Stormscope

Does anyone know the cost of retrofitting a stormscope or equivalent in an SR20 with gas gauages.

Al

To add it as a factory option is about $9000. As a retrofit it will likely be a bit more.

Before u get carried away what exactly do u mean by ‘equivalent’ ? U can do a garmin 396 or 496 with XM weather for a fraction of that.

this is cost-prohibitive in a Cirrus. to be able to utilize the SB to do the upgrade you have to buy the kit from Cirrus - about 7K worth of parts for 10K. by the time you add labor for the install you are talking 15K. once you see xm weather the stormscope becomes a paperweight. buy a garmin 396 or 496 and wire it into the power and audio panel and you will have weather and uncertified TAWS for less than 4K. not a better deal in avionics. good luck

In reply to:


To add it as a factory option is about $9000. As a retrofit it will likely be a bit more.


Thanks for the info. This helps

While I agree that the upgrade is cost prohibitive, it is a mistake to think that XMweather is an adequate replacement for stormscope. XMweather, particularly Nexrad, is excellent for telling you what just was a few minutes ago. The stormscope tells you what is coming. I have watched clear space on the MFD go from nothing to red - instantly, and dead ahead. Not where you want to be. Using stormscope to see what is building, and Nexrad to see what is dissipating, it is possible to safely thread your way through a convective front (although you may need to fly quite a way out of your way to find the opening - I need at least 50 miles (25 on each side) with no sign of convection. The stormscope allows you to see that, Nexrad does not. I like Nexrad - but when convection is around I would not try to cross a front unless I had stormscope also.

In reply to:


once you see xm weather the stormscope becomes a paperweight.


After just flying about 9 hours over south Fl and the Bahamas in a plane equipped with both, I couldn’t disagree more. The two devices each give different info in different formats. Seeing both sets of data was instrumental to a safe and comfortable flight with virtually no turbulence or rain encounters. YMMV, but I think eliminating one because you have the other is short sighted.

OTOH, if I had to spend my $ for only, one, I would prpbably choose XM WX.

Roy,

I agree. NEXRAD and stormscope are not competing technologies they are complementary. Green/yellow returns with NO stormscope activity is different from such returns WITH stormscope strikes. Even in areas with no current precipitation, stormscope strikes say “stay away”.

If I had the choice of only one I admit I would take NEXRAD but I really like both on board. Having them has made a major change in the way I fly during thunderstorm season here in the convective Midwest.

my humble opinion is that nexrad is a “gotta have” while stormscope is a nice to have. my experience with stormscope in the SE is that it’ll give you some general clues whether you are dealing w/convective activity but it isn’t the cats meow. i just wish Cirrus would give up the ghost on trying to make a profit on safety minded upgrades - why rake a guy over the coals because he is trying to add equipment to make his part of the whole fleet safer.

Agreed. It is around thunderstorms that having both in the cockpit is really appreciated.

The fact of the matter is that having Stormscope is the only way to really know whether NEXRAD returns represent thunderstorm activity or not. I see a ton of “yellow” precipitation in the cooler months of the year that is totally non convective and very easy to fly straight through. Without a “spark detector” you cannot tell the difference.
Now my WxWorx system comes with a lightning strike function that potentially could replace the Stormscope. But the data is ONLY cloud to ground lightning and it can be several minutes old. It not as sensitive as the Stormscope at showing developing thunderstorms.
I think the potential is there for technology to eventually make the Stormscope obsolete. But the state of the art as it is now still makes the Stormscope a very valuable tool as it currently shows things that other devices cannot.