Good Day,I'm VERY interested in your Active Sky wxRE coming out next month. Can you tell me if the METAR data is worldwide (i.e. I fly a lot in northern Norway - is that fully covered insomuch as reporting stations exist there)? Also on the sim winds aloft - are those something you set/can set yourself, or are they based on winds below?Thanks very muchGlenn

Hi Glenn,Yes worldwide METARs are supported. NOAA and/or VATSIM servers are used and support every known METAR reporting facility.Winds Aloft Simulation is based on the winds below. You CAN actually set the winds yourself though by disabling winds aloft simulation and thus manually setting wind. Or you can use the offline option and create your own winds aloft files and create winds aloft reporting stations as you desire. The options are many here.-DamianDamian ClarkDeveloper of ActiveSkyThe next-generation weather environment simulation for FS2002!http://hifi.avsim.net/activeskyhttp://hifi.avsim.net/activesky//images/wxre-banner.jpg

Please forgive my ignorance but is Activesky only used online? I don't have a premenanent internet connection or broadband so it would be limited for me. I don't have any add on weather programmes at the moment but would like to as I get fed up of stopping the sim and changing the weather. By the way, does it get rid of the line at which the cloud stop at the "horizon"?ThanksColin

yes it is .It downloads metar and updates itself like Fsmeteo does but there will be alot more to it than that .ALOT ! :) Capt.Richard Dillon (KATL)www.jetstarairlines.com"Bill Grabowski's"ERJ-145 panel Beta TeamMD-11 panel Beta Team-----------------------PAI beta team -----------------------http://hifi.avsim.net/activesky/images/wxrebeta.jpg"Lets Roll" 9/11 -----------------------Specs AMD 1600 XP MSI KT 266t pro2 512MB DDR 2100GF3 ti 200 64MB SBliveCh Products Yoke and Pedals(usb)Windows 2000 Serivce Pack 3

Colin,The version currently in development will have an offline option.Keith Cocker

Hi sir, As a current user of FS Meteo, I'm also interested in your product. You said that METARs will be retrieved from NOAA and VATSIM servers. Could you please add IVAO servers to the pool? That's because sometimes IVAO METARs are even more recent than NOAA/VATSIM. It seems they get info from Jeppesen.The second question is: what kind of interaction we will have with FS Sky World? Clouds' sets will be chosen according to the weather!? If so, it's a real good feature! What else could you point as advantages of FS Meteo!? Thanks. >Hi Glenn, >>Yes worldwide METARs are supported. NOAA and/or VATSIM >servers are used and support every known METAR reporting >facility. >>Winds Aloft Simulation is based on the winds below. You CAN >actually set the winds yourself though by disabling winds >aloft simulation and thus manually setting wind. Or you can >use the offline option and create your own winds aloft files >and create winds aloft reporting stations as you desire. >The options are many here. >>-Damian >>Damian Clark >Developer of ActiveSky >The next-generation weather environment simulation for >FS2002! >http://hifi.avsim.net/activesky >>http://hifi.avsim.net/activesky//images/wxre-banner.jpg

Hi All,Just like others I am a heavy user of FSMeteo. I hope avsim, simflight or flightsim put reviewers on this case! Would like to see some comparisations between ActiveSky wxSE and FSMeteo. For some years I have been using FSMeteo with much pleasure, I must say that!Regards, Ferry>Hi sir, >>As a current user of FS Meteo, I'm also interested in your >product. You said that METARs will be retrieved from NOAA >and VATSIM servers. Could you please add IVAO servers to the >pool? That's because sometimes IVAO METARs are even more >recent than NOAA/VATSIM. It seems they get info from >Jeppesen. >>The second question is: what kind of interaction we will >have with FS Sky World? Clouds' sets will be chosen >according to the weather!? If so, it's a real good feature! >What else could you point as advantages of FS Meteo!? >>Thanks. >>>Hi Glenn, >>>>Yes worldwide METARs are supported. NOAA and/or VATSIM >>servers are used and support every known METAR reporting >>facility. >>>>Winds Aloft Simulation is based on the winds below. You CAN >>actually set the winds yourself though by disabling winds >>aloft simulation and thus manually setting wind. Or you can >>use the offline option and create your own winds aloft files >>and create winds aloft reporting stations as you desire. >>The options are many here. >>>>-Damian >>>>Damian Clark >>Developer of ActiveSky >>The next-generation weather environment simulation for >>FS2002! >>http://hifi.avsim.net/activesky >>>>http://hifi.avsim.net/activesky//images/wxre-banner.jpg

