Sirius XM weather worth it for new IFR Pilot?

Buck Rizvi

Buck Rizvi

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BoulderBuck
I’m starting accelerated IFR training next week and was wondering if folks felt that it’s worth it to get a Sirius XM receiver and the aviation weather package vs the Stratus 2s weather I have.

I almost ran into a thunderstorm while on a long cross country for my PPL back in ‘92, so I still have a little PTSD from that. Thank goodness I could see it!

It seems like the Stratus 2s weather is a bit slower to update and doesn’t have lightning, which would be really handy in hard IFR.

I do plan to file and fly IFR often.

Thoughts?


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Buck Rizvi said:
It seems like the Stratus 2s weather is a bit slower to update and doesn’t have lightning, which would be really handy in hard IFR.
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Interesting, just two days ago dad & I were flying east from Denver area and flying around a thundrstorm, The GTN650 connected to a GTX345 did a great job IMHO with the nexrad, I recently heard ADS-B would be adding lightning to FIS-B and by god Garmin Pilot displayed it, I should have taken some screen shots. I'm on a failry old GTN software version so I have no idea if the GTN can show it.
 
There is still will be some lag/latency with the Sirius product, as there is with the ADS-B In products. So paying attention to the timestamp of the weather will be important.

I've not used the Sirius SXAR1 product yet, so I'm not able to provide a PIREP.

But a google search found this blog article from ForeFlight.

https://www.foreflight.com/support/xmvfisb/


Someone who is well equipped to answer the question is @scottd. Hopefully he will stop by this thread and provide his insight.
 
This video from AOPA explained some of the datalink choices.

And because it was sponsored by SiriusXM, it leans heavily toward the SXAR1 device.

 
XM weather is good for planning only. I wouldn’t use it if I was going to deviate around a bunch of storms because of the lag. You’ll want a real on board radar if you plan on doing that.
 
These days you certainly want one or the other: ADS-B or XM weather. I'm not sure it matters that much which you have, as they will both allow you to get a better idea of the intensity of the weather you are heading through, or a good idea of large areas of weather to avoid, realizing that neither is real-time. It's an incredible safety addition since the "olde" days when I trained IFR, where your best weather options were calling FSS for an updated weather radar description or hoping that a verbal description of what ATC radar was painting was enough to make a decision. I'll take today's options, thanks...
 
Rent Λ G1000 and have them subscribe to the SXM Radio+Wx
 
The good thing about XM WEATHER is that it works on the ground where ADSB usually doesn't
 
AggieMike88 said:
There is still will be some lag/latency with the Sirius product, as there is with the ADS-B In products. So paying attention to the timestamp of the weather will be important.

I've not used the Sirius SXAR1 product yet, so I'm not able to provide a PIREP.

But a google search found this blog article from ForeFlight.

https://www.foreflight.com/support/xmvfisb/


Someone who is well equipped to answer the question is @scottd. Hopefully he will stop by this thread and provide his insight.
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Great summary! The cloud top and base reflectivity could be handy and nice to see ForeFlight supports it with SiriusXM. I think I would also use the surface analysis, lightning, storm cell attributes, and icing data, which ADS-B weather doesn't support.
 
flyingron said:
The good thing about XM WEATHER is that it works on the ground where ADSB usually doesn't
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Amen to that. I launched yesterday from Sidney, Nebraska (KSNY) heading to Boulder, Colorado (KBDU). It was broad daylight and I could see a storm brewing off in the distance, but my ADS-B weather simply read "Radar Not Available" on the ground. Once I got to 6,500 feet MSL, it finally painted on ForeFlight has heavy precipitation about 25 nm away.
 
jordane93 said:
XM weather is good for planning only. I wouldn’t use it if I was going to deviate around a bunch of storms because of the lag. You’ll want a real on board radar if you plan on doing that.
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Since I have an Avidyne IFD550 gps/nav/com, I'll probably opt for their TWX670 Tactical Weather Detection System down the road. 100% realtime. It's a pretty penny, though!
 
chemgeek said:
These days you certainly want one or the other: ADS-B or XM weather. I'm not sure it matters that much which you have, as they will both allow you to get a better idea of the intensity of the weather you are heading through, or a good idea of large areas of weather to avoid, realizing that neither is real-time. It's an incredible safety addition since the "olde" days when I trained IFR, where your best weather options were calling FSS for an updated weather radar description or hoping that a verbal description of what ATC radar was painting was enough to make a decision. I'll take today's options, thanks...
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Good advice.

