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Strikefinder

Moura

Well Known Member
Hi

I am finishing a RV10 panel and am in an incredible doubt about whether install a strikefinder or not. My flights are intended to be VFR only. Are they good? I have never used one but have been reading and there are some fans and other that find them useless. Would like to get some input from the rv community. Consider in Brazil there is no WX.
My panel will consist in basically a 10 inch skyview with GPS, engine monitor and AP, GPS 695 (no WX in Brazil), sl40 and gtx327.

Thanks for the inputs

Moura
 
Strikefinder is a Great Choice

Moura:
Over a nearly 20 year period, I flew a series of turbo-charged Cessna 210s in all kinds of weather. The first two had radar - one only black and white, the second Bendix color. Aside from added maintenance, the radar units suffer from problems associated with most airborne radars, but even more so. The antenna size was very small and greatly limited the ability to "see" much more than what's directly in front of you, and did that very poorly. Third 210 was fitted with a Strikefinder. Great instrument. Reliable. Storm "vision" for 360 degrees and with great range. While it didn't give me precipitation, it did tell me what precip to avoid (areas with lightening). If ground-based Nexrad wasn't available today thru Wx, I'd have another Strikefinder in my RV. I trusted it and relied on it much more than the airborne radar units. Just my opinion.
Terry, CFI
RV-9A N323TP
 
Hi Moura,

If you are flying VFR, the best strike finder is the Mk I eyeball.

Just stay away from the flashes....

;)
 
I agree with Terry here--I have about 400 hours behind stormscopes, and found them very useful.

Nexrad downlink is much better, but the stormscope was pretty good. I'm a weather chicken, but staying 20+ miles away from any collections of strikes kept me out of seriously bumpy clouds.
 
Good Post, I am in the same boat, RV10 in South Africa and no onboard WX weather here either.

I am equiping my RV10 for IFR, hence I am seriusly considering Stormscope / Strike Finder (NOT RADAR).

I would like to hear more about peoples experience with those instruments too.

Rudi
 
I have never used one of these. I was interested on the insight strikefinder. I was wondering though, will the dots on the screen get closer to the small airplane as the real airplane moves forward or the dots remain in the same position on the screen?

Moura
 
Check out their website

Moura:
Suggest the best approach is to go through the operations manual to see what the unit will and won't do.
http://www.insightavionics.com/strikefinder.htm
For your purposes (mostly VFR), I believe the ranging function will help keep you as far as you want from new, developing cell as well as mature cells. There is also a "time lapse" function so you can look at the rate of buildup.
Terry, CFI
RV-9A N323TP
 
I owned a Mooney 231 with a strikefinder

for several years. Worked great in my experience. Either picking your way around weather or flying along in the soup with embedded thunderstorms, I think it is the best thing going for real time wx in our planes.

Ground based relay type systems have a variable time lag that could be a problem in some cases. Of course the overall picture provided by Garmin et al is hard to beat for longer range planning.

As I recall the dots stayed on the screen, but all you had to do was push a button to get a fresh picture. Be sure to get the system with heading input.

If you're strictly VFR it might be overkill,
 
We do and have done strikefinders for those outside of the main Satellite weather coverage, but lately the better/more popular and probably best option is the relatively new unit offered from Avidyne, the TWX-670. It seems to interface nicely with some EFISes.

See link here: http://www.avidyne.com/products/twx670/index.asp

Avidyne hasn't done a particularly good job letting people know about it on the marketing front, but aside from that it seems to be popular for those who want them.

Cheers,
Stein
 
If you are in the U.S. I would think twice before spending $8k on something like this. ADS-B has been promised nationwide over the next couple of years; offers far more for free than just lightning strikes; and should be displayable on almost any EFIS.
 
We do and have done strikefinders for those outside of the main Satellite weather coverage, but lately the better/more popular and probably best option is the relatively new unit offered from Avidyne, the TWX-670. It seems to interface nicely with some EFISes.

See link here: http://www.avidyne.com/products/twx670/index.asp

Avidyne hasn't done a particularly good job letting people know about it on the marketing front, but aside from that it seems to be popular for those who want them.

Cheers,
Stein

Thanks Stein,

been to the website but they don't say too much with whom they interface with and not. Is the Garmin G430 and 530 part of the list.

Lastly why is this one better than the strikefinder or L3 stormscope?

Thanks
Rudi
 
Hi

I am finishing a RV10 panel and am in an incredible doubt about whether install a strikefinder or not. My flights are intended to be VFR only. Are they good? I have never used one but have been reading and there are some fans and other that find them useless. Would like to get some input from the rv community. Consider in Brazil there is no WX.
My panel will consist in basically a 10 inch skyview with GPS, engine monitor and AP, GPS 695 (no WX in Brazil), sl40 and gtx327.

Thanks for the inputs

Moura

Hi Moura,

would like to hear from you what you finally decided. Did you installed it or not? How does it work? I'm just in the same position like you, planing my panel for a RV 10 Flyer, tripple Garmin G3X and there is some panel-space left for eventually a Insight Strikefinder. VFR only, that means staying out of clouds to be legal aniway. But on the other hand, if someday you got trapped by wheather this device could safe ones life, if you are able to steer aroud the worst. So, the question is: does it really work, is it worth the money, in a VFR only RV 10 ???
 
stormscope

I put nearly 6000 hours in my Bonanza equipped with a Stormscope. Yes, it really works. If other technology was not available here, one would be in my RV. The biggest benefit by far is not avoiding thunderstorms, but the confidence in flying 99% of the time knowing there is not a thunderstorm, unseen, 5 miles ahead in the haze and rain.
 
The Strikefinder is a very useful tool if you have no other onboard weather available. If you have NEXRAD I wouldn't install a Strikefinder. I did however fly over 1200 hours in a Beech A36 with no weather avoidance equipment other than my eyeballs and the Strikefinder (onboard NEXRAD was in its infancy then and I did not have it). One word of caution though. The Strikefinder will give a very accurate depiction of the heading of lightning strikes. However because of varying storm intensities the distance shown on the Strikefinder can be off significantly. For example if there is a very intense storm outside the range of the Strikefinder, strikes from that storm may show on the display that are radially correct, but with inaccurate distance. Also, if there are numerous strikes going on you'll need to hit the clear button relatively often as the screen will otherwise light up like a Christmas tree.

One neat feature of the Strikefinder is that you can slave it to your gyro and as you turn the strikes on the display turn too.

All in all I found the Strikefinder very useful, but like every other instrument in the panel, I did not rely solely on it. For flying in the US, the Strikefinder in conjunction with Flight Service or ATC kept me safe.
 
Avidyne storm scope

Stein,
The Avidyne unit sounds interesting. Will it interface with the G3X or the AFS efises? How much does it cost?
 
Hi Guys,

I am also in the market for a Stormscope/Strikefinder for our RV10 which is under construction and should fly Feb 2014.

I have a Stormscope in my RV7 and have a lot of faith in it.

The Stormscope unfortunately needs a Garmin 430 (or 530) screen which I am not installing in the 10.

The 10 will only have 2 Skyviews.

The Avidyne system looks very pricey and does not say if it will work with the Skyviews.

Any further recommendations or reviews on the Strikefinder?

Thanks in advance,

Rob
 
You can get a standalone stormscope that doesn't require a screen.. like WX-950 or WX-1000... or one of the older units, such as WX-10 (or -11).. .we just picked up a complete WX-11 system from Sarasota for $800.. The -1000 runs in the 3-3.5k range..
 
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