Thank you very much for your reply Damian! This sounds really terrific. May I assume from other posts here that FS Sky will integrate completely with wxRE? I'm going on the assumption here that wxRE is simply the program that tells FS what the weather is, and the clouds themselves come either from FS or from FS Sky.Thanks once again - much appreciate the heads up. This is a very exciting sounding project!Glenn

Damian - when you say that aloft winds will be based on the winds from below does this mean that we will not be able to fly in the jetstream (or avoid the jetstream for that matter)?For certain flights i will plan my route so that i can catch a ride as close to the jetstream center as possible...especially when im flying the c421 twin prop...this makes a flight from chicago-NY shortened to just under 3 hours in that plane :-)...and the new meridian releasing soon will be another great GA plane to cruise at up to 30,000ft when the jetstream comes low enough.If you can clarify this point a little further that would be great, thanks :-)Dave

Hi Dave,Jetstreams are already simulated in ActiveSky v1.5! and wxRE has better winds aloft simulation that makes this even better. But it actually works pretty good right now. Check it out! On a recent test flight I actually got 130kt tailwinds between FL340 and FL390. Also got a heck of a lot of turbulence to accompany the transition into this stream!Damian ClarkDeveloper of ActiveSkyThe next-generation weather environment simulation for FS2002!http://hifi.avsim.net/activeskyhttp://hifi.avsim.net/activesky//images/wxre-banner.jpg

Hi Glenn,No, "direct integration" is not supported but compatibility is (random mode). In the future there will be a wxRE update that will include an "SDK" of sorts that will permit any add-on (including FS Sky World) to get suggested cloud-type information and then it can do whatever it wants (like choose a compatible cloud set and then load it). So hopefully you will see this kind of functionality (intelligent cloud-set representation) in the near future!Damian ClarkDeveloper of ActiveSkyThe next-generation weather environment simulation for FS2002!http://hifi.avsim.net/activeskyhttp://hifi.avsim.net/activesky//images/wxre-banner.jpg

Hi,I am not familiar with IVAO but if you can point me to a web-based location to download METAR information from the IVAO servers, I will try to get this in there! As to comparisons of the two programs, I can say this: ActiveSky wxRE is new and will have a lot of features that the other doesn't. But I am sure that this release will force this other product to add more features so in the end that program will get better too. A never-ending cycle, actually.. such is the beauty of competition. Everyone wins...Damian ClarkDeveloper of ActiveSkyThe next-generation weather environment simulation for FS2002!http://hifi.avsim.net/activeskyhttp://hifi.avsim.net/activesky//images/wxre-banner.jpg

Hi DamianLooking forward to your software that sure sounds like a real opponent to FSMeteo. Just for clarification though, will jetstreams and winds aloft be real data even outside US or will it be the simulated winds as in ActiveSky v1.x? And if they are simulated, why is it impossible to implement real winds aloft outside the US?Any graphics presentation on the Weather Planning Interface with an option to print graphical data charts?Regards and thanks ;-)

Hi, outside the US this data is simulated using current METAR information. The simulation is fairly accurate to real conditions but the downside is that during planning you will be close but not close enough to really get your time and fuel calcs highly accurate.World-wide winds aloft usable data, until about 4 days ago, had been elusive to find on the internet. A very helpful individual found a site that looks like it recently went online and it provides world-wide upper air information that I can build winds aloft data with. This will not make it for the release of wxRE but is planned in a subsequent free update to existing wxRE users. It should get in there REAL quick unless it ends up being much more complicated that it appears... but I think it will be ok and get in there by late January.FYI there is a new ActiveSky support forum here at AVSIM that just went online! See ya over there...Damian ClarkDeveloper of ActiveSkyThe next-generation weather environment simulation for FS2002!http://hifi.avsim.net/activeskyhttp://hifi.avsim.net/activesky//images/wxre-banner.jpg