Langen is about 1/4 as busy as London Control.
I often cannot even get a pee in between the times they call me up, but fortunately I can turn the heading bug with the other hand 
And no, it is not on youtube 
“Langen Radar, D-EXXX, I need a few METARs, are you OK for me to switch over to FIS for this or will you handle it?” “D-EXXX, approved to switch to FIS, report back on frequency”.
That’s how I do it. If the sector has any traffic at all, it will let me call FIS, otherwise just give me the METARs. I never considered METARs to be a good reason to invest in a sat link which is also why I personally do not use an Iridium solution, the real value for me is in pictures (strikemap, IR sat, rain radar) and ad-hoc internet for email, instant messaging, etc.
Yes they do but it is difficult, single pilot, to be with London Control, while getting wx from London Info.
Ryanair can do it because they have the 250hr CPL/IR kid in the RHS for that job. Even better when he paid 25k to be allowed to do the job
Don’t FIS give you all the METARs you like in the UK?
In Germany, I often hear Ryanair “download” the weather of whole Europe from FIS to save the cost for a satellite solution. It is clear what the FIS people are thinking when they hear a Ryanair callsign but they always comply. I once counted a list of 6 airports in a single Ryanair request!
One point I never understand is the fabel to “try” to get weather information in flight with “bad” weather. I useally have no time to figure out some problems with the “connection” and “hardware” when bad weather is around. Just my oppion
Didn’t work on the way back either, and this time this piece of Thuraya crap has been an extra hassle because due to the fog i am at Biggin which is another few hundred quid. The wx cleared and then closed up again.
I think when discussing different satellite data link weather solutions we have to look more at the full setup and less on the network used. Different networks offer different service levels, antenna setups are important and finally they way you access and display the weather data also make a huge difference. So arguing on a general level Thuraya vs. Iridium is not the point.
Peter, I think when Jason says you need Iridium he means you might want to try one of my ADL110B or ADL120 devices. As Achim suggests buying an Iridium phone and doing dialup at 2400 baud using your current webserver is not going to work out.
If you want to stay with your current setup you could swap your Thuraya phone for a Globalstar phone. That would give you 9600 baud dial up. Globalstar coverage is a little better then Thuraya but it is a little more expensive and as far as I know the constellation is not complete. Finally I sold an ADL110 to a pilot using Globalstar before as he was tired dealing with it.
This is quite a nuisance, because a day like today is actually a very good case for having airborne weather.
If you want to try out an ADL120 you can send me a private message. But you will need an iPad and take one step back. You simply press the download button and get your weather. You are no longer involved in all the technical transmission details etc.
The 2400 bits/sec Iridium data rate is almost completely useless for getting airborne weather – unless one is accessing a specially set up private server.
I do have a semi-private website which was set up for that purpose a few years ago (a diligent reader of my satcomms writeup will find it but please don’t post it here, and anyway not all the features work anymore) but you are still looking only at tafs and metars.
Plus the cost of iridium is about 10x to 20x more than Thuraya’s dial-up, which itself is about 20x more than Thuraya’s GPRS.
This is quite a nuisance, because a day like today is actually a very good case for having airborne weather. There is no way ATC are going to read out to you the wx for a useful number of airports so you could make an intelligent diversion decision.
Metar
EGKK 130750Z 00000KT 2500 1400W R26L/P1500 BR PRFG NSC 03/03 Q1030
EGNS 130750Z 36003KT 0900 FG SCT000 OVC002 05/05 Q1031 TEMPO 0500 BKN000
EGKA: no results found
EGHI 130750Z 36004KT 0150 R20/0275 FG VV/// 03/02 Q1030
EGKB 130750Z 09001KT 0125 R21/M0125 FG VV/// 04/03 Q1030
EGMC 130750Z VRB02KT 0050 FG BKN001 04/04 Q1030
TAF
EGKK 130700Z 1307/1412 VRB03KT 2500 BR NSC TEMPO 1307/1310 0200 FG FZFG BKN001 BECMG 1309/1312 7000 NSW NSC BECMG 1318/1321 3000 BR BECMG 1323/1402 0200 FG BKN001 PROB40 TEMPO 1402/1409 1500 BR SCT003 BECMG 1409/1412 8000 NSW NSC
EGNS 130500Z 1306/1315 VRB06KT 8000 FEW004 TEMPO 1306/1315 3000 BR BKN004 PROB30 TEMPO 1306/1315 0600 FG BKN000
EGKA: no results found
EGHI 130714Z 1307/1315 01007KT 0200 FG VV/// TEMPO 1307/1312 3500 BR FEW003 BECMG 1310/1312 6000
EGKB 130800Z 1308/1315 VRB03KT 0100 FG VV/// BECMG 1309/1312 7000 NSC PROB30 1312/1315 CAVOK
EGMC 130506Z 1306/1315 VRB03KT 0100 FG OVC000 BECMG 1309/1312 5000 BR NSC
you are pretty much at the edge of Thuraya coverage
I did have the maximum signal. However Thuraya have a history, IME, of connecting fine but having a break further upstream in their system.
Jason, that was not one of your smartest comments.
Peter, you are pretty much at the edge of Thuraya coverage, that might play a role. I have had situations where I couldn’t get data through as well but not lately.
proper network – Iridium….
Yeah right. I was in the middle of africa, in the middle of nowhere, with the full sky dome in unobstructed view, but I couldn’t make a reasonable call made, it was constantly dropped.
I never managed to make an Iridium call that was reasonably understandable and not constantly dropped.
