The International Cessna 170 Association

I am curious to hear from people who have flown with both ADSB weather and XM weather and hear how they compare. I am going to need to upgrade to ADSB or quit flying and was curious as to wether the ADSB in will give me the same things I had with XM weather. I guess I don't feel a compelling need to get ADSB in for traffic as I still spend the majority of my time looking out the windows for traffic. But if the radar and other weather was relatively current it would probably be worth it. Any comments are appreciated. Bill K

XM weather is hands-down the better product, much finer definition, but it’s not free. I have both ADS-B in and XM. I use XM exclusively, don’t even look at ADS-B weather.

I do like ADS-B traffic, especially being bluetooth’d to the iPad.

I flew with XM for several years and expected to hate ADSB weather, but I don't miss XM at all. The ADSB radar is lower resolution and you can't always pick it up on the ground, but it works and it's free. The radar and METARs (Foreflight on iPad) have helped me on many XC flights.

ADSB Weather is lower resolution but still very usable. This is a screenshot from Foreflight on an iPad Mini with ADSB-in through a Stratus 2, along with the view out the window.

Any idea what the refresh rate is for the ADS-B in. How close is it to real time?

Karl, it’s the same NEXRAD weather as you get through XM, so it’s about 5 minutes or so.

Thanks, that seems adequate, not quite weather radar but darn close.