Foreflight/Stratus wx push

Let'sgoflying!

Let'sgoflying!

Touchdown! Greaser!
Joined
Feb 23, 2005
Messages
20,922
Location
west Texas
Display Name
Display name:
Dave Taylor
Is there anyway to send a query while airborne to see destination wx? Many times I'm flying along, wondering what I'm going to get, and when I look at the Airports tab, select the airport & it says "129 minutes old". I know I am making a connection as I was getting a radar pic. And the weather had changed significantly imo.

Also when I select ceiling or vis in the Maps tab, I get maybe two airports. Even after waiting 5 minutes. There could be 2 dozen airports in view (or only 4) and still I only get the c/v at two airports. I probably don't know how it's supposed to work; feed me.
 
With the stratus 2 you should be receiving current weather at your destination. Just pull up the airport and read the metar . Has come in handy several times for me,giving me a chance to divert if weather is going down.
 
frfly172 said:
With the stratus 2 you should be receiving current weather at your destination. Just pull up the airport and read the metar . Has come in handy several times for me,giving me a chance to divert if weather is going down.
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It depends on what ADS-B ground stations are being received at the time. METARs and TAFs have a look ahead range that depends on the tier of the ground station (low - 250 NM or medium - 375 NM) being received. Assuming you are receiving a ground station when you are 75 NM from it and the ground station is within the destination's look ahead range, you will be able to receive an updated report. My flight to Oshkosh was roughly 700 NM, so I would not expect to get my destination's METAR to somewhere the half way point.
 
Well, it's not.
Maybe I could take a vid of what I'm seeing so someone could point out my error. (folks are pretty good at that here)
 
I have my ipad set to sleep after a few mins, maybe its not getting enough time.
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
Well, it's not.
Maybe I could take a vid of what I'm seeing so someone could point out my error. (folks are pretty good at that here)
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David,

Turn on Stratus Logging. You can find it on the Stratus devices page. You can send the log file to ForeFlight and they can see exactly what is being received by the Stratus. In fact, they can replay your flight from this log file and see what you are seeing. You can turn off Stratus logging when you have collected your flight data. The logging will only occur while ForeFlight is running and not while it is asleep. For collecting a Stratus log for the purposes of determining which airport METARs are being received, keep the system awake for at least 20 consecutive minutes so a good sample of METARs can be received. The destination airport you are concerned about must be within within the look ahead range of a ground station you are receiving. You can turn on the Stratus device setting to "Show ADSB Towers" to display the towers you are currently receiving on the Map view.
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
I have my ipad set to sleep after a few mins, maybe its not getting enough time.
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Listen to John Collins. He knows more about avionics/ads-b than everyone else put together.

Do you have a Stratus 1 or 2? The Stratus 1 requires that ForeFlight be on and running to receive weather data. The Stratus 2 will store and forward when you turn on your iPad.

Maybe this is the issue?
 
It says "Stratus", and the model # I posted abv. How to tell I vs II?
(It was a gift, I was not involved in purchasing so was not on top of 'what version'.)
 
I have seen this issue as well with my Stratus 2 and my Verizon iPad Air2.. It happens sometimes when I don't turn off the cellular radio and it attempts to use the cell data connection (or wait for one) instead of the Stratus 2 data from the ground towers..

I also was having goofy stuff happen even with the cellular data turned off.. I would not receive any radar data unless it was turned on (even though i was to high to receive a cell signal) I would see radar not available on the map.. I would still see up to date METARS ect.. I did a reset of my Stratus of my Stratus by holding down the power button until the lights all turned red (30 seconds) and it reset.. All is well again..;

just a thought if you have a cellular capable iPad..
 
If you're turning off your iPad to save battery I recommend the jackery 6000maH battery. It's small enough to Velcro to the back of your iPad case and attach a very short usb/iPad cable to your iPad. It will keep your iPad floating at the current battery percentage while on and in use with the stratus 2 at full brightness. And when off it will charge it. Only about $25 on amazon.
 
John Collins said:
It depends on what ADS-B ground stations are being received at the time. METARs and TAFs have a look ahead range that depends on the tier of the ground station (low - 250 NM or medium - 375 NM) being received. Assuming you are receiving a ground station when you are 75 NM from it and the ground station is within the destination's look ahead range, you will be able to receive an updated report. My flight to Oshkosh was roughly 700 NM, so I would not expect to get my destination's METAR to somewhere the half way point.
Click to expand...

This.

Not sure why everyone is trying to troubleshoot a non-problem with his Stratus 2. It's not a problem with the Stratus. Mine does the same thing for distant airports.

I just chill out and wait to pass an ADS-B station that has a reporting radius that includes my destination. For a very long XC that might mean flying 1/3 to 1/2 of the distance. But I always have current weather for airports out about 200 NM in front of me and I have current radar for the entire US.

I always end up with current METARs several hundred NM before my destination.

IDEA: It would be cool, however, if the weather reports were customized for each ADS-B out aircraft similar to traffic. For this they could use an aircraft's filed flight plan (including VFR! It's in a database somewhere!) or simply a line from present position to destination if destination was entered by ATC for flight following. This could be done now, but I'm sure this will be a key feature of NextNextGen 2075.
 
I have the same thing with my stratus 2. What bugs me the most though is when I click on the metars for airports below me and I get information that is over 2 hours old and it never updates. Or when I try to load a radar imagery and only parts of it load, with square shaded to indicate it couldn't download the whole image
 
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