Sport Pilot Talk

how do you get weather info on stations like 110 or 110.00? my radio only tunes to the 118 and up range...

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Remos G3-600 N474SW

Wouldn't 110.00 be a VOR frequency, and HIWAS broadcasts? If your radio doesn't do "NAV" frequencies, then you're out of luck. You can always try talking to someone on 120.00 "Flight Watch", or 122.2 (or .4 or .6) for Flight Service.
Or carry a handheld that does "NAV". Or there's always the new ADS-B.
Tim

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Tim
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check out CTFlier.com

Without a nav it's rough. If you have an ADF (not likely) there are some weather broadcasts to found there.

I second the suggestions to call Flight Watch or carry a handheld. You may also tune in the ASOS or AWOS frequencies of nearby airports on your comm. Of course that is only current surface conditions.

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Marcus - WA2DCI
PP ASEL IA

Daidalos Greek: Δαίδαλος
Remember don't fly too close to the Sun.

It can be a real problem. There are a couple airports around here that have VOR's on the field, and they brodcast the AWOS on them. I have a Garmin 496 with XM that I can pull up the AWOS information on. If you have an IPad or a smart phone you can get an app for getting METAR's, or there is the hand held as someone else mentioned. Tom

An other thought is if your headset has an input for your cell phone you could dial into ther AWOS and listen to the recorded message.

Most S-LSAs are being delivered with a VHF comm transceiver (such as the popular Garmin SL-40) and a moving map GPS. This is a nice, lightweight avionics suite, however...

I've been arguing that serious pilots should upgrade the comm to a nav/comm (the Garmin SL-30, for example) to have VOR, LOC, and GS capability. The counter-argument is that GPS makes these ancient navaids obsolete. I disagree.

Even if you never track a radial or shoot an ILS, there are communications functions afforded by having a full nav/comm in your plane. Weather transmissions on VOR frequencies are one of them. Also, many Flight Service Station remote communications outlets receive from the aircraft on 122.1 MHz and transmit back over the local VOR frequency. The ability to duplex (transmit on a comm frequency, and receive simultaneously on a VOR frequency) is sometimes the only practical way to activate or close flight plans.

This is yet additional validation of a statement I've long made, that the death of VOR is greatly exaggerated.

Yes, there's cost involved in upgrading to a nav/comm (plus adding a VHF nav antenna and analog OBS). In my case, it ran $5,000. A hand-held nav/com is certainly a cheaper, though less elegant, solution.

If you decide to go the nav/comm route in an S-LSA, make sure the manufacturer will support you with a Letter of Authorization.

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The opinions expressed in this post are those of one CFI, and do not necessarily represent the position of the FAA or its lawyers.
Prof. H. Paul Shuch, Ph.D., CFII, LSRM-A/GL/WS
AvSport of Lock Haven
http://AvSport.org fly@AvSport.org

+1 I also believe that GPS is a single point of failure. It isn't out of the realm of;possibility that something or someone could take a few birds out of service. There are only two earth stations to enable WAAS.

Even though I love flying direct GPS routes I miss having other forms of electronic nav.

Sorry about the thread drift.... The original poster has a point about lack of in flight info. If you don't want to pop for the handheld transceiver get a receive only scanner. BTW all of the SL-40's receive NOAA weather in the 162 mhz FM band.

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Marcus - WA2DCI
PP ASEL IA

Daidalos Greek: Δαίδαλος
Remember don't fly too close to the Sun.

I'm not so sure I agree (about the lack of wx info) and suspect it depends on where you fly. Not that many years ago, small non-towered airports offered no wx info. Now every small airport in our region offers AWOS or ASOS transmissions. Moreover, you can get these from a destination or intermediate airport by using your cell phone before you even depart. from your airport Add in FSS and, in airport-rich Florida, there are many wx sources for the VHF-equipped a/c. Perhaps it's different out West.

Be careful about assuming what is possible to do with your handheld VHF. In some planes, h/h reception capability is compromised and 2-way functional comms, even for short distances, using a h/h VHF are almost always impossible unless one prepared the radio and an aux antenna system ahead of time. A good 'first test': Using the needed adapter plugs, connect your headset to your h/h transceiver and try to talk with someone who's plugged into their a/c VHF. Typically, either this won't work at all (Icom is infamous for this without a secondary cable) or you will hear the a/c transmission well but they will barely hear you and may not understand your transmission at all. And that's from 50' away. To be a functional 2-way transceiver, it's almost always necessary to have the h/h radio's antenna connector linked to a compatible coax (to get the antenna away from the radio's mike and transmitting circuitry) and a separate antenna (even if hung upside down from the coat rack hook in the baggage compartment). As I recently learned when working thru this issue with an avionics tech, many of us fly around with a h/h VHF thinking we are comms-redundant when in fact we aren't.

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Jack
RAF Florida State Liaison
Please visit www.theraf.org

Galesburg, IL is one that has the weather on the VOR. I agree that a nav radio is a nice addition and I intend to add one to my aviionics swite.
Remember, too, that getting one AWOS report is mypic. AWOS sees a limited sector of the sky and slice of time. It's best to get trends by looking at adjacent or upweather stations, and that can be hard to do if calling from a cell phone.

"It's best to get trends by looking at adjacent or upweather stations, and that can be hard to do if calling from a cell phone."

If using a cell phone to get a wx picture, I would be calling FSS. If in the air, I wouldn't be counting on reliable cell coverage and would be using a comm radio - but still calling FSS. If no nav receiver and no installed comm receiver, I would not consider the a/c to be suitable for cross-country use. For larger states out west, I might not even be comfortable using it for cross-*county* use.

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Jack
RAF Florida State Liaison
Please visit www.theraf.org

I won't run into you in the sky out here, then.