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When Weather Hunters International was first conceived, it was decided we would make every effort to simulate actual weather reconnaissance as closely as possible. The new weather engine in FS2000 and the work of Pete Dowson with FSUIPC and Marc Phillibert with FS_Meteo were a big help in where to start. But as those of you who have used the logging feature in FSUIPC know, this combination can produce large amounts of data, much of which we have no use for. So early on the Technology Division began to work on the now famous "Blackbox." Well thanks to hard work by Mike Putnam, with invaluable assistance from Marc Phillibert, we now have everything we asked for.
WHAT IS THE BLACKBOX?
I know some of you had ideas of starship-like displays and magic telemetry, but in the end, what the pilot actually sees in the cockpit with the Blackbox is a small panel with two switches. One is cryptically labeled B/B for Blackbox and the other D/S for Dropsonde.
Both of these options allow you to grab a snapshot of the weather conditions either at Flight Level, with Blackbox; or a vertical profile of wind and temperature conditions by selecting the Dropsonde option. We will look at this data and how it is formatted a bit later. First we will look at installing the gauge.
INSTALLATION
You have two options when it comes time to download the Blackbox package. As I noted above, the Blackbox gauge is just as small panel with two switches. However, if you would like to be able to keep track of what the conditions are like outside the aircraft Marc Phillibert has developed an add-on for his FS_Meteo software. It provides a window, about the size and looks of the FS2000 GPS window that can display the current conditions at the nearest site and flight level values on one screen and the upper-air conditions on another. This is basically the same information you get when you "Decode Local" in the regular FS_Meteo program, but now you can see them in FS2000 and they will change as you make your way.
So there are two packages available on the WHI Hangar page. One gives you the Blackbox gauge file and the new panel config files for all of the WHI aircraft. All you have to do with this package is copy the "blackbox.gau" file to the FS2000 gauges folder and the panel config files to the various aircraft panel folders.
You will want to backup your original panel.cfg file be renaming it as panel.old before adding the new panel file. That is it. Next time you start FS2000 and load one of the WHI aircraft, you will see the gauge panel on the panel and be ready to go. If you decide to purchase the FS_Meteo Display add-on, or already have it, then you will download that package. There is only one difference to the naked eye, the addition of a bitmap file. Just as above, move the blackbox.gau file to the FS2000 Gauges folder, then move the panel.cfg and the bitmap to the appropriate aircraft panel folder. Don't forget to back up your old panel. When you launch FS2000 and load one of the WHI aircraft, you will be able to bring up the FS_Meteo Display window from the Views/Instrument Panel menu. Refer to the FS_Meteo Display website for more specific information on that product, including pricing and ordering instructions. The website can be accessed by clicking here. 
The first time you load one of the WHI panels with the Blackbox Gauge, it will create a file in your Windows Directory called Blackbox.ini. There are several configuration options in the Blackbox.ini file, but you will need to only change two. You can do this by opening the Blackbox.ini file in Notepad. But before you make any changes, go to the Save As command and backup this file by saving it as Blackbox.bak.
