Has anyone tried any of the cell phone pilot weather products? What's your evaluation concerning the use and capabilities? (for those of us not $ ready for XM, Garmin, etc.) thanks
I've been using Wxserver for about 2 years now. I really like it. It's fairly easy to use, has a lot of features, and the cost is pretty reasonable, at $60/ year. They have a 10 day free subscription you can play with.
I bought a one month subscription to the same service Jeff has I think. You send a text messege with the airport indentifier and the type of report you want and it responds back with the latest data. I found it usefull plenty of times, but half the time it wouldn't respond untill you'd quiried it a dozen times, or sometimes not at all. ~Joe
Or just hit "rvproject.com" on any web enabled phone. The cost? ZERO. (Ok, it costs whatever your carrier bills you for web time.) It has metars & tafs (both raw and decoded), and N-number lookups.
If you have a fancy modern phone that tries to do "real web" and you get my full web site when you hit that URL, then go directly to "rvproject.com/wapindex.wml" instead.
There's also a "PDA" version of my wx site that is a slimmed-down version of the full web dealie: http://www.rvproject.com/wx/pda/
Dans sight is one of my weather stops before each flight and flight service of course. Although they don't give me any better weather, but I do get TFRs and all that other stuff. I really like Dans decoded METARS and TAFS, and the headwind/tailwind at various altitudes. I think I even sent a donation. or maybe that was for the online logbook. Thanks Dan for both. However, I was thinking of the cellphone weather graphics like radar loops, etc. Nothing will replace rvproject.com/wx Jack
WXserver does have good radar maps, satelite pics, winds aloft charts, depiction charts, etc. It also provides text weather (through a cell browser, not a text message) and, very helpful, an airport directory with airport and FBO info.
Or just hit "rvproject.com" on any web enabled phone. The cost? ZERO. (Ok, it costs whatever your carrier bills you for web time.) It has metars & tafs (both raw and decoded), and N-number lookups.
I've been subscribed to PilotMyCast on verizon for over a year now. It's a bit pricy at $13/month, but I've used it in some tight situations so I feel it pays for itself. It has satilite, radar, TAF's, Metars, TFR's Lightning and more... I used the TFR's more than once. It would be even nicer on a phone that has faster connection than my wimpy Samsung 670...
I am one of those people that has text messaging but no data plan to do WAP or true web. Dans email metars were great and I have not found a replacement for them. I ended up just writing one myself and have used it many times to get METARS from the air or at the airport. If anyone else is in the same situation as me let me know and I will share the SMS address to get the metars via text message.
~Joe
