Hello Damian,Can you please explain?Is it usefull to let WXre (Online Mode) update the weather every 5 minutes or less?Because in my wisdom ;) the NOAA updatecyle is aprox ones a +/- 30 minutes and sometime's one's a hour!...I'm not sure about the VATSIM server?Where's VATSIM getting his weather from and IVAO?.....NOAA servers? (maby you can tell us?)I do not even know where WXRe getting his weather from..NOAA? :)Also, is it usefull to let FSFlightMax having its update every 5 minutes or less?......in my opinion 5 minutes or les is no use!....Can someone fly 400/500NM in 5 minutes?...please explain Damian, its is very important for everyone I think!In other words:'what are fair settings for the WXre and FSFM update intervals in Online Mode? N.B.I realy feel some performance loss when WXre is updating METARS/TAF and specialy when updating FSFlightMax data!!!...sorry Damian, can you take a look at this?Thanks again,vortovor

Obviously Damian should be the one to answer most of your questions here, but I can jump in over the update intervals. I have my settings to about 5 minutes, but don't have "Update on New Station" selected. The reason for the short interval is that as you are flying, you are (obviously) covering a fair bit of ground, even in a light single. Weather can change significantly over very short distances. If you have the interval set to 15 or 30 minutes, then a whole lot can happen in that time/distance you have travelled, and you will "miss it all" until the next update occurs. This would be true of flightmax as well, of course. Let's say you are going into a mountainous region on a hot, sunny day. The forecast was for good weather, but a chance of convective thunderstorms occuring. If your flight is only 25 minutes long, and when you first take off the weather is sunny and clear, then that's how it will be for the duration of your flight, no matter what else happens. Now, with your interval set to 5 minutes, then let's say 10 minutes after you take off, Station B is experiencing a heavy thundershower. THEN you will see it develop as you approach that station. Were you to not have your interval set to 5 minutes (going back to the 30 minutes, for instance) then you would see no such weather (assuming you do NOT have "Update on New Station" selected), and your weather would in fact not be true to what was really happening.I hope that helps a bit until Damian can get to you with the rest.Glenn

Hi Glenn, Thanks for your part of the explenation! :)Still....if the 'REAL' updatecycle of the NOAA/VATSIM server is only one's a +/- 30 minutes.....whats the use to set your update-interval in WXre on every 5 minutes....nothing wil changed that 30 minutes or sometimes longer!?....think your self! ;)Also, FSFlightMax can only read in a radius of 400/500NM distance for stations!If there's no significant WX change in 30 minutes whats the use to update that too one's a 5 minutes?...I can't fly 400NM in 5 minute's! ;)So why all the workload for Flightsimulator?Bestvortovor

