As I have said before, you only need to scare yourself once. That is why I got a 396 two weeks ago. I lucked out and got a good deal on Ebay and picked it up 75 miles from here. I changed cell phone services to a lower cost service that can not get the MyCast weather and am now saving about $40 a month on that so the XM subscription is offset a lot.
I also fly a lot of long cross countries and I wind up spending a lot of nights in hotels when I could have forged ahead if I could see what is out there. Just a few weeks ago flying back from VA I called flight service for the weather when it was looking questionable in front of me. They gave me the usual line of thunderstorms from just north of whatchmacallit county to south of whoknowswhere extending east to whereintheworld moving at 10 knots. Thanks guys, I am somewhere over North Carolina and I have absolutely no idea where those places are and could never find the little town names on the sectional while flying. I landed and looked at the radar in the FBO and saw that they were fairly to the west and I could keep going. I went another 75 miles and couldn't quite get through the stationary front while the ceelings were lowering so I landed and spent the night and half the next day. If I didn't make the fist stop I would have gotten through the front earlier and made it home that night. The countless times I can recall stopping just because I didn't know if it was safe to go in the past few years would pay for half the 396. The times I will now stop when I do know what is ahead is even more valuable. Now if I had just had a chance to get myself a suction cup mount in the glider and had it with me yesterday. Brian Kraut Engineering Alternatives, Inc. www.engalt.com -----Original Message----- From: krnet-bounces+brian.kraut=engalt....@mylist.net [mailto:krnet-bounces+brian.kraut=engalt....@mylist.net]On Behalf Of Mark Langford Sent: Monday, May 29, 2006 7:56 AM To: KRnet Subject: Re: KR>XM weather Tommy W wrote: > Mark,you are using XM weather on your trips ,right? Nope. I have the software to run it on a laptop, but haven't found a laptop or display bright enough to actually see in a sunny cockpit yet. i know the Garmin 396 does it, but there's something about throwing away a $2500 GPS every three years to get the latest features that just doesn't sit right with me. Of course I guess if it's raining, maybe I don't need one so bright after all. $50 a month for XM-WX weather seems steep, but after yesterday's flight, I'm reconsidering. It was an educational experience in weather. It never occured to me that clouds could outclimb me at wide open throttle, leaving me surrounded and in the soup. That didn't happen, but I didn't miss it by far! I think a Dynon and some IFR training is in my future as well... Mark Langford, Huntsville, Alabama see KR2S project N56ML at http://home.hiwaay.net/~langford email to N56ML "at" hiwaay.net _______________________________________ Search the KRnet Archives at http://www.maddyhome.com/krsrch/index.jsp to UNsubscribe from KRnet, send a message to krnet-le...@mylist.net please see other KRnet info at http://www.krnet.org/info.html