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XM Weather Choices: Aviator Lite is Tops

Its inevitable that when you buy any product that has a dozen or more features, you use a few of them consistently and the rest might as we'll not be there. High-end gadgets and features look good in the marketing copy, but why pay for extras you don't really need? And thats exactly the situation with XM WX Weather, a first-rate system thats a great flight safety enhancer, but one that offers far more data than you need. In this article, we'll examine what each service provides and explain why you can get by with the most basic service or, at the most, the mid-priced upgrade. As is the fashion in modern marketing, XM WX Weather offers three tiers of service-the more you spend, the more you get. While each package adds more features, it also essentially doubles the cost. The Aviator package was the launch product and it hasnt changed much in features and price since it was first introduced. At $49.99 per month, it has nearly a dozen weather products and its introduction fundamentally changed the rules for inflight weather awareness. Probing for the cost-sensitive bottom of the market, a couple of years later, XM WX Weather introduced Aviator LT, a reduced version of the Aviator package that, at $29.99 per month, stripped off nearly two-thirds of the Aviator services features, leaving only the NEXRAD mosaic, METARs, TAFs, precipitation type and TFRs.

Aviation Consumer Staff
Verified

Its inevitable that when you buy any product that has a dozen or more features, you use a few of them consistently and the rest might as we’ll not be there. High-end gadgets and features look good in the marketing copy, but why pay for extras you don’t really need? And thats exactly the situation with XM WX Weather, a first-rate system thats a great flight safety enhancer, but one that offers far more data than you need.

In this article, we’ll examine what each service provides and explain why you can

XM Weather Choices

get by with the most basic service or, at the most, the mid-priced upgrade.

Three Levels

As is the fashion in modern marketing, XM WX Weather offers three tiers of service-the more you spend, the more you get. While each package adds more features, it also essentially doubles the cost. The Aviator package was the launch product and it hasnt changed much in features and price since it was first introduced. At $49.99 per month, it has nearly a dozen weather products and its introduction fundamentally changed the rules for inflight weather awareness.

Probing for the cost-sensitive bottom of the market, a couple of years later, XM WX Weather introduced Aviator LT, a reduced version of the Aviator package that, at $29.99 per month, stripped off nearly two-thirds of the Aviator services features, leaving only the NEXRAD mosaic, METARs, TAFs, precipitation type and TFRs.

Just last year at AirVenture 2008, XM Wx Weather introduced a premium package called Aviator Pro at $99.99. Aviator Pro includes all of the features of its predecessor, but adds two icing products, high-level turbulence, convective outlooks and mesoscale discussions. At the same time, XM WX expanded the Aviator package by adding severe thunderstorm, tornado watches and pilot reports.

Which to Pick?

What package you choose depends on your mission and the capabilities of your satellite weather receiver. It may make better sense to err on the side of economy rather than gilding the lily. If you fly mostly in Florida, bouncing around at 5500 feet in a Cessna 172, you can hardly justify the Aviator Pro package; Aviator LT may be all you need. If you fly in Canada, especially during the summer, you may want the Aviator package, since it includes Canadian radar data. Or, if you fly above FL210 on your trips, Aviator Pro has some products you might want, but that arent absolutely necessary. Distance and speed matter. Any airplane thats capable of crossing half a continent before lunch will face more challenging weather

Aviation Consumer Staff