We are also working on making our Flight Plan app compatible for the Iridium GO! as yes, in remote areas it is not a given to have a good internet connection on or near the airstrip to file your flight plan. I have been filing flight plans with a Thuraya setup with external antenna. That works including searching for routes. First, we want to get the strike/lightning data in there working in SAT mode. Then, we will concentrate on the Flight Plan part including getting updates while in flight.
The Iridium GO! is not only for boating. See their promo video here:
Aeroplus, you should provide details with subscriptions cost to help people have a better idea of the solution.
Regarding the weather software, how can the user select what he wants to download ? Sebastian has done a good work to select just what you need: faster and more economical.
Do you think it will be possible to seek routes via iridium ? Or too much data consuming ?
The multi-activity aiming aspect should allow a wide deployment of the terminals, and better rates (depending on profits company demand !)
Just tested it over 4G: works great!
One remark: I could not make a distinction in areas where there is no rain radar info shown if it was for lack of rain or for lack of radar. In other words: how do we know the coverage of the radar image on the app?
@Niner_Mike: the version shown above (screenshot) is not the version that is now available in the AppStore. We just uploaded the version that supports the Iridium GO! to the AppStore after extensive testing. I hope that it will be released within 3-4 days. The Rain Radar is fully available on the continents stated: Europe, North America, Central America, Australia and some islands in the pacific that have ties to the US. In other areas, the rain radar will not show, such as in all of Africa, Asia, and most of South America. You just have to know on which continent it is available. However, the lightning data is going to be available worldwide, just like the airport data and at virtually no delay.
@PetitCessnaVoyageur: I am not selling the Iridium GO! device, but it goes for about 680 US$. It has a SIM card as you can also make and receive calls with it. The SIM cards go anywhere from 50 to 150 euro per month. You can get them as a subscription and as prepaid cards for a specific period of time. Same here, I am not selling SIM cards as well. The 150 US$ per month rate is for unlimited data, so that would most likely not be an option for most private flyers but the pros flying for their profession. But it is the only data option Iridium offers with truly unlimited data.
The AeroPlus Weather app will offer the support for the Iridium GO! for a subscription fee of 49,99 euro per year. However, there is then no need for a Deutsche Wetterdienst subscription anymore. The fee is for us to cover to costs of the weather feeds such as the rain radar and strike data and to make some money.
We did, of course, optimise the downloads of weather data. To download weather data for an airport, it takes about 30 seconds for a data connection to be established, then 30 seconds to 1 minute to download all the weather for a specific airport including METAR, TAF, GFS data and the Clouds Diagram data. To download rain radar for a specific area, you just zoom the map (offline world map) into the area you want to download the weather for and then initiate the download. For all of Europe, that takes approximately 2-3 minutes. After the download, you simply zoom into the area where you are flying. There is no need to select a path and only download the weather left and right of that path/route.
I hope to provide more info as soon as it is released in the AppStore. Any comments and suggestions are welcome of course. I am also talking to Sebastian to see if we can support his device as well. The difference would be in the way a data connection is established and other functionality. With the Iridium GO! you can make/receive phone calls and it already includes a GEOS rescue subscription, can be linked to an external aviation antenna, etc. It is just another option that I personally like a lot.
[Disclaimer, I sell the ADL140 so my opinion might be biased…]
I think the Iridium Go! is an interesting product but unless you commit to the 125 USD / month unlimited plan the recurring charges are quite high for occasional in flight weather. Let’s assume 10 downloads each month and on average each takes 4 minutes (for comparison reasons all prices given without VAT):
Iridium Go!:
50.00 USD monthly fee
31.15 USD for 35 billable minutes at 0,89 USD (first 5 minutes are free)
_________
81,15 USD total per month
Just as a comparison the estimated charges using the ADL140:
29,50 EUR monthly fee
11,60 EUR for a total of 40 data packets
_________
41,10 EUR total per month
Iridium offers also prepaid cards valid for 12 months and giving you 1000 data minutes (GO! 1000 & 1 Year)
Purchase price: £500.00 ex VAT (for the comparison)
Converted to Euro: 577,61 EUR
Price per month: 48,13 EUR
What you get for this:
1000 data minutes;
Outgoing voice calls are charged at twice the data minute rate, so a 5-minutes call is charged as 10 data minutes;
Free incoming voice calls;
Free incoming SMS messages;
Short SMS/Text/E-mail send out with the Iridium Go! app are charged at 1/3 of the data minute rate.
Free GEOS rescue subscription (comes with the Iridium GO! device).
-———————
Price source: http://www.g-comm.co.uk/PBCPPlayer.asp?ID=1482902
1000 data minutes on Iridium is not much data 
Free incoming voice calls… they may be free but likely the caller is paying a lot to call the Iridium number. Iridium run a huge ripoff scheme on the termination charges to the calling network, as does Thuraya. Here is one price list I found, from Vodafone
Here is another one – Virgin Mobile
So in practice nobody is going to call or text you.
However, Iridium is the only satphone network which is fairly reliable. Thuraya works maybe 70% of the time, currently.
Yes, but Iridium offers with the Iridium GO! also a 2-stage voice calling option, where others call you on a landline, which is then connected to your SAT phone. Let’s say you talk for 10 minutes, you get charged 20 data minutes and the person calling get charged just the call to the landline by his telecom provider.
Nobody is going to be talking for hours to him Mom when flying. However, the fact that you can make a call gives me the piece of mind. If I am delayed, I can call the airport ahead. If I have issues with the aircraft, I might give a call to the maintenance company or I can order a taxi to pick me up from the airport 20 minutes before landing.
1000 data minutes is in my honest option a lot unless you are going to be calling a lot. Most of us don’t plan to fly into severe weather, so most of our flights (or at least mine) are eventless with no need to get any rain radar and strike data for the area. You might want to get the weather for your destination airport and that is it. Then, there are these flights where the weather is playing a role and that is where having the option to get the latest weather in-flight is going to pay off.
However, there is then no need for a Deutsche Wetterdienst subscription anymore. The fee is for us to cover to costs of the weather feeds such as the rain radar
What radar feed are you displaying? Is it still using DWD for Europe, or something else?
We are using Weather Underground, but there are several providers of radar feeds, even though I think they all come from the same source. Of course, we have been comparing several radar feed providers and how they display their data, delays, etc. Since we partnered with Weather Underground and provide the radar feed ourselves into our app, there is no need anymore to get a yearly DWD subscription. Also, the radar feed is provided for more than only Europe. Meteogroup is another potential source as there are others. The lightning/strike data comes from another commercial provider and is worldwide (coverage) and includes in-cloud lightning data and is offered with virtually no time delay. You can find more info here: http://www.aeroplus.nl/fly/i757x
An external review of the Iridium GO! can be found in Pilot & Planes Magazine here: http://www.planeandpilotmag.com/article/iridium-go/#.V6CbAtB96Fx
