[ArVeeNiner]

A friend of mine told me about this and I've ordered mine.

http://woot.com/

This is a non-aviation GPS with XM weather for $105 shipped. You can put it along side an aviation GPS and take a look at weather in flight. That's what I plan to do with mine.

How can you go wrong for the price? I have a Lowrance 600C without weather but with terrain. For me to jump to a 496 primarily for weather would cost thousands!

Enjoy

 

[lancef53]

So what weather product can you use on it? Can you buy the aviation app?

 

[dav1111]

GPS with XM

I bought one as a Christmas gift for my son-in-law.

 

[ArVeeNiner]

So what weather product can you use on it? Can you buy the aviation app?

The main thing I bought it for was XM Weather which shows NEXRAD radar images along your intended path. Use your aviation GPS for nav but reference this unit for NEXRAD.

I don't think you can put aviation data on this since it's made for hikers. If you could, you can bet the price would jump 20 fold.

 

[mhcflyer]

Just got one. Looking forward to trying the $10 XM service and see what it provides.

--
Michael

 

[gbrasch]

Does it require a paid XM subscription?

 

[Brantel]

From looking at all the various online documentation, looks like it provides Nexrad and a few pages like what you might find on weather.com only formated for the small screen.

 

[Brantel]

You can bet your billion dollar satellites it does.

Does it require a paid XM subscription?

 

[gbrasch]

Does it require a paid XM subscription?

Nevermind, kept digging and just found out it does.......

 

[Danny7]

You can bet your billion dollar satellites it does.

eh, the latest satellites "only" cost .75 billion. and that is development and build cost for two satellites (1.5 billion). I hope the subsequent satellites (option for 10 more) would come cheaper.

I hope the older ones(already existing) were a lot cheaper.

 

[Lionclaw]

This unit looks nifty. The reviews look to be a bit below average, but I didn't see any reviews that were from aviators, so who knows.

If the posts in the woot blog are correct, 1yr unlimited maps is ~$35, nexrad weather is ~$10/mo, radio is ~$9/mo, both for ~$17/mo.

It's tempting, but I can't help but think it might just make me want something better, and end up being one of the many gadgets I have tucked away in my closet waiting to become useful.

 

[TSwezey]

I would like it for just a simple of the weather. Is it death rain up ahead or just a light rain?

 

[ArVeeNiner]

I think the Garmin has WAY more information available but like was said, just knowing where to stay away from is a good thing.

 

[Kyle Boatright]

I'm very interested, but there are 3 reviews on rei.com about this product. The maps and customer support don't get good reviews.

 

[tsandberg]

Ordered one from woot today too... I was looking around on the interweb for any mention of aviation use with this unit and didn't have any luck.

The GPS I'm using now is the bottom of the line Garmin eTrex that I found for $25. It does a perfect job going from point A to point B, I just have to plug in the Lat/Long since there isn't a database. I figure for $100 I'm getting at least that functionality, plus the SA from the XM. The real question is if there will be enough good info/use to justify the subscription.

I also use the NMEA output of my little eTrex with falconview4. I didn't do a lot of digging around, but it looked to me like this unit only has a USB output so I'm not sure if I'll be able to grab that serial output or not.

 

[dhall_polo]

sounds useless to me.

Flying with nexrad only for $10/month seems more of a novelty than a big help. If you're going to pay for the subscription, you will want something that can at least give you metar or taf data at nearby or enroute airports.

For full XM, it's kind of neat to get lightning, winds aloft, and satellite imagery, but not worth the extra $$.

For handheld wx, I'm impressed with the price/feature ratio in the bendixking handheld stuff. In the panel, I'm quite happy with the wx add-on for my AFS3500. Garmin has the gold standard for wx implementation, but they also charge some serious gold.

 

[mhcflyer]

Found this review...

I just bought one of these and so far I am very pleased with it.

I activated it with the XM Skywatch service.

The quick radar updates in about 6 minutes and is consistent with online nexrad radar images. The lightning warnings work. The clouds display. It all works fine.

The radar summary function requires the unit to be on for at least 45 minutes before it will appear.

For correct operation, the north up display must be used with weather, but that?s okay as far as I am concerned. They told me at Bushnell it does that because the display couldn?t support the required resolution at all the different angles for the weather if operated in the track up mode.

The compass works okay when I am walking, but it does not work in my car.

I also was able to update it to the Gen 2 level software.

I plan to use it in my aircraft as I think it is sufficient for my purposes at a much lower cost than true aviation units.

--
Michael