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


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