cavok not cavok?

[stabell 0]

Hello!I just bought the bundle, and I have one question to start with:When at an airport with CAVOK, it is not CAVOK. And I am not talking about cirrus generation, but low clouds. And the answer is to be found here; look at the METAR, which says CAVOK, and then at the decoded weather, which says few 5800 feet..So instead of a bright, blue day, it becomes a rather grey, overcast day.Why is this?Regards, Tore Stabell, Norway

[Guest Carl Hackman]

CAVOK = Clouds and visibility OKCAVOK refers to the simultaneous occurrence of the following meteorological conditions at an airport: (a) no cloud below 5000 feet, or below the highest minimum sector altitude, whichever is higher, and no cumulonimbus; (:( a visibility of 6 Statute Miles or more;© no precipitation, thunderstorms, shallow fog, or low drifting snow.So by definition the conditions you experienced could be classed as CAVOKHope this helpsRegardsCarl Hackmanhttp://www.hifisim.comhttp://www.hifisim.com/banners/hifi-dev-sigbanner.jpg

[JSkorna 137]

Hi,Also what are your CAVOK cloud generation set to on the Settings page?Thanks,Jimhttp://www.hifisim.com/banners/hifi-community-sigbanner.jpghttp://www.hifisim.com/

[stabell 0]

HI, and thank you for a very quick reply!I know all about CAVOK, I'm a pilot.The CAVOK cloud generation was set at 7 percent. I believed it would perhaps add some wispy cirrus at FL 180 or something.So is there a setting that will make it CAVOK the way real life usually works, that is usually a clear sky, perhaps with cirrus, sometimes a high stratus?I believe this is a settings-thing.But I noticed that, in the CAVOK, it was also a low visibility.It was really hazy, and when slewing upwards, the haze suddently disappeared at about 3000 feet.Is it a setting for this?The reason it bothers me is that the sky, because of the haze, looks completely white, instead of blue.I also tried to move the aircraft to several airports aroud Europe, with a CAVOK weather, same everywhere, a white sky, haze to 3000 feet.So bottom line: How can I see a beutiful, blue sky with wispy cirrus, when standing on an airport?Thanks again for the quick reply, three in the morning Oslo-time.Tore Stabell Kulo

[JSkorna 137]

Hi,What are your visibility settings set to?Jimhttp://www.hifisim.com/banners/hifi-community-sigbanner.jpghttp://www.hifisim.com/

[stabell 0]

Do you mean in FSX; I have tried to set unlimited vis in the Weather page. Problem is that ASX makes a visibility layer that stretches up to 3000 feet, with a low enough visibility to make it really hazy.One meter above 3000 feet, it is wonderful.In ActiveSky for FS9, I recall there was something called "smooth visibility layer" or something?Is there a setting in ASX, in a INI-file, to correct this abbrupt change in visibility? Now, all I can see from the ground is a white sky.Tore Stabell

[JSkorna 137]

Hi,I will point Damian to this.Thanks,Jimhttp://www.hifisim.com/banners/hifi-community-sigbanner.jpghttp://www.hifisim.com/

[Damian Clark 1,145]

Hi,When visibility is specified below ~20nm this will be more apparent (due to ASX calculations of appropriate maximum vis)... This rendering of the layer is a feature of FSX.There is no feature to prevent this (yet) but we will look into it and see if there is something that can be done to provide lower visibilities without a visibility layer rendering. It's not the same beast as FS9. We may also be able to force unlimited vis when CAVOK reported by user option.In the mean time you may wish to increase your minimum surface visibility to prevent low visibilities.Hope that helps,

[stabell 0]

OK, but there is something else wrong here:In ASX settings, I have set minimum surface visibility to 72 SM.I have disabled all CAVOK cloud generation.Then moved to a station with CAVOK.The ASX metar says CAVOK, the decoded textual weather this time says clouds clear below 20000ft. And visibility 10 SM (16094m). (instead of 72SM)A look at this screenshot will show that the visibility however is very low (screenshot taken at just 4000 feet)It looks like it is raining and fog:http://www.torestabell.no/vis2.jpg(The visibility slider in FSX set to unlimited before starting ASX).Where is the bright blue sky?Tore Stabell,Oslo,Norway

[stabell 0]

further investigation:I have set min. visibility to 72SM.Here is FSX, clear all weather. Visibility is good, sky is blue:http://www.torestabell.no/vis3.jpgThen ASX is started, weather is CAVOK, minimum vis is set to 72SM. Even so, the visibility becomes really low.So ASX forces visibility low, even when set to minimum 72SM:http://www.torestabell.no/vis4.jpgHaze is nice, but this is too much, the sky is no longer blue.So this is not a FSX thing, its an ASX thing.Regards,Tore Stabell

[Damian Clark 1,145]

Hi,Yes there appears something wrong, perhaps with that METAR report and ASX parsing.We will investigate..Thanks!

[Mozzy 0]

Just wondering about when we'll see any updates for ASX, regarding this issue? http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/174775.jpgI'm almost always getting this effect regardless of CAVOK, 10sm, 10+ SM 9999 etc etc. Gets boring after a while. Quite often, if I move to another AP, ASX downloads new data and I can see a new Metar but there are no changes made within FSX.

[Guest airmail]

I stopped use ASX in CAVOK until this is fixed as flying in constant fog with CAVOK isnt realistic. 9999m is the worst case and in most cases it's far above that. Setting minimum vis is not working together with CAVOK.A suggestion to fix this is to use the humidity to set the visibility instead of setting it to a flat unlimited:Such as:Visibility in km = 100 - humidity.Minimum at 10 km. It could be used with a random element too./Mats

[albar965 1,040]

Same problem here.What texture is used to depict this (if it is a texture file at all)? I'd like to delete or edit this file.Alex

[Guest chpuig]

Hello all,I agree with all this posts about cavok depiction in Fsx.I go often in the French Riviera and the metar reports often cavok because of few clouds above 5000 feets with a very clear sky. With Fsx and Asx it almost always very wrong depicted. I see often in Nice Cote d'Azur airport (LFNM) a lot of haze when cavok is reported from the metar and when I see the sky outside of my window I see a fair clear sky with just few high stratus or cirus.Last week I was near Nice and we had alot of wind with few very high stratus above 10000 feets. Because of the wind the sky was perfectly blue. The same kind of deep blue sky that you can see in the Nevada desert or in Monument Valley!When I started Fsx and Asx, because the metar was reporting cavok conditions in Nice, Cannes and Toulon airports it was depicted with a strong haze lol!!I know that it must be a pain for Damian to fix this wich I think is a Fsx bug and not an Asx's one.PS: I did set all with no clouds in cavok to prevent too much clouds in Asx as advised in the forum.Good luck with this Damian.