I think I'll go ahead and get the SXAR1 and a SiriusXM subscription. Here in Colorado, I often don't have mobile broadband available at some of the airports I fly into (and I struggle with spoken weather descriptions), so having access to all the data "on the ground" via satellite seems worth it.
 
Depends, for trending weather and picking up weather and sigmets and airmets, sure.

For convective, no, infact unless you have onboard radar don't even try to mix IMC with convective activity. Only thing worse than no convective information, is convective misinformation. Live onboard radar or stay VMC
 
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The xm resolution is much better also. I like that you can play the last several radar frames with the adsb. Our new to us 310 has a strike finder, xm and we are adding adsb in and out. We were thinking about just using adsb and the strike finder. I had to deviate in the c400 on Monday and had adsb and xm. The xm picture was way better and I think I am going to subscribe the 310 as well.

Wondering if enough people elect to use adsb over xm, what will it do to the xm price?
 
I just had a beer with a friend who has flown everything from F4's to 777's. He now flies a King Air from Rocky Mountain airport to points in Canada. His opinion was to get SiriusXM.

Thanks to everyone for their feedback. Looks like I'm adding SiriusXM to my kit!
 
IMO today XM, outside of music, offers no in cockpit weather products worth the subscription price ($30-$100/month) since you can get almost the same info via ADS-B for free. As previously stated NEXRAD has a latency of at least 5 minutes regardless of which provider you are using so you’d be foolish to use it for tactical weather avoidance. Yes you can get XM on the ground, but I find that to be a marginal benefit for 2 reasons: 1. How often do you need in cockpit weather on the ground, and 2. If you do, chances are you have cell/WiFi service which means the internet which means access to way better online weather tools than either XM or FIS-B provides. YMMV.....

I fly IFR almost exclusively and I have ADS-B which I display on both my EFIS and tablet— there’s no way I’d ever switch to XM unless they shut ADS-B down or started charging for it somehow.
 
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tsts4 said:
Yes you can get XM on the ground, but I find that to be a marginal benefit for 2 reasons: 1. How often do you need in cockpit weather on the ground, and 2. If you do, chances are you have cell/WiFi service which means the internet which means access to way better online weather tools than either XM or FIS-B provides.
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Thanks, Todd. 1) I find myself often wanting to do a quick re-check of weather on the ramp. 2) I live in Colorado and fly to airports that often don't have cell/wifi on the ramp. Just had that happen to me 2 days ago on a trip to Sidney, Nebraska. I pay extra for Verizon Wireless, but no joy.

I agree with you on the tactical weather avoidance. Have read the accident reports about others trying to skirt storms using delayed data and getting bit.
 
Suit yourself. I’ve never found much of a need myself but understand if you want weather on the ground with no cell reception then XM is it. If it gives you peace of mind then that’s certainly worth something.
 
I have XM in the panel and ADS-B on a tablet. Typically, I find the XM more useful.

If you keep in mind the direction the cells are moving, you CAN use it to find a decent ride through some areas of convection.
 
tsts4 said:
Suit yourself. I’ve never found much of a need myself but understand if you want weather on the ground with no cell reception then XM is it. If it gives you peace of mind then that’s certainly worth something.
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This is honestly the only reason I could see paying for XM. Where I live in the SE I don’t think I’ve ever been to an airport where I couldn’t get a little cell signal on the ground.

I find the old argument of XM being less delayed to be really weak. Maybe it is by a few minutes at times. But unless it’s real time (neither are) they’re delayed and have to be estimated beyond their last time stamp.

I really like how foreflight currently time stamps each aspect of its moving radar. I used to have to look for the age of the image. Now it’s staring right at me.

ADS-B for me.

I’ll use that Sirius subscription $ on AV gas.
 
I think it will get better, but flying from Albuquerque to Wichita on night in and out of the clouds and avoiding thunderstorms,I was not getting enough adsb service to keep the radar going. Decided to activate the xm after that trip and other than the cost have not regretted it.
 
