I had been having some problems with ASE not being able to connect to the HIFi servers. That issue seems to have resolved itself for now. Like many users, I have also had some problems with destination winds not being correct. In some cases, this seems to be related to the extensive use of "advanced interpolation."Earlier this morning, I loaded up ASE with my aircraft parked on the ramp at EGLC (London City airport.) The following log excerpt begins right at the point where the actual weather injection into FSX first commenced:10:41:52:0351 - Sent Weather: EGLC10:41:52:0554 - Sent Weather: EGLC10:41:52:0836 - Sent Weather: EGLC10:41:53:0758 - Sent String: EGRB 091421Z 11702KT 51097 SCT072 BKN156 11/03 Q1012 RMK ADVANCED INTERPOLATION10:41:53:0976 - Sent Weather: EGRB10:41:54:0054 - Sent String: EGSG 091421Z 12408KT 160V096 51642 FEW029 BKN039 BKN223 11/04 Q1012 RMK ADVANCED INTERPOLATION10:41:54:0179 - Sent Weather: EGSG10:41:54:0351 - Sent String: EGKB 091420Z 05009KT 9999 SCT020 BKN030 09/04 Q101110:41:54:0383 - Sent Weather: EGKB10:41:54:0648 - Sent String: EGSX 091421Z 12408KT 160V096 51642 FEW029 BKN039 BKN223 11/04 Q1012 RMK ADVANCED INTERPOLATION10:41:54:0898 - Sent Weather: EGSX10:41:54:0945 - Sent String: EGWU 091350Z 06010KT 9999 SCT035 BKN045 12/03 Q1011 NOSIG10:41:55:0101 - Sent Weather: EGWU10:41:55:0242 - Sent String: EGLL 091420Z 08008KT 9999 BKN035 BKN049 11/03 Q1012 NOSIG10:41:55:0304 - Sent Weather: EGLL10:41:55:0539 - Sent String: EGTH 091421Z 12607KT 160V100 59790 SCT036 BKN044 BKN222 11/03 Q1011 RMK ADVANCED INTERPOLATION10:41:55:0804 - Sent Weather: EGTH10:41:55:0851 - Sent String: EGTO 091421Z 12606KT 160V090 41843 FEW021 BKN031 BKN158 10/05 Q1012 RMK ADVANCED INTERPOLATION10:41:56:0023 - Sent Weather: EGTO10:41:56:0148 - Sent String: EGSS 091420Z 05008KT 9999 FEW035 BKN045 11/03 Q101110:41:56:0226 - Sent Weather: EGSS10:41:56:0445 - Sent String: EGKK 091420Z 06011KT 9999 FEW018 BKN024 09/05 Q101110:41:56:0726 - Sent Weather: EGKK10:41:56:0742 - Sent String: EGTF 091421Z 11107KT 48784 SCT076 BKN163 11/04 Q1012 RMK ADVANCED INTERPOLATION10:41:56:0929 - Sent Weather: EGTF10:41:57:0039 - Sent String: EGMC 091420Z 06007KT 020V090 9999 FEW014 SCT020 BKN043 10/06 Q101210:41:57:0133 - Sent Weather: EGMC10:41:57:0336 - Sent String: EGGW 091420Z 04009KT 020V080 9999 SCT038 BKN043 11/03 Q101110:41:57:0633 - Sent String: EGLM 091421Z 13605KT 68764 BKN036 BKN045 11/04 Q1012 RMK ADVANCED INTERPOLATION10:41:57:0648 - Sent Weather: EGGW10:41:57:0851 - Sent Weather: EGLM10:41:57:0929 - Sent String: EGRR 091421Z 11801KT 58174 BKN060 BKN114 10/04 Q1012 RMK ADVANCED INTERPOLATION10:41:58:0054 - Sent Weather: EGRR10:41:58:0242 - Sent String: EGTD 091421Z 12506KT 41843 FEW025 BKN041 BKN278 10/04 Q1011 RMK ADVANCED INTERPOLATION10:41:58:0258 - Sent Weather: EGTD10:41:58:0539 - Sent String: EGWE 091421Z 13502KT 160V100 64517 BKN081 BKN271 11/03 Q1012 RMK ADVANCED INTERPOLATION10:41:58:0758 - Sent Weather: EGWE10:41:58:0836 - Sent String: EGLF 091420Z 07011KT 9999 SCT027 SCT048 10/04 Q101210:41:58:0961 - Sent Weather: EGLF10:41:59:0133 - Sent String: EGWN 091421Z 12505KT 160V100 62377 SCT091 BKN161 12/03 Q1011 RMK ADVANCED INTERPOLATION10:41:59:0164 - Sent Weather: EGWN10:41:59:0445 - Sent String: EGSR 091421Z 13206KT 160V090 63455 SCT057 BKN089 BKN156 11/04 Q1012 RMK ADVANCED INTERPOLATION10:41:59:0679 - Sent Weather: EGSR10:41:59:0742 - Sent String: EGLK 091421Z 11805KT 58669 BKN061 BKN115 10/04 Q1012 RMK ADVANCED INTERPOLATIONFWIW, I do not use DWC, and I have the options to generate extra stations, and enhanced route coverage turned off.Here are my concerns...As you can see, all the stations in the UK shown above had very similar weather conditions for the ones using the actual weather i.e. with no interpolation being applied.. Most were reporting winds between 060 and 080 degrees at 3 to 8 knots.By contrast, the interpolated stations were all showing winds between 120 to as much as 180 degrees. Wind speeds, cloud cover, temps and barometric pressures were pretty consistent with the "actual" (non-interpolated) METARS - but in every case, the interpolated wind directions were skewed between 30 to 60 degrees clockwise.Why would this be happening?FWIW, I do not use DWC, and I have the options to generate extra stations, and enhanced route coverage turned off.But, for me, an even more important question is this: why are the above stations using "advanced interpolation" in the first place? Here is why I ask that question...I examined the raw server download file from which the above ASE-processed METARS were generated. Every one of the above listed stations had a current and complete METAR in the download. Some of the "actual" metars were processed by ASE unchanged, such as EGSS, EGKK etc. But many more stations were interpolated, (EGTO, EGTF, EGLK etc) even though every single interpolated station had a full-data METAR, taken during the same observation hour as the stations that were not interpolated, such as EGLL, EGKK etc.Now, I can understand the need to use interpolation in cases where current METARS are few and far between - especially in geographic locations where real-world met reports are notoriously unreliable, such as Africa.But that was not the case in the UK this morning. It certainly appears that ASE resorts to "advanced interpolation" in situations where there is no obvious or logical reason to do so. Even though the server download contained a complete list of current-hour METARS, ASE only used about 10% of them "as is", and interpolated all the rest - (and got the wind direction wrong in the process.)I would think that interpolation should be a "last resort", when no current weather conditons for a given station exist on the server - but it seems that all the recent incarnations of the "AS_" series of programs (ASX, ASA, ASE) are "interpolation happy" - choosing to modify perfectly good METARS about 80% of the time, for no apparent reason.The original Active Sky 6.5 did not do this, which I believe is why it seemed to do a much better job of depicting weather for many users.Jim Barrett

