Several times on this forum (and other forums too) I've seen something like "... and of course they wont have weather radar..." as though it was obvious. I must have been absent when the memo went out. What's the issue with weather radar? Does it require some incompatible technology to work or something? or licencing of technology from a competitor? I have one aircraft in my hangar with working weather radar so I know it is possible. Therefore I assume the reason it's not in other aircraft is business/copyright/licencing reasons rather than technical. Is that true?

Hey man, your answer can be found on the PMDG Support Forum via THE SEARCH BUTTON!!!!!!!!!!!!! Please read the FORUM RULES (ei, sign your name).Jordan T Collins

Just sling the Captain Sim or the Reality XP one in there if you need one. They do the job well enough.Al

This issue has been covered several times in the past. Give the search button a whirl and check out what comes up.

This issue has been covered several times in the past. Give the search button a whirl and check out what comes up.

@Jordan T Collins: My username is my name. I thought that would be adequate, since it's been acceptable up to now. @KHAOS : I did use the search button, and got about 300 posts or more, and after 45 minutes all i had found were posts saying along the lines of Q:"why are there no weather radar?" A:"we covered that in the past". but i didnt ever actually find out why weather isnt modelled. Just people saying 'we covered that already dozens of times'. So I thought i'd ask. It's obviously a sensitive point, because any time anyone raises the subject, there are pretty aggressive and argumentative answers. Since it's such a sensitive issue, can I suggest a sticky topic near the top of the forum so people like me who just ask out of curiosity, not wanting to criticise, can find out the reason without having people jump down our throats?I wasn't making any kind of criticism - just curious, that's all. Frankly all of PMDG's products are a whole order of magnitude better than the next best. At their worst, PMDG products are in a whole different league. So I hunted through the search results for another hour and eventually got the idea. It's too hard to do accurately because there isnt the data from MSFS to work with. Fair enough. I have also seen there's another view that even an approximation based on the weather data that IS in MSFS would be better than none, but PMDG clearly dont agree. That's also fair enough. They choose what features they are going to model and what they're going to just leave as eye candy. That's part of their job as developers. What's still a puzzle though is why when anyone asks, there is such an aggressive response. When anyone asks almost any other question, there is a tolerant and polite response. Even when someone is apparently using a cracked copy of the product and has been tripped up by an anti-piracy bomb they get a pretty polite answer. But ask about weather radar, and you might as well have accused PMDG of dishonesty.So why not make a sticky topic at the top of the forum if the subject keeps coming up and its such a sensitive issue? Then at least people will stop asking innocent questions about weather radar like I did and pressing those sensitive buttons.And my first 3 favourite aircraft are still PMDG: MD-11, 747F and 737-bbj. - two of them gifts from an indulgent wife and son.Mike KearWindsor, NSW, Australia.

This is crazy. This "WX Radar Thingy" should be a sticky...

There SHOULD be a weather radar. Period. As well, for those of us using FS Passengers it hellps ensure a smooth ride!Now, CS does have a payware radar that ought to work with PMDG products AFAIK. Their 757 ha sit built inand it is fabulous.

I used to be among the group of people saying it's pointless having a weather radar in FS as it's totally unrealistic. Recently I've been having major issues on Atlantic and Pacific crossings at night flying into thunderstorms and the PMDG flight model eventually stalling and killing me despite tweaking the hell out of AS6.5 adjusting turbulence scalars and even departing well below MTOW in the hope that the A/T could deal better with a lighter aircraft. In the end I've started using the AS6.5 Rader and every time I see a big red/yellow patch a few 100 miles ahead I stay well clear, haven't had any issues since.Now I doubt very much PMDG will ever reconsider there stance on wx radar as this will lower the fidelity of there products but I feel they should keep in mind that this is a 'Sim' and despite being unrealistic a basic FS wx radar can still help us when it comes to bugs in the poor FS weather model, even if they designed it as a separate optional add-on to be purchased. All AS6.5 weather radar does is reads the Metar at the weather station and if there is Massive thunderstorm overhead it paints the picture on the radar, not something I would want in the real world but it does the job of keeping me blue side up in the sim.Rob

