iFly GPS Forum

Having flown with XM and ADS-B side by side I was surprised that they can be quite different. The real difference though was that XM was available as I was taxing and ADS-B was not available untill I had reached some unknown altitude, based on location. When the ADS-B did come in it took a little time to be completely updated. An area would look clear then suddenly show weather as it updated. If I had the money, which I don't, I would stay with XM at this point.

My ADS-B reception improved dramatically when I put an external antenna on the belly. In areas where I used to lose coverage, I now get 3+ towers and often 5+. And I get towers at lower altitudes. Like Cobra, I can boot up iFly on the 4G Android tablet (or the 720 connected to WIFI) and the weather/radar is available fairly quickly in the iFly app, on the ground. 5 minutes later it's updating in the air. The cost of adding iFly on an additional hardware platform, $19.99 a year, is far cheaper than an XM subscription. The 978MHz UAT frequency has plenty of bandwidth to spare, and "the FAA is currently discussing with the vendor the possibility of adding even more "no cost" products to the FIS-B service, such as lightning, turbulance NOWcast, icing NOWcast, cloud tops, and 1 minute AWOS - uplinked every 10 minutes". (quote copied from Sagetech website).

Considering most of my flying is done cross-country at a decent reception altitude, me & my wallet are very content with ADS-B but I can see where XM could have an edge in other situations.

Yes, it is still on the list. However it has been a lower priority. I'm working on a new opportunity to possibly support XM on the tablets and iFly dedicated devices. Should know more in the coming month or two. Gearing up for SnF now.