Hi,Are the interpolated stations actual weather stations in FS or are they just airports in FS? The easiest way to tell is to turn on the weather staions on the Map screen in ASE and look there.

Hi,Are the interpolated stations actual weather stations in FS or are they just airports in FS? The easiest way to tell is to turn on the weather staions on the Map screen in ASE and look there.

You are correct. I was looking the in wrong log file, relating to "sythesized" weather, which must be after ASE processes the data. I now realize that the actual raw server data is in the "current snapshot" file. In examining that file, I see that the stations which were being interpolated did not have METAR reports. My apologies for jumping to conclusions.I still need to ask about the consistent 30-50 degree winds shifts shown for all the interpolated stations though. Does DWC on or off have any effect on how interpolation is done? I would prefer to NOT use DWC, so that I may use FSUIPC smoothing of winds, temps and pressure, plus it reduces the tendency of clouds suddenly popping in and out.Jim Barrett

Hi,No, DWC is not going to effect interpolation in ASE.Not sure where you are talking about wind shifts. Don't look at the raw data in any of the data files. Only look at ASE and the Interpolation Details screen.

Hi,No, DWC is not going to effect interpolation in ASE.Not sure where you are talking about wind shifts. Don't look at the raw data in any of the data files. Only look at ASE and the Interpolation Details screen.

