Weather Applications Recommendations

[downscc 1,327]

Utter Frustration!I am looking for recommendations for a weather application to use with FSX that works. This rules out any Hi-Fi Simulation Product, sorry if you were going to mention ASA or ASX, but I have spent the past four hours trying to figure out how to get upper winds to come out of the West instead of the East (over the US too, where Easterlys never happen at FL310). I give up. HiFi stuff shows correct winds inside their app but FSX slowly wraps the wind vector down from about 250/100 to 0/0.. with our without FSUIPC smoothing. I am looking for an application that knows how to put winds into FSX and keep them there.This cycle of fixing the weather and then it going to zero happend three times on a flight I was trying to make KMEM/EDDF... didn't even make it to ALB. That is after spending 30 min putting wind forecasts into the MCDU carefully to come up with a best fuel consumption estimate that I want to compare with actuals. Darn, what a waste of time that was.Many thanks for help.

[Ephemeral 11]

Well you could try to use AS 6.5 in FSX... I think they released a tentative update that allows it early on in FSX's life. AS 6.5 works well for me in FS9 couldnt tell you about FSX though.

[davidv 0]

You can get easterly upper level winds the odd time in North America when there's a closed low aloft or when the jetstream takes a U turn.You could check out Real Environment Extreme - http://www.realenvironmentextreme.com - great textures and it has a weather engine - the version 2.0 is supposed to be quite an upgrade from version 1, not sure if its out yet.

[Cuddly1956 1]

You could try REX - weather maker has joined to that. Don't know if any good though, seems issues with .NET - has to have .NET 2.0 installed to work.Also Meteo but I know that's really old news and isn't very good at all from what I've read...I have ASA and I know it suffers from it's problems but it's usally ok, just using DWC in fsx. If it falls over though, the current wind is all you have, even till landing... not good if 90 deg at 120 knots lol or if the download fails 0/0. Just hope they fix it.... By the way if a prop plane, it drops out the sky at lowish temps... got nowhere on that one yet. (Turn carb heat on is all I got... in a turboprop!!! - did it anyway, no difference lol).All weather seems to be at odds with FSX... 'User Defined!!!'John E

[RollingRock 22]

the problem isn't so much Hi-Fi as it is SimConnect in FSX itself. as i understand it it's a bug that the FSX dev team never really addressed so I'm not sure you'll find any FSX program that does winds realistically that won't suffer from the problem unless there's a way to get around SimConnect. I could be wrong tho.

[ronzie 21]

The only things I can say (as an FS9 - AS6.5 user) are:1. Make sure your default flight has the Clear Weather theme.2. Any parked flights you save for loading should also have the Clear Weather theme.3. Turn off in FS dynamic weather changes so AS only handles them.4. After you load your flight and had AS write weather changes to it after a couple of minutes use the Refresh AI toggle to force immediate weather updates even if you have that set to auto in AS options.

[KCA9304 0]

Utter Frustration!

Hello Dan,Sorry to see you'r in trouble regarding wheather features. Had the impression FSUIPC was able to solve this before.Also I'm sorry I can't help you out on this one. I'm using FSX, PMDG 747 and MD11 very basically, even without FSUIPC (although it has great possibilities where you need it!).That way I'am able to comment 'as clean as possible' on several topics that pass this forum.It's a pitty to see that you get frustrated, where otherwise your input into this forum is, daily, helping and supportive.Thank you for that.Regards,Harry

[downscc 1,327]

Thanks Harry, the FSUIPC is doing fine but all it does is dampen changes. The problem is finding a weather program that will give you any resemblence of realistic weather... I have used the HiFi Simulation stuff for a couple of years but recently I cannot get a wind blowing in the right direction and it is very frustrating to be at FL290 fully loaded with an eight hour trip ahead and the stupid program insists on 20 kt headwinds when actual wx is a 50 kt tailwind.I have spent 10 hours reloading flights, reconfiguring weather, starting and stopping stuff, trying to force something to work that just ain't gonna work.The past five minutes I did something that gave me much pleasure: I removed all Hi Fi Simulation from my computer. Next time, it will take much less time to get online and write down on a piece of paper the enroute wx forecasts and program those into FSX manually station by station... good grief. Time for a break.

[Check_Airman 3]

Dan,Sorry I can't suggest another program to fix your wind issue, but instead of manually entering the wind for each waypoint, I use FSB. When you build the flightplan, it generates an average wind component that you can enter on the INIT page. It ins't perfect, but it's the least annoying workaround.I'll take the opportunity to petition PMDG to work with the FS wx providers so that the FMS can read the wind aloft. It really is a chore on long flights.I haven't had the chance to test the latest update, but in the previous release, each waypoint wind entry required an altitude entry. Hopefully this has been fixed.Paul

[trisager 2]

... instead of manually entering the wind for each waypoint, I use FSB. When you build the flightplan, it generates an average wind component that you can enter on the INIT page. It ins't perfect, but it's the least annoying workaround.

ASA users can get this value directly from the "Briefing" page.

I'll take the opportunity to petition PMDG to work with the FS wx providers so that the FMS can read the wind aloft. It really is a chore on long flights.

+1 - this is actually possible in some of the FeelThere products. So there is at least one thing they do better than PMDG :(Tom

[Sumit 0]

Dan,Have you tried FSMeteo ver 8.0? I have been using it for the last week or so and i have had much better luck with the winds and temperature rendition. Sure it is not as feature rich as ActiveSkyX or ASA (i tried both of them but have fought with the same issues you mention) but its a nice clean app that gets the job done. (performance is also good even though i belive it pipes its weather through FSUIPC) I am using the registered version of fuipc to control wind/pressure/tempertature and icingThanks,Sumit Sehgal

[downscc 1,327]

Sumit, thank you. I will take a look...

[xkoote 57]

Dan,if you do try out FSMeteo and it works please post. I am having the same frustrations you have. I will be trying our the SDK SP1A as it also addresses SimConnect from what I read here:http://blogs.technet.com/skyhawk/archive/2...a-released.aspxI don't know if Acceleration already has this built in, but I thought it wouldn't do any harm. Other than that I'll try to load with clear skies before starting ASX and turning off FS dynamic weather to see what it does. But I do agree. It certainly is frustrating.Xander

[Guest Buzz313th]

In FS2000 days, I started with FSMeteo. Rock solid program and depicts spot on the metars and tafs. It also does the best job of winds aloft.I tried ASA and ASX from HiFi. Even with their new patch, it still is displaying the wrong weather more than it displays the correct.Since my 79 USD trial period with Hi Fi products, I have gone back to FSMeteo as well as stock FSX realtime weather.I am curious as to why people don't give the FSX default online weather more credit? Is there something I am missing?JB

[downscc 1,327]

JB - Only that it doesn't provide oceanic coverage. The winds just drop to zero, quite disconcerning when you planed on an average tail wind.