Over the past years, I’ve tried quite a few setups to get reliable inflight weather. Some worked, some didn’t. My ADL190 Iridium setup in the Blackwing is probably the first configuration I trust without hesitation.
And that’s exactly why I’m not rushing to change it — especially with a longer expedition coming up.
The current setup
In my aircraft I’m flying with an ADL190 from Golze Engineering, connected via Iridium.
The installation is effectively invisible. No bulky antennas, nothing that changes the aircraft. The Iridium link runs through the ADL, and from a pilot’s point of view it’s just there in the background.
The flow is straightforward:
- the ADL connects to the Iridium satellite network
- weather data is received onboard
- via the ADL app it is sent to my iPad
- from there it feeds directly into the Garmin G3X
Once it’s set up, you don’t think about it anymore. You just fly.
What it gives me in flight
In flight, I get:
- radar overlays
- cloud structure
- winds aloft
- METARs and TAFs
- a much better overall picture of what’s ahead
And crucially, it’s visible on the G3X itself — not just on the iPad.
That makes it part of the scan, not an extra task.
Why this matters for where I’m going
This summer, I’m preparing a long expedition to Georgia.
That means flying over:
- the mountains of eastern Turkey
- large stretches along the Black Sea
- and into regions where ground-based connectivity is… optimistic at best
In that kind of environment, you don’t want “usually works”.
You want:
- coverage everywhere
- predictable behaviour
- no dependency on mobile networks or local infrastructure
That’s exactly where Iridium still has a very clear advantage.
The key point: reliability
The strength of this setup is not that it’s the most advanced.
It’s that it behaves the same way:
- in Luxembourg
- over the Balkans
- over the Black Sea
- and in the mountains
That consistency removes a lot of uncertainty when making decisions in flight.
Cost-wise
The Iridium subscription is around €40/month.
For something I rely on during longer legs and more remote flying, that’s perfectly acceptable.
Enter Starlink
Of course, I’ve been looking at Starlink like everyone else.
The idea is appealing:
- higher bandwidth
- richer datasets
- potentially continuous streaming
So I seriously considered adding it.
The plan I had in mind
Not as a replacement, but as an addition:
Keep Iridium
Add Starlink
Run both in parallel for a year
Especially with a trip like Georgia coming up, I would never switch overnight to something unproven in my own use.
At the time, the numbers were still reasonable:
- €40/month (Iridium)
- around €50/month expected (Starlink)
That felt like a sensible redundancy strategy.
What Golze is building
Golze already supports this kind of setup.
The ADL can connect to onboard Wi-Fi (Starlink), pull weather data through that connection, and forward it into the avionics. They even offer a Wi-Fi-only plan at around €19/month.
But more interesting is what’s coming next.
From discussions with Sébastien Golze, they are working on a system that would move towards something like the SiriusXM model in the US:
continuous inflight weather streaming directly into Garmin avionics.
No manual downloads. Just live data flowing into the cockpit.
If that delivers, it’s a real step forward.
Then came the surprise
Just as I was about to move forward, Starlink changed its pricing.
New aviation plans appeared.
Speed limits on standard subscriptions.
And pricing suddenly jumped to several hundreds per month.
That changes everything.
It also explains the reaction from AOPA, warning that this kind of pricing risks excluding a large part of general aviation.
So… what now?
For me, the answer is simple.
I’m not changing anything before this summer.
My current setup:
- works everywhere I need it
- is fully predictable
- integrates cleanly into the cockpit
- costs €40/month
And most importantly:
👉 I trust it over mountains and water ( not sure how that is with Starlink when flying over the Black Sea)
That’s not the moment to experiment.
Waiting instead of jumping
Starlink will likely become part of general aviation — no doubt.
And the Golze ecosystem looks like one of the smartest ways to integrate it.
But right now:
- pricing is unstable
- the ecosystem is still evolving
- and I haven’t seen enough real-world use in aircraft like mine
So I’ll wait.
Fly the expedition with a setup I trust.
Watch how things evolve.
And revisit the decision later.
Final thought
There’s always something new in aviation.
But when you’re flying over mountains, water, and remote regions, “new” is not the priority.
Reliable is.
And for now, that’s exactly what I already have