Tonight, I repeated the test, with my aircraft parked at EGLC. This time, I based my observations only on the reports shown in ASE's map and report screens. The test was conducted at 22:30 EST, May 10th, (based on 0200Z observations.)Within a 50-milre radius of EGLC, most of the airports are using interpolation, since they are, by and large, small GA fields that do not report METARS.The four "big" London-area airports that do have current METARS are EGLL (Heathrow - about 12 miles west), EGSS (Stansted - about 25 miles northeast),EGGW (Luton - about 28 miles Northwest) and EGKK (Gatwick - about 20 miles Southwest).Their "real" METARS were all very similar... I'm concerned here only with wind direction, and they were showing as follows: EGLL: 030@5, EGGW: 020@4, EGGK: 040@4, and EGGS: [email protected], here's a sampling of the interpolated stations: EGLC: 154@4, EGWU (which is just a couple of miles from Heathrow) 167@04, EGKR (just about 4 miles from Gatwick) 162@5I could go on, but the gist of it is that every single interpolated airport in the southern UK was showing wind directions between 150 and 170 degrees, while the airports with "real" METARS were all showing wind directions of approx 30 degrees, plus or minus 10 degrees.That's what I mean by "wind shift". And I now know why this is happening...Looking at the interpolation details on the ASE "report" screen - every one of of the interpolated UK airports is using the following four airports for their source data.DGAA (Accra, Ghana)DXXX (Lome, Togo)FCPP (Pointe Noire, Congo)FHAW (Acension Island, in the Atlantic)As I pointed out in response to another ASE-user who is seeing this same result, these particular airports are the four closest respectively to the north, east, south and west of the geographic coordinates 0.0 degrees North Latitude and 0.0 degrees West Longitude - i.e., the intersection of the equator and the Greenwich meridian.All of these four African airports just happen (tonight) to be reporting southerly wind directions in their latest METARS, and indeed, those are being applied to all the UK airports. I could possibly understand this result IF ASE had no idea where my aircraft was located. I know that many FS add-ons devoted to moving maps will initialize at 0/0 degrees LAT/LON, until they actually connect to FS to get the current location of the aircraft. But this is NOT the case with ASE - it knows exactly where my aircraft is located. If I click "lock to current location" in the ASE map screen, it immediately places the aircraft symbol at EGLC, London City airport.Now, the interesting thing is that the interpolation engine appears to be taking only the wind direction data from the four airports down in Africa. The interpolated clouds, temperatures and pressures are all quite close to the current conditions at the "real" current METAR reporting airports in the London area, EGLL, EGKK, EGGW and EGSS - (which are all reporting temps around 4 C, pressures around 1012 MB and either CAVOK or scattered clouds.)This brings me to why I titled my initial post "Interpolation Logic". As an ASE user, I'm trying to understand, programatically speaking, exactly how ASE's weather engine decides which airports to use to derive the interpolation. Is it based on the four physically closest "real METAR" airports to a given station, or the four closest airports to the current location of the aircraft?If the logic is station based, then certainly EGLC, London City, should be using ALL data from the four closest airports with current METARS, which are Heathrow, Gatwick, Luton and Stansted - (as should all the other interpolated stations within a close radius of London) with slight variations of course, to prevent every interpolated station from having exactly the same weather.If the interpolation is aircraft-location based - it should still be using the above 4 airports when the aircraft location is "known". On the one hand, ASE does seem to know the location, as it accurately depicts my aircraft on the map screen as being at EGLC.... but then why is it referencing 0/0 LAT/LON, which brings the four African airports into play?And - if (as it appears) ASE is using the African airports as the data source for interpolation, then why is it using only their winds, while clouds, temps, visibilities and pressures seem to be coming from actual reporting London-area airports physically close to the aircraft's current position?I do know that I am not the only ASE-user having this issue. I've seen several screen shots by different people over the past few weeks, in which the airports DGAA, DXXX, FCPP and FHAW are being used as the source airports for interpolation - no matter where in the world the users' FSX aircraft happened to be located at the time.For what it's worth, I run ASE/FSX over a network. I always start FSX first, and let it fully initialize before starting ASE - which is located on a second computer. No problem at all with the network simconnect interconnection - ASE's weather injection into FSX works perfectly, and (as mentioned above) FSX successfully communicates its current aircraft position back to ASE, also with no problems.Jim Barrett

Excellent post...and got me thinking about if there is a relationship between ASE 'losing track of where the aircraft is when interpolating and using 0/0'...and the intermittent DEST WXR issues users are having where the winds at the destination airport are completely incorrect. Maybe they are correct for the 0/0 airports.I am not using a network set up for FSX/ASE, and I have also seen the 0/0 airports being used in interpolation...which would explain why DEST winds last night at Montreal CYUL were from the south in ASE (as they are at 0/0), but in reality they have been gusting westerly steadily for several days now.Here's hoping an 'aha' moment is near with ASE development.Rob Hall.

