ForeFlight Stratus

Captain

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So, if you use ForeFlight they offer Stratus. It's a subscription free device that acts as a GPS and also streams Wx to your ForeFlight. Shows weather radar, TAFs, METARs, and much more.

While it's subscription free it's pretty expensive at $799. I've lost my bluetooth GPS receiver that I use with my iPad (WiFi only so I need external GPS) so the replacement cost of that is $100'ish. Should I (gulp) throw down the extra $700 and get the Stratus because it's that good or no?

btw, my wife is already bitchin about spending money on anything...

I was just hoping for some product reviews to help with the decision. Thanks in advance.
 
For me, no. Weather isn't that critical where I fly, and my backup is an Iphone with an operational 3G on it that gives me pretty good coverage anywhere in California except in the mountains.
 
No, obviously you can't keep track of your possessions so you shouldn't buy anything else...
 
How critical is live weather to you and your missions?

Maybe I'm just old school but I don't see the added value of Stratus. There are tons of sources for inflight weather.. HIWAS, EFAS, even ATC if there's an emergency. I'm sure it's much easier and convenient to pull up and look at on your iPad but I don't see myself needing that too often on my type of flights.
 
For my group of flying buddies purchased one together to share with each other takes some the sting off. And it allows us to purchase the non 3/4 G version of the ipad. I think on longer XC flights it makes a bit more sense.
 
I got one right away. Its nice and I like it. Would I buy one again. Probably but I'm riding the fence on this. However the More I use it the more I like it. I really like the wireless feature on it and also It really makes it simple to check your winds aloft and any other weather you are interested in without alot of messing around.
 
Flying h4x0r said:
How critical is live weather to you and your missions?

Maybe I'm just old school but I don't see the added value of Stratus. There are tons of sources for inflight weather.. HIWAS, EFAS, even ATC if there's an emergency. I'm sure it's much easier and convenient to pull up and look at on your iPad but I don't see myself needing that too often on my type of flights.
Click to expand...

As to live weather, I've used XM weather on a Garmin 496, then a 696 for the last five years or so. Flying long cross country, in the mountain west, it's been one of the best additions possible.

L.Adamson
 
Flying h4x0r said:
How critical is live weather to you and your missions?

Maybe I'm just old school but I don't see the added value of Stratus. There are tons of sources for inflight weather.. HIWAS, EFAS, even ATC if there's an emergency. I'm sure it's much easier and convenient to pull up and look at on your iPad but I don't see myself needing that too often on my type of flights.
Click to expand...

That's just it - if the weather is so iffy that real time in flight weather is needed, and it could affect my route, I'm probably not going anyway. I'm sure it's a different story East of the Rockies.

Out here, I can fly up and down the Valley all day and weather is a non issue. We get thunderstorms maybe two days a year. If the weather is bad over the mountains, I'm not flying in them, period.
 
Sac Arrow said:
That's just it - if the weather is so iffy that real time in flight weather is needed, and it could affect my route, I'm probably not going anyway. I'm sure it's a different story East of the Rockies.

Out here, I can fly up and down the Valley all day and weather is a non issue. We get thunderstorms maybe two days a year. If the weather is bad over the mountains, I'm not flying in them, period.
Click to expand...

That's where we differ. I go no matter what the weather is doing. If it leagal we go. If its not then we pick a new airport that is. Very seldom is the flight scrubbed. I think it's happened to me once or twice in 6 years. Heck, I launched into the leading bands of a hurricane once. I told the pad and made sure he knew what he was getting into. He said yup and off we went. He stayed and I got out of town (cancun).
 
Captain said:
That's where we differ. I go no matter what the weather is doing. If it leagal we go. If its not then we pick a new airport that is. Very seldom is the flight scrubbed. I think it's happened to me once or twice in 6 years. Heck, I launched into the leading bands of a hurricane once. I told the pad and made sure he knew what he was getting into. He said yup and off we went. He stayed and I got out of town (cancun).
Click to expand...

Understood, but I thought your question was in reference to part 91 flight. I assumed you had all that stuff already on your work plane. I avoid real bad weather partly because I'm a p**y when it comes to weather and partly because I don't want the aggravation. Terrain? No problem. Icing and Tstorms? Someone else deal with it.
 
I've got 'most' that stuff. The FAA hasn't authorized ForeFlight yet. I was considering getting the stratus for my personal iPad that does have ForeFlight.

In the end I decided to just replace my BT GPS antenna with another and didn't get the Stratus. The live weather would be nice, but I'll just have to do with looking at the radar on the ground for my 'picture' product and use the ships radar for inflight.
 
Sac Arrow said:
I assumed you had all that stuff already on your work plane.
Click to expand...
It's somewhat of a mistake to assume that "work planes" are better equipped than people's personal airplanes. I think that's mostly because the people paying the bills aren't the people flying the airplanes. As long as you are able to get from place to place without incident, more "goodies" are not really necessary from their standpoint.
 
:yeahthat:

Companies only spend money on toys if they figure it'll save them money in the long run. Look at EFB's (iPads and such). The fact that you can load your company manuals up on them AND update them wirelessly saves a ton of money on FedEx...so the recent push to get them in cockpits.
 
I'm not sure that the stratus would substitute as a GPS receiver. I think it only gets ADS-B data. If you don't have a 3G IPad, you would still need a GPS antenna to see the little blue plane on the chart.
 
I'm pretty sure I read on the web site that it was also a BT GPS receiver providing location data to the iPad.
 
Make sure you read the other thread linked about coverage area. The data is not available in the Rocky Mountain region yet. System isn't completely built out yet.
 
