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XM Weather Pricing

pvalovich

Well Known Member
Since I now have XM weather on the 496, Foreflight weather on the iPad and ADS-B weather on the AFS 4500 displays in my -8A I called XM to discuss pricing reductions from my current $34.99 per month. Best they said they could do was a one-time 6-month 33% reduction with price going back up to $34.99 after that.

Neither the guy I talked to nor his supervisor were pilots. Tried to get them to engage in a "Why do I now need XM weather?" discussion, but they could only repeat the corporate spiel 6 month offer with no thought to the fact that the best they were going to get from me was 6 discounted payments then zero from then on, vice continued service at some agreeable discounted rate (I like XM weather).

Anyone else have discussions with XM - and if so, who did you talk to?
 
Not on weather, but I have three cars with Sirius and I have to do the call/dance every year to get anything close to reasonable.

May try and see if you pay in advance for 12 months what they'll do and then put something on your calendar to make sure you call to cancel and do the dance in 1 year.
 
I too think XM is expensive, so I've just stopped using it. Inferring to your comment about "Why do I now need XM weather?", I'm guessing you're on the fence about it.

If you really need weather information faster than NEXRAD can provide, you might be better served investing in onboard weather radar. Or do what I do and just go find a place to land and get some coffee.
 
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"Why do I now need XM weather?"

Well, the FIS-B weather guidance is inferior. Having said that, this all depends on your mission. If you are a fair weather flyer and don't do any hard IFR or serious cross country flying, FIS-B weather might be fine. But it's a different story if you are on the other extreme. I get asked this question all of the time and you can read some of my thoughts here.
 
But it's a different story if you are on the other extreme.

Scott, not quite sure what you meant by the above quote. But IMHO, due to the latency, neither product is suitable for close in penetration of an area of thunderstorms. And, either product does a good job of long range strategic avoidance.
 
Bobs post is a important point, neither ADSB or XM weather should ever be used for tactical flight path decisions if you are IFR. Scott Crossfield was among many pilots who lost their lives relying in part on XM to avoid embedded cells. They should be used for big picture planning but not close in vectoring.
 
Bobs post is a important point, neither ADSB or XM weather should ever be used for tactical flight path decisions if you are IFR. Scott Crossfield was among many pilots who lost their lives relying in part on XM to avoid embedded cells. They should be used for big picture planning but not close in vectoring.

Crossfield had subscribed to XM service, but the required antenna was not installed. He depended on preflight weather briefings and controller advisories. The controller failed to inform, and allowed flight into a bad cell.

If anything, Crossfield's loss is a fine example of why we should all fly with an XM or ADSB onboard weather display. Check out this graphic. Red was Crossfield's flight path. With an on-board display, he could have (and surely would have) taken the orange path, a simple end-around.

https://www.aopa.org/-/media/images...hash=76F4DE50468DB24342F17859E2A25D915130F997
 
Well, the FIS-B weather guidance is inferior. Having said that, this all depends on your mission. If you are a fair weather flyer and don't do any hard IFR or serious cross country flying, FIS-B weather might be fine. But it's a different story if you are on the other extreme.

If anything, strategic weather information is more valuable for the cross-country VFR pilot, not less.

I'm an XM subscriber. Every year, there are a few flights which would have been impossible or unsafe without it. Could I have done the same with the free ADSB info? I don't know...but accepting less to save a buck seems a lot like discount parachutes or condoms.
 
You’re correct on Scott. I reread the report and he got no help from the controller. That does not change however that the FAA does not want the product used for in close decision making around Tstorms. Latency can be more than displayed and a fast moving cell can easily have shifted 5 miles in 10 minutes. I now have the ability at work to see both radar and nexrad at the same time. The delays in the nexrad are not something you want to bet your life on.
Here is a bit more of a explanation. Keep in mind that pop up summer storms that can be seen tend to be slow moving. The killer embedded cells often are frontal storms moving fast.
http://www.askacfi.com/34428/nexrad-latency.htm
 
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I have both ADS-B and XM weather in my RV and use them for strategic route planning.

That said, I much prefer XM to ADS-B for the cloud tops and winds aloft. (If those are available on my SkyView's ADS-B, please speak up.)