Whilst I am certainly aware of the 'you can't do it realistically' reasoning behind not putting a radar in many add-on aircraft, I can tell you that even in the limited way in which it can be done, it has proved useful to me.Specifically it has been a big help to use the Captain Sim add-on weather radar when using Air Hauler. Anyone who knows Air Hauler will also know that the occasional wind shifts that give you a five second overspeed can be a nightmare; encountering one of those chops a huge - and expensive to fix - chunk of airframe integrity off your aircraft when you hit such weather shifts in FS. The CS radar has enabled me to detect where these are coming on a lot of occasions, allowing me time to drop well below the barber pole in preparation for it, and that does actually add an element of interest and realism to the flights I make, where let's be honest, you are often stuck for things to do when in the cruise.So although I can understand the view that 'it can't be done completely realistically', I don't think that argument holds water when you consider that not having a radar at all is not realistic in any way shape or form. I'd rather have partial realism than no realism at all, and I personally think PMDG ought to reconsider their stance on this score, because without such an important system on their aircraft we might as well say it is okay to leave out the the altimeter or cabin pressurisation because FS doesn't really have air pressure.Al

I feel that adding a radar will only add to the overall immersion of any PMDG product.

Well the demand seems to be there for a wx radar, and I know there are some really brilliant developers out there, maby someday we will see a third party wx radar developer specifically for PMDG and Level D aircraft, I think that could be a little profitable business if done right.

What's still a puzzle though is why when anyone asks, there is such an aggressive response.

Mike, I think you are too sensitive. I did not detect any aggressiveness in the replies, perhaps a bit tiredness which is understandable considering the fact this particular question has been asked just about a 1000 times before. The "sticky" topic unfortunately is not a complete solution - as experience shows people don't bother to read it either.

So although I can understand the view that 'it can't be done completely realistically',

I think their view is (so is mine) that it can't be done realistically "at all". In other words the level of approximation is so poor the gauge become useless and serves no other purpose other than add eye candy. Your example with pressurization is not a very good one - you can simulate pressurization and be say 95% right or very close to the truth. The outside pressure alone can be simulated with amazing accuracy.

Since you can't see the weather up ahead at night, but you can detect it with a radar simulated in FS, it can tell you weather you are heading toward a storm cell. It is entirely possible to use the CS add-on radar to do that (I do it regularly), so it is most definitely not simply eye candy. Try it, you might be surprised how much it adds to the realism despite not being completely realistic.I do completely agree that the way it works might not be absolutely realistic, but just being able to use a 'radar' in a good approximation of the real thing is definitely more realistic than not being able to do it at all. No heavy airliner in the real world would take off without that capability - they don't put radars on airliners just to give the pilots a toy to play with - the recent loss of AF447 is proof enough that knowing what is up ahead at night and steering around it might be wise.When we black out at our computers if we forget to pressurise the cabin, I'll agree with you that you can simulate air pressure correctly; until that is possible, the simulation of it is one of compromises based on what is possible in the sim, and that is no different to compromising with how well a radar can be simulated.Al

What's still a puzzle though is why when anyone asks, there is such an aggressive response.

Here's why:Searching the thread titles for "weather radar" yields two pages of results.Searching each post yields ten pages of results.Between the PMDG forum and the LDS forum, you see the weather radar thing come up at least once a week. Multiply that by several years for each product, and you see why people get irritated. I don't even bother to reply any more. The top quality teams have ommitted radar for the same reason. Whether people want to believe it's truth or conspiracy is up to them, but the teams have stood firm that until the technology improves, they will not implement wx radar.Paul

I'm not asking for a Radar as I don't think PMDG are going to change there mind on it, however like AL says you can see storm cells ahead with basic Radars in FS and I think thats at least what most people want, and it works perfectly for me. Like I stated before, unless you switch off turbulance, or smooth winds, or switch off a whole bunch of other functions that work fine in any other flight regimes your pretty screwed when you hit heavy weather in Crz.Anyway the radar in AS6.5 works fine undocked to a second monitor so I'm not gonna complain. I see PMDG's point at the end of the day. To the initial poster, this is why people get a little stressed from posts like these cos it opens a can of worms.RegardsRob