METARs & TAFs from ADS-B

On my way to AirVenture on Sunday 7/24 I could not get current METARs & TAFs from ADS-B. I received RADAR for rain, etc. and traffic but when I checked for METARs or TAFs for any airports along the way it said they were more than 1 day old. I was flying from the FL Panhandle to Bowling Green, KY and then to Oshkosh.
My equipment is FlightBox, IPAD Air II with WingX Pro7. All devices s/w is up to date.

On my way home on Wednesday along the same route I received the METARs & TAFs at first but later in the flight I got the same message about the weather data being more than 1 day old!

Did any of you experience this?

Happy to say that the FIS-B services all worked great for me on the way up (Sat 23rd) and the two days it took me to get home Thur & Fri 28th/29th). No way I could have made either leg without in cockpit service like FIS-B.

Me too, Danny

Very interesting! I have a FreeFlight Rangr 978XVR installed, WiFi'd to an iPad Mini 4, running WingX Pro 7. Everything up-to-date.

Just did a coast-to-coast adventure ILG to MYF and return. All FIS-B functions worked great until the last leg, CDI to ILG. Radar was fine, but no current Metars/TAF's. Made the leg a pain, as I could not determine cloud cover ahead (yes, I could have radioed FSS). With building CU in front of me, ended up going below clouds that I could have gone over and then easily could have descended into destination with only scattered clouds. Bumpy and hot instead of smooth and cool.

Have not followed up with FreeFlight or WingX (Hilton) yet, but I will.

Brian, are you using WingX?

Best regards,

Merrill

No, Garmin G3X Touch using the GDL-39 3D receiver.

I misread it

I saw something similar on a recent trip. My WingX Pro showed weather txt and a banner up top that said internet weather was X hours old.

Turns out that was true, but as expected no internet at altitude. However, the actual Metars were up to date, and you could tell by looking at the report time.

The banner up top simply threw me off. Maybe the same thing happened to you.

Don

I had the same problem coming back from Oshkosh on Wednesday. My Garmin pilot app would show old metars. The 796 (which is also bluetoothed to my GDL-39) was ok. This has happened to me more than once. I was thinking about asking Garmin about it

Brantel said:

Happy to say that the FIS-B services all worked great for me on the way up (Sat 23rd) and the two days it took me to get home Thur & Fri 28th/29th). No way I could have made either leg without in cockpit service like FIS-B.

Click to expand...

Same here. I had good and full coverage and data the whole way to oshkosh and back. I am using the Dynon ADS-B receiver.

Btw, you should have seen the traffic displayed around the Green Lake Hold on Sunday early afternoon the 24th. I've never seen anything like it. There must have been at least 50 planes with ADS-B out. I hear there were as many as 200 planes in that hold at the same time.

There are different tower types in ADS-B, and they provide different data. ADS-B only gives Class D and lower METARS within about 300NM of the airport.

So it's possible you were looking too far forward for a Class D or lower (KOSH perhaps), and that your altitude only gave you access to the "local" METARS.

Did your system have a NEAREST weather function that would show you any recent METAR near you just to check if you had anything at all?

This is interesting.
A friend of mine was relating a similar story regarding old ADS-B data. He was on his way to OSH and he and his passenger were both connected to his ADS-B receiver (don't know what it is. It is a certified airplane with a GNS530 etc etc etc) He has done the same thing previously with the same two iPads connected and receiving data in the past without issue but on the run to OSH my friends iPad showed all the radar data being more than 48 hours old while his passenger had current data 3-5, minutes old.

I was looking for METARs at airports nearby my flight path. I have flown locally in NW FL and received everything fine with the same equipment that I made the trip with.

I discussed this with folks at the WingX Pro7 and FlightBox booth and they did not have any suggestions as to why.

I was among the 200 airplanes around Green Lake and finally turned off my ADS-B In box so I could see the map details on my Ipad.