slowhawk wrote:Hey Richard,
Are you getting XM weather data in Alaska? I lose the signal just west of Ft Nelson and don't see it again until i head back that way.
Your right about the XM service reps, cluless just begins to discribe my dealings with them. They say there is coverage up here, but i have come to the conclusion that it must be much further south. I wish i had XM up here, the very few AWOS stations that are around Norton sound are not terribly reliable.

Chris

I don't Alaska...

In Tennessee last Thanksgiving I hung with a pilot friend who has a 496 and clued me into the whole master mariner package trick. I also remember a discussion on the AOPA forums about it.

Funny how the Aviator package theoretically gives you less products for five dollars more of course XM might have changed something since November but I doubt it.

I currently have a 296. If I were to move south I'd upgrade and sign up for XM in a heartbeat.

I am doing almost the exact opposite of what Richard described. I bought a Marine 376c so I could get WX weather and XM Radio. It was a thousand bucks less than the 396c. Just the docking station needs a 337 and all the cables and housing are the same.

I was going to buy an Aviation plan for it whenever I go Cross Country. I talked to the WX Support and they told me that they can clear my receiver to accept the signal but they didn't know if the Marine Garmin could display the aviation stuff. I hope it does but for now I am just getting the Marine Skywatch Plan.

Skywatch doesn't do Puerto Rico or have High Def Radar, TFRs, Metars, or TAfs, but it has most of the other stuff the Aviator Lite plan has:

Radar Summary
Surface Observations
Radar Coverage
Current Precipitation

Then it also has stuff that none of the other Marine plans have:

Current Fog/Restricted Visibility
Current Hail
Dangerous Wind Threat
Current Lightning Summary
Current Shear Threat and Forecast
Weather Watches
Road Threats
Current Sky Conditions
30-Minute Local Forecasts

All that for a whopping 9.95/month. Plus the activation is only $14.99 instead of $50.00. Maybe when I go cross country I will throw the Master Mariner Package on instead and see how that works.

Jerry

Jaerl wrote:I bought a Marine 376c so I could get WX weather and XM Radio.

But, it has no aviation database built in, or airspace overlays, correct? I know $1000 seems like a lot, but I think it's worth it to have all that aviation data.

Z, there is no aviation database so if I want to navigate by it I will have to put in the coordinates or point and click on the map. Because it is a Marine unit it will navigate on a straight line and not follow roads.

I have a Lowrance Colormap 2000c with Terrain and Airspace and it has everything I need to fly. I just bought the 376c for the radio and weather. Plus it would be a good backup if ever needed.

You can pick up the Colormaps for around $500 used on Ebay. The 376 was about $380 new and the docking station was about $117. So for under a thousand you can have two GPS's with Satellite Radio, Terrain and Weather. Plus the subscription for radio and weather cost me $19.90/mo.

Jerry

Anymore I can't think of flying without an Aviation GPS. The natural dangers of flight are mostly predictable. Its the synthetic hazards which will end your flying carriers. At any minute P40 can expand, Frz, Class B and TFR's. If one gets geographically embarrassed fuel is the major concern. If you get lost around the D.C. area your flying could be over, especially if you can't afford a good attorney.

The GPS is Priceless!

If anyone wants a 376c, there is a new one on ebay with the auto kit (speaker, $80). Bids started at $450. It has been owned but never used. They were discontinued last year and I got mine off Amazon and it was refurbished for about half price. I have never used it to navigate yet but I was at the airport last night and was messing with it. It does have an Airport list (nearest first). Don't know why a boat needs that.

I think it is the same GPS as the 396 with Marine software. I called Garmin after I got it and asked if I could load a Aviation Database, and the guy got pissed. Anyway, if anyone wants weather and radio cheap that one is there.

Jerry

As a follow-up to my recent purchase of the WxWorx receiver and XM Aviator subscription that started this thread, I flew my first round-trip Albuquerque-Hobbs with it this week. The flight down to HOB early Monday morning had no weather to deal with, but on the way back yesterday afternoon, I had to contend with the usual monsoon thunderstorms we get here in the Southwest just about every afternoon this time of year. Had to fly a large zig-zag route to get around some very large cells (25-35 miles across each). With the XM Wx on board, I could see my entire 240-nm route and the general path I'd have to take to get home.

Then as I got down to the last 100 nm or so, I could see that several of the big cells blocked my usual route over a saddle in the Mazano Mountains SE of Albuqueque, and also my usual backup route to the south of the Manzanos. The NexRad display showed a clear path between the cells centered right over the highest parts of the Manzanos (9,500-10,100 ft), so I climbed to 12,500 and went over the top, no problemo.

However, once into the Rio Grande valley, the NexRad painted a small but intense cell squatting right over my intended destination of Double Eagle II (KAEG), and Albuquerque Approach told me that KAEG was catching hell with "extreme rainfall." Approach then cleared me to Albuquerque Sunport (KABQ), which is Class C airspace, where it was dry but with strong gusting winds, for a landing on runway 30 to wait out the storm at KAEG. Then a final short hop (10 mi) across the Rio Grande back to the barn. Again, no problemo.

Could I have handled all this without cockpit weather? Probably, but it sure increased my confidence - and comfort - level. Just being able to see the limits of the cells I was picking my way around and in between, and knowing that I wasn't headed into a possible convergence of cells all around with no good way out (a 180 turn isn't always the way out of that kind of scenario) was a big relief.

As someone else commented above, "XM Wx - don't leave home without it!"