Is there any advantage to using a popular "real weather" program such as FSMeteo or Active Weather, while flying on-line?? Will using one of these programs cause any problems or conflicts with on-line flying on VatSim??Thanks,Phil

Phil:About a year and a half ago, it would have been a big problem because these "real weather" programs oftentimes updated much sooner than VATSIM weather. Since improvements have been made since them, VATSIM weather is rarely off by more than hour so it is usually very close if not exactly the same as these add-on programs. Therefore, its very unlikely that VATSIM controllers will be using a runway which is different that what would be dictated by these add-ons.Another advantage is that the add-ons have *MUCH* more realistic winds aloft. Nothing like picking up a 60-80 knot (and higher) tailwind in cruise.If you go with either one, you won't be disappointed and you should have no conflicts using VATSIM. Enjoy.George S. MarinakisVP Conflict Resolution (VATSIM6/VATGOV8)VATSIM Board of Governors

FSMeteo has an option of using VATSIM weather.As George said, the network has improved so much latelly that you rarelly see a difference of real (NOAA) & VATSIM WX more than an hour.I've been using FSMeteo a year now and it provides very realistic weather. ActiveSky is also very good but have not used it yet.I load via ServInfo the destination weather as reported by VATSIM. If it differs greatly from the NOAA one then I select FSMeteo to download VATSIM weather. In all other cases I use real weather.Links :http://hifi.avsim.net/activesky/http://www.fsmeteo.comhttp://avsim.com/hangar/utils/servinfo/Kyprianos Biris :-cool[link:avsim.com/greece/hvacc]Hellenic vACChttp://vatsim-eur.org/images/VATSIM-EURs.gifhttp://vatsim.pilotmedia.fi/statusindicato...tor=OD1&a=a.jpg

I never used to use Real Weather. Then, I found myself constantly falling behind my peers when I was flying. It turned out, they had better tail winds than I did. So, I turned to the free version of Active Sky. I have not turned back since. Smooth, runs well in the background, and when it is snowing where I am at for real, I get to fly in show. I won't turn back.

ActiveSky as an option for VATSIM servers. Just be carefull with TAF processing. It can give you the so called dynamic metar. Jos