Stratus 1 used v stratus 2 new

Pjsmith

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pjsmith
I fly vfr but have occasional trips long enough that I would like weather in the cockpit. I had hoped to find a 'sale' of the stratus ii at Osh, but it didn't seem to materialize. So I'm on to thinking about buying a used first version.

I guess my thinking is that I can probably get a used one in eBay right about at 1/2 of what a new ii would cost. I know v1 doesn't have some features, but as a vfr pilot I'm wondering if I'd miss those or not. Anyone here in a similar boat? What would you do? And, am I missing a value proposition that makes the ii worthwhile?
 
Hi

We are neighbors (almost). I fly out of KPWK. I had a Status 1 and loved it. I sold it to someone on this Board. You can get them on Ebay. Last one sold for $540 on September 15 including shipping, no case no other items. I sold mine for $500 plus shipping, and included a case and Ram mount with it, which were about $50 at Sporty's. I think the guy who purchased mine got a fair price. Without the case and Ram Mounts, they should go between $450 and $500 which most of them do on Ebay. I advise you purchase with PayPal since you get buyer protection.

I had a Stratus 1 which I bought in January or February and hardly used. I really liked it, but I preferred the 2 as it is smaller and had the Attitude Indicator option and the 2 band traffic. The thing about the 1 is you have to keep it out of sunlight, i.e. don't put on dash or they say it can overheat. I used to keep mine on the back seat and didn't have issues with reception. I did buy the Ram mount to suction to a side window, but never used it as I didn't have reception issues.

As I am in instrument training, the Stratus 1 would have been fine. But I was given some $$ as a gift toward the 2 so decided to buy the 2 and sell the 1. I don't think you are really missing any big deals for VFR flight by getting the 1.

Hope this helps....
 
I really don't know the feature differences, but I was going to mention the overheat problem with the Stratus 1. I don't know if it was blown out of proportion, but I had heard about it.
 
I really don't know the feature differences, but I was going to mention the overheat problem with the Stratus 1. I don't know if it was blown out of proportion, but I had heard about it.

The Stratus 2 is dual-band and has AHRS.

For VFR, that doesn't really get you anything useful. IFR, it provides a last-ditch backup panel if everything on the airplane fails.

As far as heat, I never had a heat problem with the Stratus 1 - That said, I learned from experience NOT to place dark-colored electronics on top of the (black) glareshield on a sunny day - That resulted in my iPad 1's only overheating incident. The Stratus 2 is supposed to be placed on the glareshield along the longitudinal axis of the airplane, and as such is colored white and has a fan.

I always placed the Stratus 1 on the floor. Works great, as long as you're not on the very fringes of the ADS-B service area.
 
I cover Stratus One with a white note card and tuck it in the corner of the glare shield on our Cardinal.

It works fine there.

I bought mine used from an inmate here, paid IIRC $450.
 
I bought a Stratus 1 prior to the release of the Stratus 2. I am not convinced that the incremental upgrades in the Stratus 2 are worth the additional cost in my case, but I'm mostly interested in the weather uplink, and I have a backup attitude indicator in the panel.


JKG
 
I bought a Stratus 1 prior to the release of the Stratus 2. I am not convinced that the incremental upgrades in the Stratus 2 are worth the additional cost in my case, but I'm mostly interested in the weather uplink, and I have a backup attitude indicator in the panel.

In your case, you're probably right. Stratus 2 adds AI and also dual-channel ADS-B which allows you to see more traffic (you'll see the airliners with 1090ES regardless of whether you have ADS-B Out or not). It's also better for having up on the glareshield since it's white instead of black and has a fan that operates when it gets too hot.

For a new purchaser, though, that's probably worth the price difference. If you already have a stratus 1, you'll have to evaluate for yourself.
 
The fan on the stratus two hasn't truly solved the heat problem. At sun n fun I purchased a ram mount for the window,to keep the unit cool. That was on sportys recommendation.
 
The fan on the stratus two hasn't truly solved the heat problem. At sun n fun I purchased a ram mount for the window,to keep the unit cool. That was on sportys recommendation.


Because Sporty's sells ram mounts?
 
In your case, you're probably right. Stratus 2 adds AI and also dual-channel ADS-B which allows you to see more traffic (you'll see the airliners with 1090ES regardless of whether you have ADS-B Out or not). It's also better for having up on the glareshield since it's white instead of black and has a fan that operates when it gets too hot.

For a new purchaser, though, that's probably worth the price difference. If you already have a stratus 1, you'll have to evaluate for yourself.

In my opinion, the dual-band traffic really isn't anything more than a novelty at this point. It isn't the airliners that most of us have to worry about, it's all of the other traffic, most of which doesn't have ADS-B Out. If you do have ADS-B Out, you can trigger the ground-based broadcasts which are received by Stratus 1 and which also include Mode C traffic.

While the AHRS is probably better than nothing, I'm not quite sure that I'd want to trust my life to it as a backup. It might be a nice tertiary system, though.

I haven't had a heat problem with Stratus 1, but covering it with a sheet of white paper may have helped. I've heard of folks having heat-related issues with Stratus 2 as well.

The only advanced feature which I think could be useful for everyone is the upcoming ability to buffer ADS-B weather information while not connected to FF. I'm not sure whether that feature is exclusive to Stratus 2, or will also be supported on Stratus 1.


JKG
 
Only the Stratus 2 has the buffer capability. It buffers the last half hour of all the FISB data received.
 
I fly vfr but have occasional trips long enough that I would like weather in the cockpit. I had hoped to find a 'sale' of the stratus ii at Osh, but it didn't seem to materialize. So I'm on to thinking about buying a used first version.

I guess my thinking is that I can probably get a used one in eBay right about at 1/2 of what a new ii would cost. I know v1 doesn't have some features, but as a vfr pilot I'm wondering if I'd miss those or not. Anyone here in a similar boat? What would you do? And, am I missing a value proposition that makes the ii worthwhile?

I have a Stratus 1. I will sale it for $375.00. E-mail or call me .
Litchdj@gmail.com. 580-504-5818. Joe
 
I have found the AHRS very reliable and would not hesitate to fly it if my other systems failed.

If budget is the only issues, no doubt the 1 is the way to go. But if you fly when there are clouds and fear inadvertent IMC entry, the 2 would be a better choice. I flew AHRS only yesterday on a short trip to my MX shop. Having all my data on one screen makes CRM easy.
 
I have had the 1 and 2 ,prefer the stratus two. I replaced weather on the garmin 496 with the stratus. For overall backup I like the stratus two. The garmin 496 is not a bad unit also,if you don't mind paying a subscription.
 
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