Originally published at: Pilots Petition Starlink Following Shift to New Speed Tiers
Revised in-motion limits force most GA users into higher-cost plans.
Elon did this ‘BAIT AND SWITCH’ ON THE $35K tesla…nice offer up front then when you order the car you need this and this etc to a price of $55k. When I ordered my starlink on Jan 16th there was NO speed limit…none, nada,…then came the 350mph, and now the 100 mph. They think all GA aircraft are flown for/by billionaires. I have asked for a return receipt but the AI bot won’t let me …outside the 30 days limit. unable to talk to a real person. please send me information that this petition will be sent to so I can protest individually also…kent ewing ..flying Eclipse 500.
Definitely disappointing - but sounds like you have a personal dislike for Musk since it’s common practice (esp. for cars) to offer a very basic product with pricey options. You can always decide not to buy it if you don’t like the ultimate pricing. In regard to Starlink, if the rate structure changed, you do not have to accept it and can terminate service at the end of whatever term you signed up for. If enough GA users drop the service, they might reconsider - unless of course they were losing money providing service to GA users. No business can be forced to offer an unprofitable product/service despite what some politicians would like.
Says the dude with a $2 million jet! And by the way – what was the point of telling the world you fly an Eclipse 500 jet? I have a feeling it has to do with the same ego that FORCED you to buy a Tesla (one of the dumbest, poorly crafted, and overpriced vehicles ever produced) despite your justified protestations.
If you don’t like what Starlink is doing, the drop the service! They’ll get the message a lot faster than posting silly rants and obscure petitions will provide.
well heyd, My overactive ego certainly did not buy the overpriced and under built tesla…however they gave me back my deposit. The robots at starlink wont let me turn in the hardward that I bought with NO SPEED LIMITS . so help me find a real person at starlink to talk to about this very poor business decision. there are many other GA aircraft more expensive (cirrus jet) and less expensive that ALL GO OVER 100 MPH. WE ARE forming a protest coalition. so be it.
you should “lead , follow, or get out of the way.”
I was initial really ticked off about this, not because I “need” this service, but it was a nice-to-have to offer my wife and other passengers while on a long cross-country. The best thing for me was having in-flight NEXRAD on my tablet and being able to file an IFR flight plan while in the air. Was thinking about this yesterday and I personally think they did this to price general aviation out of the market right now on purpose. Why? Because Starlink systems are two way communication links that could be used for bad actors to fly drones in the United States and target our infrastructure here in the US. What I am hoping is that SpaceX is working on a way to link the registration of the device, to a legitimate tail number, with some sort of real-time tracking, to assure their devices are only being used by legitimate users, as a way to stop potential terrorists from using Starlink as a way to bring weaponized drones to the U.S.. There is all kinds of telemetry / metadata from the device itself, from GPS to accelerometers, and I would believe that drones probably have a different accelerometer profile than a typical GA aircraft. But I’m not sure if that is something they can model and map in just a couple of days. My hope is that they can figure it all out and get us GA pilots back to some level of reasonable price plans. My thought is that without some sort of data observation and the ability to identify and shut down the link, it wouldn’t be too hard for someone with a pilot certificate, and an airplane, to get a Starlink device, legitimately registered, then just pass it along to a bad actor. If they are a really bad actor, that device would only be used once, and with some of the theological mentalities we are dealing with, some people may be willing to do that because they think the “ends justify the means”. Of course this is just speculation, but too many things seem to line up to suggest this to me. https://youtu.be/yJLHWIQOuOc?si=9BbOPUFWFvASrFWG
I mean… you can always go back to not having internet in flight. Because even at $250/ month, thats a bargain compared to other options (That aren’t as fast or reliable) that are available. I don’t think your decision to purchase, or not purchase is going to put a dent in Starlinks business. When you consider all of your other expenses associated with owning and operating your airplane, $3000 a year for internet is still going to be one of your smaller line items for expenses associated with the cost of owning and operating your Elipse. not sure what kind of business you are in, but typically speaking I imagine one “business deal” alone could easily pay for and justify the $3000. I clearly have no idea what you do or what business dealing you could be utilizing the internet for. But somehow you found the courage to spend the money on an Eclipse, (A purchase that has inherent risk.). So protest all you want. Starlink wont even notice your absence, but your business and passengers sure will.
I had AI pull a pricing spreadsheet for all Starlink plans, fixed and mobile. The pricing is shocking. old Local Priority plan at 50GB usage: $1.30/GB at 350 mph.
The Aviation 300MPH plan at the same 50GB usage: $250 base + 30GB overage × $10 = $550/month, or $11.00/GB. That’s an 8.5x increase in per-GB cost for the same data consumption, plus you lose 50 mph of speed headroom.
The most absurd line in the whole comparison is the Aviation 450MPH plan at 50GB: $1,000 base + 30GB × $50 = $2,500/month, or $50.00/GB. For context, the Roam 100GB plan that works on the highway delivers the same data at $0.50/GB. To push this uphill: The person who owns this decision is almost certainly Lauren Dreyer. She’s VP of Starlink Business Operations at SpaceX, overseeing global expansion including enterprise customer relationships, strategic connectivity projects, and crisis response. Baylor She’s been at SpaceX since 2006. She was the one Elon Musk quoted on X when posting the Ukraine whitelist registration instructions. Her scope explicitly includes the kind of plan restructuring you’re dealing with.
Here are your realistic channels to reach decision-makers, ranked by likelihood of actually landing:
1. Lauren Dreyer directly on X (Twitter): @LaurenDreyer She’s active there and publicly engaged on Starlink policy issues. A concise, well-framed post tagging her — especially from a group of TBM/turboprop owners presenting the “we accept identity verification, price it fairly” argument — has a real chance of being seen. She has 13.9K followers and engages with Starlink-related posts. This is probably your single best shot at reaching someone with actual authority.
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