Several weeks ago I bought and installed AS 2004.5. What a fantastic product

Hi,Thanks for the positive feedback! The plan will show you your weather and winds, but AS will function the same with or without a plan.Here are the changes since B174. I would suggest you update:pdate 2004.5 (Build 193)

I was under the impression that using the flight plan feature also helped with wind shifts? Is that not the case for short flights?Just curious.Thanks,-stefan

My experience says that adding a flight plan will not have any impact to windshifts. This is subject to the options you've set. Upgrading to the latest build is recommended though. Rgds, Sam

Hi JimAs an addition to this: Say if yoy start a flight WITHOUT a flight plan and use AS2004, can you, when you have gone say around 50nm, switch back to AS and "refresh" the weather using the ICAO code of the nearest airport that you have flown to, and hence continue flying without a FP but using each airport nearest to you to re-refresh the weather?I hope that I have explained this so that it can be understood.I endorse the original post that this is an outstanding addition to FS04 and that I have the latest upgrade on board and it runs perfectly.Peter Hayes

Can you just have the program download the real weather for the world like the built in engine does at certain intervals? I do not multi-task because I run FS in full screen mode and it becomes unstable if I switch to other programs

Hi Peter,I am confused!! AS will watch your position and always show your closest weather station. Your update interval will determine how often AS will download data from the server. I am not sure why you would want to keep refreshing the weather by manually refreshing?Or do you mean to enter the ICAO code in the fetch window of a future airport?Hope this helps,JimActiveSky Sales and Supporthttp://www.hifisim.com/images/as2004proudsupporter.jpg

Hi Alex,Yes, in the Options menu you can set the download interval from 10 minutes to 60 minutes.Hope this helps,JimActiveSky Sales and Supporthttp://www.hifisim.com/images/as2004proudsupporter.jpg

Hi JimSorry about the confusion. Are you saying that if you set off without a FP, and if you just keep flying AS will automatically update the weather no matter where you fly? That is, there is no need to refresh the program once it has been set from an initial set off point? In another scenario, if you set off say from KVPC to fly to KACK and you set up the flight using AS2004. If you wish to fly the return leg (without exiting FS04), would you have refresh AS2004 and import the return leg from KACK to KVPC or will AS2004 already be set for that area?Peter Hayes

Hi Peter,Exactly what I am saying! You could fly around the globe, without a flight plan loaded, and AS would know your position and give you the weather.In your example you would not need to refresh the weather. AS would do that automatically.Hope this helps,JimActiveSky Sales and Supporthttp://www.hifisim.com/images/as2004proudsupporter.jpg

JimMany thanksPeter Hayes

Hi JimI learned from this thread that it is not crucial to load a flightplan in AS, even, if I do have a flightplan for my routing. What advantage would I have to load the flightplan in AS as well?Thank you very much, Sam

Hi Sam,You would know your destination weather, weather at any waypoints in your plan, winds along your route, and an approximate time of flight!Hope this helps,JimActiveSky Sales and Supporthttp://www.hifisim.com/images/as2004proudsupporter.jpg

This has been a really helpful thread. Yes I did upgrade to Build 193 with no apparent problems. Thanks all for some wonderful comments and insight. An AS 2004.5 convert!

Thank you very much, Jim! Indeed, this thread was most informative and explained why we'll never fly without AS again.Have a great weekend!Sam