True, if you remain over one station only, then your weather won't change for 30 minutes, even if you have the update interval set for every 30 seconds. However, if you are moving from one station to another, and it only takes you 5 minutes to get from one station to another, then you won't see any changes in the weather at all for at least 30 minutes if you have your interval update set to 30 minutes. You could travel 60 to 250 miles in 30 minutes, depending on the type of airplane you are flying. The update interval for wxRE will determine how often IT updates, not how often the weather station updates. Thus, when flying from one locale to the next, the weather stations will only update once per 30 minutes, but it will still be different at each station you pass (weather is very rarely the same in two different places). If you don't have your interval set to more than 30 minutes, you won't see any changes at all even though you might pass right out of one weather system into another. True, the weather at the station you started from will still be the same as it was 29 minutes ago (assuming there isn't a "Special" issued because of a significant wx change), but you are no longer over that station - you are 60 to 250 miles away by that time. If your interval update is set to 30 minutes, you won't see any of the changes along the way (UNLESS you have "Update on New Station" selected, then it will update, but you won't get smooth transistions).As for Flight Max, the same goes for it I believe. Also, I rather doubt that Flight Max will only see 500 miles distance. I'm quite sure that it has range selections on it, of which 500 would be the maximum, but it too should update regardless when you move over a new station. Otherwise it would be pretty useless in terms of telling you the weather ahead. I'll confirm that when I get to work today as we sell and service Flight Max equipment.OK, I don't know where you fly typically, so I'll give you a sample flight for Norway. Let's say you are flying a Learjet from Stavanger Norway (ENZV) to Trondheim Norway (ENVA). You take the coastal high altitude route. Your routing is: ENZV - FLS - FLO - VIA - KVB - ENVA. The total distance is 374 nm. In the Lear, it is estimated to take 00:57 (you have tailwinds for the flight). The METAR's are as follows:ENZV: 13004kt 10sm SCT030 BKN050 M01/M03 Q1019ENBR (FLS): 15010KT 3SM OVC002 03/03 Q997FLO: 18025KT 1/8 FG VV001 06/06 Q991VIA: 18020KT 3 FG OVC003 03/03 Q992ENVA: 14005KT 10 BKN009 05/02 Q995Now, remember you have your interval update set to 30 minutes. At Stavanger, you have a scattered deck at 3000 and a broken deck at 5000 feet and a temp of -1C. The weather along the route deteriorates considerably as you start coming under the influence of a warm front. Bergen is down to 3 miles vis with a 200 foot ceiling (still an acceptable IFR limit) and it gets worse from there. Floro (FLO) is closed completely at a vis of 1/8 in fog. Vigra (Alesund) is picking up again somewhat, but has what is likely an advection fog happening (3 miles with winds at 180 degrees and 20 kts). You could land there if necessary. So, if your flight was cut short for any reason, you could land at Bergen, Aalesund and of course, your destination which is quite good. You takeoff from Stavanger and head north to Bergen. Since your interval update is set to 30 minutes, here's what you'll see:23004KT 10 SM SCT 030 BKN 050 M01/M03 Q1019 all the way from Stavanger to somewhere between FLO and VIA. Then you will suddenly get either FLO's or VIA's weather (depending on which you are closest to at the 30 minute mark). Let's say you get FLO's weather. You will keep FLO's weather for the remainder of the flight because your interval update is set to 30 minutes, and you may only have another 25 minutes to go. So, you are expecting to see 14005KT 10 BKN009 05/02 Q995 at Trondheim, but because wxRE is set to update only every 30 minutes, instead what you get is 18025KT 1/8 FG VV001 06/06 Q991. You also get a missed approach! And, now you've got to figure out where you are going next, and it had better take you AT LEAST 15 minutes so you be sure to get the weather update again, or that below minima will follow you wherever you go (actually, you could just start a hold and wait for it to change to ENVA's real weather).NOW, if you have wxRE set to update every 5 to 10 minutes, THEN you will see each station's weather as you pass from Bergen to Floro to Alesund etc., because it will take longer than 5 minutes to get from each of those stations to the next. Of course, if you are using Flight Max, then it too will update as you go.Whew, I hope that clears it up for you :-). A bit long winded, but hopefully clear.Glenn

OK, I asked one of the Flight Max techs here at work about the wx module of FM. Have a close look at your display - the FM is fully adjustable from about 5 miles to roughly 500. Thus, you have much more than simply the 500 mile range. Now that's real world, I'm not sure how the FS version is modelled, but I'd be extremely surprised if you only had a single range of 500 miles on it. Five hundred miles is a pretty useless setting as you'd miss anything down close, which is where you'd need it most. The long range setting is only helpful for a general idea of what it MIGHT be like when you get there, but even in a high speed jet, you are a bit over an hour to get to what the wx is doing at that distance, and by then it may well have changed. So, interval updates are equally applicable to FM as they are to wxRE (in fact, wxRE will drive the FM display when wx is selected).Glenn

Hi,Remember that updates to the NOAA server as made as they are received. Usually this is 10 minutes before the hour every hour but can vary depending on internet connections, the actual station's reporting schedule, and if there is rapidly changing weather they will issue ammended reports more frequently. I believe VATSIM fetches their weather through NOAA so the same applies (perhaps at different intervals). FSFlightMax export occurs during the FD Winds update. 45 minutes interval by default. So every 45 minutes it will re-fetch the latest cycle information, filter out any station beyond 500nm range from the current aircraft position, then update the export file for FSFlightMax to read. You then will have 45 minutes to fly around your current filtered stations before updating. If you are flying a very fast aircraft you can decrease the interval (to say 20 minutes) to keep this more accurate. Most aircraft will do fine at the 45 minutes setting.Hope that helps!-Damian[table border=0" cellspacing="30" cellpadding="0][tr][td align = "left"]Damian ClarkHiFi Simulation SoftwareDeveloper of ActiveSkyThe next-generation weather environment simulation for FS2002!http://hifi.avsim.net/activesky[/td][td]http://hifi.avsim.net/activesky/images/wxrebeta.jpg][/td][/tr][/table://http://hifi.avsim.net/activesky/ima...][/tr][/table

Sure Damian and Glenn, very clear now!This is exactly what I like to know!...thanks guy's :)Bestvortovor

Most welcome. Happy flying :-)Glenn