Aviation safety has always relied on redundancy. Dual magnetos, backup flight instruments, multiple flashlights in the flight bag, EFBs running on both an iPad and iPhone—pilots build multiple backups into every flight. In the larger aircraft I fly at my day job, systems are multiplied, but the principle remains the same: Single points of failure should not exist.
That’s the theory, anyway. In practice, I learned how quickly comfort can turn into complacency. That raises the real question: What backups haven’t you thought about?
My Machine … and the Tech I Trusted
My airplane is a turbocharged Cessna 310R, outfitted with a capable avionics package: Garmin G500 PFD/MFD, GTN 750/650 navigators, JPI 960 engine monitor, plus an S-TEC 55X autopilot. In the nose sits a Garmin GWX 68 weather radar—a rarity in piston general aviation. I also have two portable ADS-B receivers and Starlink. I thought we were equipped to handle most situations.
I’ve relied on a ForeFlight ADS-B receiver for in-flight weather and traffic since I learned to fly. Most of my flights tend to be four hours or more and cover roughly 1000 miles. Even though forecasting has improved, weather over that distance can still change quickly. FIS-B datalink is useful, but it doesn’t inspire the same confidence as a high-quality radar picture. SiriusXM has always been an option, but I never subscribed.
In March 2025, I began testing Starlink in my airplane. After months and several thousand miles of flying with it, I can’t imagine a long cross-country without it. In a jet, pilots use internet connectivity to look farther ahead, monitor weather trends, and make more informed decisions. Starlink brings general aviation closer to that experience. Radar updates arrive faster than FIS-B, with better resolution, plus real-time winds, freezing levels, icing forecasts, and more. It’s like sitting at home with your EFB on Wi-Fi—only I’m cruising at 15,000 feet and 190 knots.
When Comfort Turns to Complacency
During my Starlink testing, I began to wonder whether ADS-B receivers still had any real value. With internet-based traffic added to the Garmin Pilot app in July 2025, both ForeFlight and Garmin Pilot can deliver the same data over Wi-Fi that they can via ADS-B—often faster and with more detail. My flight home from AirVenture 2025 proved me wrong and confirmed the value of having an ADS-B receiver ready to go.
On the way home, the Terminal Aerodrome Forecast (TAF) called for afternoon thunderstorms in Denver, but my ETA was an hour ahead of the predicted weather. Confident in Starlink, I set it up, left the ADS-B receivers unplugged, and departed. In Colorado, storms tend to have a mind of their own, so I made a fuel stop for extra reserve before heading into the home stretch. About 90 minutes from Denver, Starlink showed cells spilling over the Front Range. I had just started deviating for weather when Starlink crashed in a worldwide outage that lasted just over two hours—cutting off my internet-sourced weather radar.
My ADS-B receivers? Both were on board. Both were unplugged. Both were buried in a bag I couldn’t reach. That left only my onboard ship’s weather radar—excellent for dodging what’s right in front of me, but lousy for the big-picture planning I now desperately needed.
Fortunately, the cells stayed small and scattered, and I could see and avoid them in VMC. In IMC, I likely would have needed to make an additional stop to check the weather.
The Takeaway
I had two ADS-B receivers on board and didn’t plug in either because I was so confident in Starlink. It would have taken seconds to set one up and saved me a lot of stress three hours into the flight. While onboard weather radar is technically a weather source, its real strength is navigating what’s directly ahead—not in strategic planning. Relying solely on Starlink with thunderstorms in the forecast was a bad call.
The danger wasn’t a lack of equipment—it was having the tools and not using them. I trusted one system so much that I didn’t bother to activate the backup I’d carried all along. Redundancy isn’t just about owning two ways to get information—it’s about actively using them.
That day, overconfidence erased the safety net I thought I’d built. And I walked away with a new preflight mantra: Don’t just think about backups. Use them. Every time.
So, back to my original question in hopes of making your flying safer: What redundancies haven’t you thought about?
