006. I used TIS once in my
brother-in-law's turbo 182 and thought it was pretty good except for
the 30 second delay. Sometimes it would show traffic that even ATC
said was non-existent or would drop aircraft out of the blue, but
overall I got the gist of who was around me. I used to have a surecheck
traffic-scope but it was stolen a couple months ago. (My insurance
covered it with NO deductible believe it or not) It worked great, but
now that I am empty handed again I was considering the TIS. "WAS"
considering. I talked to a guy over at Ryan who said he could get me a
system for $7K which I am considering, however I also heard Surecheck
is coming out with a portable 3-d traffic system too, so I am going to
wait a while. Ryan said that TIS is going to be obsolete in 2 years
simply because the FAA is out of cash to support it. Boy, won't that
make recent buyers happy.