Richard Hardoon’s 55 Baron, above, is a veritable weather lab. Top display is a MX20 with WSI Inflight, bottom is an Avidyne EX500 with both datalink and onboard Bendix RDR160 radar.

by Paul Bertorelli

Flying around—and occasionally through—convective weather with no radar or sferics gadgets is really no big deal. Just try to suck the seat cushion up with your sphincter muscle and the angst and fear will melt away like a campaign promise in December. In the days before Stormscopes and airborne radar, many of us actually thought this way because some grizzled old geezer said so or, more realistically, we had no choice.

Datalink NEXRAD to the cockpit is changing that, of course, and it’s just now getting better, cheaper and easier to get. When we last examined this topic barely a year ago, we predicted a shakeout in the…