Pirep: Garmin Pilot My-Cast

Thought this might help before you try it.

After much frustration with my AnywhereMap XM weather downloads, I
went looking for a new source of in-flight weather information. I
have had it with the lack of reliablilty with the XM data downloads,
and didn't want to break the bank, either, going with a 496 or
something. I had seen several ads for the new Garmin Pilot Mycast
available for cell phones, and for the price, $10 per month, I
thought I'd give it a shot.

One word: Wow!

The longer description:

On my LG-EnV phone, it is absolutely incredible!

The radar pictures are excellent. I was worried that on such a small
screen the resolution would be terrible, but comparing it here side-by-
side with the NOAA images on my computer, there is almost no
difference. The only downside is that there is only one level of zoom,
either tight or wide. Not a huge issue. The data download is
incredibly fast; nothing takes more than a few seconds, and it is a
moving radar loop, not a static picture.

The Route planning is easy. Select your departure, destination, and
any waypoints, and the weather briefing will include data for all
reporting points between you and your destination, either in METAR/
Decoded Metar text data format, or graphically with a weather map
depiction. It will also give Sigmets, Airmets, TFRs, lightning strike
data, and graphical pireps. In addition, the depiction of current
weather at reporting stations with a multi-colored pie is easy to
read. Need to know where to go for an alternate? Just look for Green/
Green for the nearest reporting station with VFR ceiling and
visibility.

Weather can either be displayed for your whole route, or you can
select a nearby airport to zoom in on for a better view of local
conditions. This is very useful for long routes.

The flight planning portion worked as advertised as well. I put in my
airplane data and pilot information, and my CSC-Duats access
information, and it does the rest. So far, I've not had any issues
with flight plans being lost. It stores routes and individual
airports, so after I set them up, I just select from a scroll down
list for which route I want. I don't know how many different routes
or airports it will store, but I have about 20 in so far.

So far, it has been very easy to use. I figured most of the features
out jsut playing with it, then I went back to the manual available
online to figure out anything I didn't understand and to learn some of
the tricks (FE: use the arrow keys to scroll between reported pireps
on the map, then press OK to see the text data from the pirep).

I haven't got my first bill from Verizon yet, so I don't know if there
is additional charges for the data connetion, but at $10 a month for
the application, I would highly recommend this, even if only for the
coolness of sitting here at my desk, checking the currently crappy
weather, and dreaming about flying!

Vic