B: Garmin 430 & 496 WX

[Walter Atkinson]

We got the heck beat out of ignoring a Stormscope lit up like a  
Christmas tree in clear air with vis 100+ miles going toward ABQ one  
night.  I no longer ignore a Stormscope indication no matter what the  
weather.

Walter


On Jul 27, 2007, at 4:44 PM, carmine wrote:

A Honeywell rep told me that their stormscopes will pick up turbulent  
air (air friction is present) but they will not advertise that fact  
for legal reasons. I have picked up electrical activity on mine  
without precip present.
Carmine


----- Original Message ----- From: "Stuart Spindel"  
<spindel at mindspring.com>
To: <beech-owners at beechcraft.org>
Sent: Friday, July 27, 2007 8:56 AM
Subject: RE: B: Garmin 430 & 496 WX


Good morning Michael,

The issue is one where there is zero precip while flying through area  
of yellow and sometimes red.  That is not a hardware issue.  If there  
is no precip, there should be nothing to display.  As Walter  
indicated,  pilots are being conditioned to ignore green and yellow.   
Not good.

Composite reflectivity is the issue. It displays the total slice of  
air from the ground through the flight levels. Sometimes relevant,  
mostly not.

Stuart

-----Original Message-----
From: "Michael Butz"

Stuart wrote:
" The issue of the display of precip is not the fault of XM, but  
rather the provider of the data, Baron Services, that transmits  
composite reflectivity to XM.  "

Stuart, I don't think that Baron Weather Service is at fault either.   
This is an issue for Garmin.  The weather data sends returns in 5  
levels.  The processing of those 5 levels into colors that display on  
your screen comes from the electronics hardware provider.  I use  
Anywhere Map and I see Blue for light (which can be turned off, and  
sometimes does not even contain rain, as Walter says), then  
progressively, Green, Yellow, Red, Purple.  I fly through Green and  
Yellow and usually don't even display the Blue stuff.