Siriusly Messed Up

Getting weather info in flight has gotten cheaper due to FIS-B (ADS-B In). However, years before the FAAs eventual roll out of FIS-B and its array of free weather-information products, the dominant player in that industry was Baron Services though XM Radio. Sirius radio offered a competitive product from WSI. Eventually, Sirius and XM merged. The leading hardware was probably Garmins GDL 69 and 69A receivers getting XMs Baron offering.

Frank Bowlin

Monday, May 21, 2018 at 12:00 AM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

The emergence of free FIS-B weather services has significantly challenged paid in-flight weather providers like SiriusXM.
SiriusXM's efforts to streamline its technology and offer more affordable packages have rendered older hardware (e.g., Garmin GDL 69 for XM) incompatible with these newer, cheaper services.
This incompatibility leaves early adopters with legacy equipment facing costly subscriptions and eventual obsolescence, prompting them to consider switching to free alternatives like FIS-B.

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Getting weather info in flight has gotten cheaper due to FIS-B (ADS-B In). However, years before the FAA’s eventual roll out of FIS-B and its array of free weather-information products, the dominant player in that industry was Baron Services though XM Radio. Sirius radio offered a competitive product from WSI. Eventually, Sirius and XM merged. The leading hardware was probably Garmin’s GDL 69 and 69A receivers getting XM’s Baron offering.

Like many, I installed a Garmin GDL 69. The (then) Sirius weather packages ranged from the insufficient Aviator LT for about $25 a month to the over-the-top Pro package for a whopping $95/month. I selected the $55 Aviator package and still felt the value was lacking. But when you really need the weather, it’s priceless—a concept probably not lost on Sirius execs. So, at over $700 a year I had on-board weather.