Click to view full size image
As shown in the image below, you will see five lines. We will only deal with two lines. You will see a line labeled Userid=233330 or a similar number. You want to change the long number to your WHI Callsign. For example, mine now reads Userid=WH10D. The next line will be labeled Mission=222222, or similar. Here you will enter the three-letter identifier of your permanently assigned Operations Center. If you are in the Atlantic Basin, then you would have Mission=ATL. If you are assigned to the South Pacific Basin, even though it is not open yet, you would still use the SPA identifier. Once you have entered your Callsign and Operations Center Identifier, Save the file as Blackbox.ini and close Notepad. Do not touch any of the other fields. Changing them could cause problems in FS2000. You will not have to make changes again to this file unless you change your permanent Operations Center assignment or get a new Callsign. Then you would follow the above instructions to enter the new information. If you have any questions or concerns about working in the Windows folder, contact one of the staff members who can walk you through it, or maybe even make the changes for you. OPERATION OF THE BLACKBOX When you activate the Blackbox (B/B) switch, the software will record the flight-level data, and then do so every 60 seconds until you shut it off. The data recorded via both Blackbox and Dropsonde is placed into a file labeled Blackbox.log in the root directory of FS2000. If you have recorded data via the Blackbox option it will look like this:
LOG ON;All;WH10D In this case, you will see that I turned logging on and left it on for two minutes, thus the two reports, then turned it off and back on later to grab a single report. Let's take a look at what those number mean. Here is the first data set captured above on a short flight out of San Juan:
07-06-2001/00:19:34;18.472502;-64.538139;3050.213120;188;1017;17;23;11;121;
Once again, all of this information is recorded at the flight level when you actuate the B/B button. So what about the Dropsonde feature? To grab a data set with the Dropsonde feature, you must meet two conditions: First, the B/B button must be actuated and recording. You cannot grab a Dropsonde data set if Blackbox is not recording. Second, you must be at least 3,000 feet above ground level. For WHI purposes, the minimum altitude for a dropsonde reading over water is 5,000 feet. Then, you can also take them at higher altitudes with 10,000-foot increments, thus 15,000 feet, FL250, FL350, FL450 and FL550. Over land, the lowest recording level is FL250, then on up in 10,000-foot increments as above.
As noted above, the Dropsonde gives us a vertical slice of the atmosphere at the aircraft's location, recording altitude above ground level (AGL), temperature in degrees Celsius, wind speed in knots, and wind direction. Here is an example of a Dropsonde data set recorded during flight-testing:
LOG ON;233330;222222; Once again, the top line shows the fact that you logged on and then lists the default figures in the Userid and Mission fields. Then we get the following:
While the Dropsonde data does not record location and time, remember that Blackbox must be running for you to grab a Dropsonde data set. Therefore you will have the time and position of the Flight Level data set from the Blackbox immediately before the Dropsonde data set for this information.
While the Dropsonde data does not record location and time, remember that Blackbox must be running for you to grab a Dropsonde data set. Therefore you will have the time and position of the Flight Level data set from the Blackbox immediately before the Dropsonde data set for this information.
USING THE BLACKBOX
If you are flying a WHI mission and FS_Meteo is capturing weather data for you—this is easy to tell, if you see nothing but blue skies the odds are there is no data for FS_Meteo—then you should use the Blackbox when you are in heavy weather in the target area. For instance, If you are flying through a hurricane just off the United States coast, each time you are about to head into a weather band, turn on the Blackbox. If you pop pout into calmer weather for a while, shut the Blackbox down. When you are about to enter the eyewall, turn the Blackbox on and leave it on until you are through the eye and out the other side of the eyewall. When in areas of very heavy weather, capture a dropsonde reading every five minutes.
The same protocols would apply to any mission, be it a severe thunderstorm run or blizzard mission. Anytime you take a research aircraft into heavy weather and FS_Meteo is recording real time weather data, use the Blackbox and Dropsonde features with the ratio always 10 minutes of Blackbox to each Dropsonde deployment.
If your mission is in an area where FS_Meteo does not have enough data, there is no need to use the Blackbox. In the future, we will look to create some mock conditions for these type missions, but you should never forward anything but real-life data collected.
After the mission, go to the FS2000 root directory and locate the file Blackbox.log. Cut that file and paste it to a temporary directory. Once there, rename the Blackbox.log file to (mission number).log. For instance, if your mission is 1519 Component C, you would label the file 1519C.log and email it as an attachment to whi@avsim.com. I will be able to correlate it to your PIREP by the mission number file name and your Callsign in the data itself.
An average mission should produce no more than around an hour of data and in most cases it will likely be closer to 30 to 45 minutes. We are looking to get the data from the most intense areas of weather. These will be processed and periodically we will release reports on how well your data is correlating with the actual conditions reported at the site at that time.
Comdr. Chuck Boudreaux |