MBDiagMan said:
I'm not sure that the stratus would substitute as a GPS receiver. I think it only gets ADS-B data. If you don't have a 3G IPad, you would still need a GPS antenna to see the little blue plane on the chart.
Click to expand...
The Stratus unit contains a WAAS GPS receiver.
 
ALL of this is discussed in the thread linked to in the third post of this thread.
 
Captain said:
I'm pretty sure I read on the web site that it was also a BT GPS receiver providing location data to the iPad.
Click to expand...


Yes, I stand corrected. I picked up a copy of General Aviation and read a Stratus Ad. It indicated WAAS GPS. This is another advantage to the Stratus. The internal IPad GPS does not give WAAS as I understand it.
 
MBDiagMan said:
Yes, I stand corrected. I picked up a copy of General Aviation and read a Stratus Ad. It indicated WAAS GPS. This is another advantage to the Stratus. The internal IPad GPS does not give WAAS as I understand it.
Click to expand...

Are you seriously worried about slightly better accuracy under normal circumstances on a non-certified iPad gadget?

WAAS buys you nothing usable/useful on a handheld/iPad. Putting the thing up in the window probably buys you more than WAAS.
 
denverpilot said:
Are you seriously worried about slightly better accuracy under normal circumstances on a non-certified iPad gadget?

WAAS buys you nothing usable/useful on a handheld/iPad. Putting the thing up in the window probably buys you more than WAAS.
Click to expand...


I agree. You would have to have an app that could beneficially use WAAS and display a precision approach to have an advantage. Even the non WAAS 430 in my old plane could horizontally locate an approach pretty damned accurately.
 
Captain said:
So, if you use ForeFlight they offer Stratus. It's a subscription free device that acts as a GPS and also streams Wx to your ForeFlight. Shows weather radar, TAFs, METARs, and much more.

While it's subscription free it's pretty expensive at $799. I've lost my bluetooth GPS receiver that I use with my iPad (WiFi only so I need external GPS) so the replacement cost of that is $100'ish. Should I (gulp) throw down the extra $700 and get the Stratus because it's that good or no?

btw, my wife is already bitchin about spending money on anything...

I was just hoping for some product reviews to help with the decision. Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

Well I have the Garmin 696 with XM subscription at almost 50.00 per month (with XM music). That alone is 600.00 dollars per year. So I'd say it would pay for it self quickly.

Kobra
 
denverpilot said:
Are you seriously worried about slightly better accuracy under normal circumstances on a non-certified iPad gadget?

WAAS buys you nothing usable/useful on a handheld/iPad. Putting the thing up in the window probably buys you more than WAAS.
Click to expand...



I will admit my ignorance here and admit that I don't totally understand your question or why you posed it.

I have no real concern whether or not the GPS antenna portion of the Stratus is WAAS or not. I simply meant to acknowledge that apparantly the Stratus would indeed provide a GPS antenna for those with a Wifi only IPad.
 
MBDiagMan said:
I will admit my ignorance here and admit that I don't totally understand your question or why you posed it.

I have no real concern whether or not the GPS antenna portion of the Stratus is WAAS or not. I simply meant to acknowledge that apparantly the Stratus would indeed provide a GPS antenna for those with a Wifi only IPad.
Click to expand...

Ahh okay. Yes. The Dual and Bad Elf will also do that lots cheaper if you don't need ADS-B In.
 
Everskyward said:
As someone who has flown with live weather less than five times in my life I would say not so much.
Click to expand...

Really? Doesn't the Sovereign have radar? I know that's not the same as datalink, but it does let you see things you can't see otherwise, which to me is the whole point of onboard weather.
 
Captain said:
The FAA hasn't authorized ForeFlight yet.
Click to expand...

For Part 91 operations, ForeFlight is completely legal as your sole source of data. For Part 135/121, it has to be authorized on a company-by-company basis, and the FAA *has* approved ForeFlight for numerous air carriers. If you want more info on how to get it done at your company, their web site does have some information (I think it's in the blog), and I'm sure they would be happy to assist if you contact them. :yes:
 
flyingcheesehead said:
Really? Doesn't the Sovereign have radar? I know that's not the same as datalink, but it does let you see things you can't see otherwise, which to me is the whole point of onboard weather.
Click to expand...
It has onboard radar but no uplink weather. It's wired for it but we don't have the subscription. I think uplink weather would be nice in order to see the big picture, but it's obviously not necessary.
 
Everskyward said:
It has onboard radar but no uplink weather. It's wired for it but we don't have the subscription. I think uplink weather would be nice in order to see the big picture, but it's obviously not necessary.
Click to expand...

Yup - I get along without it most of the time. Then there's the times where I've had it and it's been incredibly valuable.

I still haven't been able to bring myself to buy the Stratus... I really would like to, but heck, I haven't even gotten myself a new iPad yet and I need that much worse than a one-trick pony that costs as much. :(
 
flyingcheesehead said:
Yup - I get along without it most of the time. Then there's the times where I've had it and it's been incredibly valuable.
Click to expand...
I think it would be more necessary if you didn't have radar but it continues to amaze me how much all this technology for small airplanes has advanced in only a few years.
 
Has anyone heard if these products (clarity, stratus) will work with the garmin pilot app? Or if they are working on something for that app?
 
1. I just visited the Sagetech Clarity web page at http://sagetechcorp.com/clarity-ads-b-receivers. Looks like they are taking pre-orders for a new ADS-B receiver that shows traffic and has synthetic vision capabilities. The prices look good, and it is really compact. Supposed to be unveiled at Oshkosh in July.
 
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