As there are so many questions regarding satellite communication for around the world
trips and similar adventures, this articles tries to give an overview. While the ADL
devices are amazing value for money regarding in flight weather they do not support
audio calls. Also the weather download can reach its limits if very long routes
(1000NM and more) are requested.
For typical general aviation flying missing this does not matter at all but once you
start to plan real intercontinental flights you might want to call ATC via Iridium.
They will usually not accept text/sms/email but will require voice communications.
Also in a search and rescue scenario you probably want a voice device you can take with
you out of the aircraft. Finally many flights on such trips are much longer than normal
and you want a system with a little more weather data download capability for long
routes.
In our experience the best solution is the Iridium GO. For all year round flying this
device is also nice but the overall running cost is quite substantial
(
details). But for a special trip you can
actually buy a short duration SIM card and there are options to rent such a GO device.
So the recommendation is to buy or rent an Iridium GO device for such trips. Do not
spend your money on pure satellite phones. They cost the same (or sometimes more) and
then you will need yet another device for satellite weather downloads.
If you do not want to buy a GO device there is for example the company Cramer which
also rents them out:
m-cramer Satellitenservices
Or you buy one and then resell it after the trip on ebay as demand for used devices seems
to be quite high.
Please do not forget, to use the ADLConnect weather download with an Iridium GO device you will need
our special
ADLConnect for Iridium GO license.