I gave up the serious weather for foreflight,and stratus. Works for me,haven’t had any problems.
 
tsts4 said:
Suit yourself. I’ve never found much of a need myself but understand if you want weather on the ground with no cell reception then XM is it. If it gives you peace of mind then that’s certainly worth something.
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Thanks, Todd.

How is it flying in NoVA these days? I got my ticket at Quantico Flying Club back when you could still show up unannounced and do a touch and go at DCA on a slow Saturday morning. Haven't flown in the DC area since the mid-90's.
 
frfly172 said:
I gave up the serious weather for foreflight,and stratus. Works for me,haven’t had any problems.
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ForeFlight and my Stratus 2S will always be in my kit. Don't leave home without it!
 
Topper said:
I think it will get better, but flying from Albuquerque to Wichita on night in and out of the clouds and avoiding thunderstorms,I was not getting enough adsb service to keep the radar going. Decided to activate the xm after that trip and other than the cost have not regretted it.
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Maybe this is an edge-case for some folks, but exactly the kind of feedback I was looking for. Thanks for that!
 
flyingron said:
The good thing about XM WEATHER is that it works on the ground where ADSB usually doesn't
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Which matters only in a small percentage of very outback airports. Most airports have 4G coverage and/or wifi in the FBO. You can get all the weather data you want on the ground in the vast majority of places.

I've used XM and FIS-B and don't see much difference. There is a little, but not much. Both should be used for strategy, not tactical.
 
That's great if you're in the FBO. I find it reassuring to have NEXRAD and METARS in the plane when I'm launching.
 
It takes long enough for my GMX-200 to acquire the XM data (or maybe it's processing time) that I've literally NEVER had anything useful by the time I'm launching. Worse, with the incessant system crashes that happen during the warm season, the unit is rarely alive long enough in the air now to have much useful data to display.
 
Really? My GDL-69A and MX20 usually had stuff by the time I was ready to launch. About the only time this doesn't work is if you've not flown so long that the XM credentials has expired. Then you have to wait a long time of force a refresh. Other than that it's pretty quick. Of course, this is only if I shut the canopy. The guy who put hte antennas in found this great place on the tail cone but it's shaded by the open canopy.
 
flyingron said:
Really? My GDL-69A and MX20 usually had stuff by the time I was ready to launch. About the only time this doesn't work is if you've not flown so long that the XM credentials has expired. Then you have to wait a long time of force a refresh. Other than that it's pretty quick. Of course, this is only if I shut the canopy. The guy who put hte antennas in found this great place on the tail cone but it's shaded by the open canopy.
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The XM in the work plane takes a little while to be ready to use about 30% of the time. Start to wheels up is normally like 5min, and I'll fly for another 5min sometimes before it loads, and this plane goes up frequently.
 
I use the EFB app on my phone till ADS-B is up in the airplane.

Low (VFR) ceiling can disrupt ADS-B reception due to height above ground but the phone may fill in the gap.
 
James331 said:
The XM in the work plane takes a little while to be ready to use about 30% of the time. Start to wheels up is normally like 5min, and I'll fly for another 5min sometimes before it loads, and this plane goes up frequently.
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That's my experience as well. Now that the GMX-200 is crashing every few minutes, I rarely see any weather data at all.
 
I wondered if the GMX was any better than the MX20 on that. I'm pretty much going to deep six the GDL69A over the fact that the MX20 crashes everytime the NEXRAD picture gets too complex. This poor NT4 box just doesn't have the memory to do this sort of thing.
 
flyingron said:
I wondered if the GMX was any better than the MX20 on that. I'm pretty much going to deep six the GDL69A over the fact that the MX20 crashes everytime the NEXRAD picture gets too complex. This poor NT4 box just doesn't have the memory to do this sort of thing.
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And that behavior is also a "feature" of earlier software releases for the GMX-200, fixed in the most recent release. When my avionics tech guy called Garmin about my symptom, that was their first thought so he upgraded my software. No joy, unfortunately. On my most recent flight, the thing crashed about 6 times in the space of less than an hour, and after the first time it never stayed up long enough to display any weather data. It used to be that I could prevent crashes by keeping the display on text weather, but that's apparently no longer true. :(
 
I wonder what if the TS accident rate is going to increase with better technology.
 
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