I only activate the XM when I have a multiday trip and when I return, I cancel it.

$59.99 / month for local flying is a bit over the top, unless I'm traveling and if were to downgrade to $29.99 / month, I have ADS-B in, so why bother.

I would have thought that by now XM would have either killed their weather product or cut their prices in half to make their revenue on volume.


XM Pricing
 
If anything, strategic weather information is more valuable for the cross-country VFR pilot, not less.
ms.
+1 on this.
I used to have xm but it failed me on occasion- it thought I didn?t subscribe and needed to be re-initialized - requiring cell or internet contact to fix. (XM in my car and at home has done the same thing). After one trip where it really would have been nice to have but again wouldn?t work, I said screw this, I?ll keep the $400/yr and I switched to adsb. I still have the xm receiver installed but no way I?ll pay to get the data. For my flying - strategic avoidance - ADSB works just as well, even if long range data doesn?t look as pretty.
 
That said, I much prefer XM to ADS-B for the cloud tops and winds aloft...$59.99 / month for local flying is a bit over the top...

Never saw much value in either with the -8, and getting them doubles the subscription price. Are you just doing it because of the -9's wing, popping to 15-18K when the winds are worth it?
 
Never saw much value in either with the -8, and getting them doubles the subscription price. Are you just doing it because of the -9's wing, popping to 15-18K when the winds are worth it?

Dan,

That is exactly why and how I used it. With oxygen, if I could climb high and pick up an additional 20 or 40 knots, it could make a significant difference on the trip.
 
With oxygen, if I could climb high and pick up an additional 20 or 40 knots, it could make a significant difference on the trip.

A glance at Weathermeister or similar tells the tale regarding winds that large, prior to launch. Winds are big picture stuff, with generally reliable forecasts.
 
Scott, not quite sure what you meant by the above quote. But IMHO, due to the latency, neither product is suitable for close in penetration of an area of thunderstorms. And, either product does a good job of long range strategic avoidance.

Bob,

Certainly never mentioned anything about penetrating thunderstorms using the datalink weather. In fact, as I mention here in my blog that this kind of guidance is only used for strategic decision making. I was simply was implying that if you owned a more capable aircraft (certified IPS, pressurized, flying in the flight levels, active radar, etc) having SiriusXM is going to provide more consistent and useful guidance than that of FIS-B.

I am not a fan of the national level FIS-B radar. It has such a poor temporal and spatial resolution, it's pretty much useless. I'd rather have them drop that and extend the regional depiction by 100 miles given they are so bandwidth challenged.
 
"...and allowed flight into a bad cell..."

Is there such a thing as a "good cell"?

Actually it depends. Not all parts of a thunderstorm have dangerous convective turbulence. NASA studied this and found that areas where you see intense lightning often don't have the "turn you upside down" level of turbulence. In fact, there are some studies that have been ongoing to provide sensors on the aircraft to allow an air crew to know about what locations in a thunderstorm are safe to penetrate.
 
Here is a bit more of a explanation. Keep in mind that pop up summer storms that can be seen tend to be slow moving. The killer embedded cells often are frontal storms moving fast.
http://www.askacfi.com/34428/nexrad-latency.htm

I am not a fan of telling a pilot that the datalink radar depiction could be 15 to 20 or more minutes older. To me, that's just as bad of telling the pilot it's real time information. Sure, there are scenarios where this may happen such as missing a couple of broadcasts, but if you are getting consistent broadcasts, there's no way it'll be that old vs reality. All of this information is a gross vectoring aid and I only navigate around convection when I can do so in visual conditions. But when making those decisions based on location and speed of the weather, I never, ever use a 20 minute latency. 5-8 minutes is what I plan on especially given the recent upgrade to using MRMS and the faster updates from SiriusXM.
 
Request Info regarding the Original question

Hey Folks - I didn't mean to start a VansAF debate about XM vs ADS-B vs Nothing. Was just trying to find out if anyone had ever spoken to an aviation-smart XM rep (vice a corporate-speak drone) who could discuss potential pricing options.

Has anyone done so? If so, do you have a name?
 
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