Got an experience that you’d like to share? Drop us a note to keep the discussion going.
Other backups I fly with AND keep within reach: a fully charged hand-held aviation radio, headset batteries, a spare headset, flashlight, head lamp, sunglasses, and a spare set of readers.
It looks like you have a Garmin GTX345r. Why isn’t it wired to show FIS-B on all your screens?
Hey Jeff, good catch. My airplane actually has a remote GTX33ES. I do see ADS-B traffic on the GTN750/650 and G500. When there’s a traffic alert, both GTNs automatically revert to a pop-up traffic page. That alerting is based on algorithms that consider trajectory, closure rate, and altitude trend data. In this picture, there was no alert since we were separated by 1,000 feet (900 displayed).
IMO, the #1 backup plan is extra fuel. How many people die every year, how many aircraft destroyed by running out of gas? Certainly way more that gadget failure. The 30 minutes VFR, 45 minutes IFR is woefully inadequate. You’re placing a bet that everything goes right. Landing at destination with a couple of hours fuel remaining is the cheapest insurance one can buy. Impractical? Maybe for turbines, but recips can do that by SLOWING DOWN. Flying at Vy will come close to doubling both range and endurance. Too slow? Then try the Carson Speed, essentially 1.32 times best L/D, essentially Vy. This gives 32% more speed with only 17% more than the minimum fuel burn. I read report after report of critical fuel emergencies but almost never read the correct immediate response once the problem is realized: SLOW DOWN.
It still amazes me how many fuel-related issues we see in aviation, especially considering the advanced technology available today.
Bingo! Whether utility bush flying or corporate turbine operations outside of regular milk run territory which much of corporate operating is about, fuel can be one life’s best friends.
I’ve used XM weather data for 20 years and added ADS-B in 2015 with a GDL-88 and can view it on both my Garmin navigator as well as on Garmin Pilot (or ForeFlight) using a Garmin FlightStream 210. I’ve thought about cancelling my $30 subscription for XM weather at times, but elected to keep it for redundancy. There are times when FIS-B weather doesn’t update, and in some parts of the country, such as NW Wisconsin, there are areas where even at fairly high altitudes, even 3-4,000 feet, where there is no ADS-B.
It’s always nice to have to sources of information showing about the same thing, too.
I agree — having both sources side by side adds confidence. And in aviation, $30 a month is pretty cheap insurance for redundancy.
The other benefit of SXM WX is that you can receive and view the weather on the ground. That often is not the case with ADS-B weather. One could also do that with Starlink, I suppose, but I have a portable GDL 52 that receives both SXM and ADS-B, so that one device serves as both a backup and supplement to the equipment in the aircraft I fly.
I am getting geared up to do a test with SXM WX. Hopefully in the next couple of months I will have a report on the 3 weather sources.
“Redundancy isn’t just about owning two ways to get information—it’s about actively using them.”
I’m writing that one down on my list of aviation wisdom quotes!
Thanks Sy!
Thanks Peter!
I have a 28V 182, what do you power your Starlink with?
I power it with the Starlink Mini Car Adapter, basically a branded cigarette plug adapter. I tried a standard cigarette plug with a USB-C cable from Amazon and didn’t have much luck. Surprisingly it pulls very little power.
On a trip from SC to MI, Foreflight was was not updating METARs for the airports along my route. Avare with a second ADSB receiver was not updating either. What the heck! That situation can get pretty nerve wracking if you need a hole to get down through the overcast. It turns out there was a service outage that day which I didn’t know about. With some research I found there are NOTAMs for ADSB weather outages buried in the ZID AIRSPACE NOTAMS. But how to find these NOTAMS? During my weather planning with Foreflight, I will select an airport along the route, select NOTAMS, ARTCC do a ctrl-f (to bring of the search box) and enter “ADSB” and hit the down arrow. This shows me where TIS-B service is not available.