I've flown up through France with a friend of mine who has the Golze in-flight satellite weather system. It proved very valuable when trying to see if we could avoid the thunderstorm fronts. We saw that we would be flying through the gaps and that gave us the confidence to continue. An in-flight weather radar picture is excellent. However it is, as stated, more for "getting somewhere" flights than for the local bacon butty run.
I was coming back from France once in my aeroplane, and the way of getting the weather for a few airfields (Shoreham, Oxford Kidlington, um, something else, can't remember, maybe Middle Wallop) while still over the channel was to call London Information and get them to relay them. It would have been a lot easier just to tap on my tablet. Yes, there are only a small number of broadcast stations at the moment, but hopefully these will increase in number, and hopefully there will be some on the south coast broadcasting out to sea!