Hi All,Everything is station based in FS, based on the current location marked in ASE. You should be able to start just ASE and go to any Interpolated airport and get the data set.As I post this my FSX and ASE are running and I can't use EGLC because it is reporting actual weather. So I am based at EGKM which is Interpolated right now.With DWC On the stations are:NE Dist 21 EGMC 03001KTSSE Dist 27 EGMD 05014KTSSW Dist 23 EGKK 00000KTSNW Dist 15 EGKB 07004KTSSo to me those all look valid.So now with DWC Off and a re-start of FSX:I get the same stations and data from above.When you all get a 0/0 condition check the ASE_SimConnectLog file and see if it shows a disconnect between SC and FSX.

"When you all get a 0/0 condition check the ASE_SimConnectLog file and see if it shows a disconnect between SC and FSX."This is exactly what I feel is the issue, or is at least part of the issue with DEST winds being incorrect, other users with issues related to bad data, new wxr not getting in to FSX. I recall I thought it was FSUIPC blocking the data...but if SimCOnnect is disconnecting...Where do I see the log file for simconnect? When I get bad DEST wxr or no new data at all, I will check for a disconnect.Feeling like we are getting somewhere.Rob.

Documents and Settings\UserName\Application Data\HiFi\ASEI'll give you guys something else to try if nothing becomes of this.

Documents and Settings\UserName\Application Data\HiFi\ASEI'll give you guys something else to try if nothing becomes of this.

Tried again this morning, with the same result. This time, my aircraft was positioned at Heathrow. Again, all the stations with reporting metars were showing winds generally from the east to northeast, while all the interpolated stations were showing winds from the south.Here is the ASE simconnect log:06:39:46:0171 - Pre Connect FS_Connected = False06:39:46:0875 - FSX Connect Pre Attempt: Instantiated = False / mConnected = False06:39:48:0531 - Sim general message:Sim Msg: fsx_simconnect is NOTHING ...06:39:48:0625 - Sim general message:Sim Msg: Connection request sent ...06:39:48:0671 - Sim general message:SimConnect Msg: Data request sent ...06:39:48:0671 - FSX Connect Post Attempt: Instantiated = True / mConnected = False06:39:48:0671 - FSX Connection Attempted06:39:48:0671 - Post Connect FS_Connected = False06:39:48:0984 - Sim general message:Sim Msg: Connected to FS06:45:24:0062 - Sim general message:Sim Msg: Connection closedI let the program run for about 10 minutes before closing at 06:45 As you can see, once the FSX connectin was established at 06:39:48, there were no disconnects until I closed ASE.Here is the ASE log, up to the point where weather injection begins:06:38:46:0000 - Loading Application Data Path06:38:47:0000 - Application Data Path = C:\Documents and Settings\Jim\Application Data\HiFi\ASE06:38:47:0000 - Loading Application Executable Path06:38:47:0000 - Application Executable Path = C:\Program Files\HiFi\ASA06:38:47:0000 - ASE load commencing...06:38:47:0000 - Verifying Active Sky Evolution License06:38:51:0312 - FSX Path Value = \\Gremlin\fsx\06:38:51:0359 - FSX My AppData Path Value = \\GREMLIN\Users\Jim\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\FSX\06:38:51:0421 - FSX My Docs Path Value = 06:38:51:0468 - ASE settings have been loaded...06:38:52:0187 - Initializing ASE06:39:41:0000 - FS station database update not needed (unchanged)...06:39:41:0156 - World Magnetic Model has been loaded...06:39:42:0328 - Wx Station Database loaded: 9960 station(s)06:39:43:0687 - Airports Database loaded...06:39:43:0687 - Loading Additional Weather Stations...06:39:44:0062 - Additional stations database load compete for 1704 stations06:39:44:0156 - SimConnect found and initialized06:39:46:0031 - ASE controls initialized...06:39:46:0046 - ASE v12.0.0.572 Copyright

This is an addendum to my most recent post, in which the simconnect and ASE logs would seem to indicate that I should be seeing interpolation based on the closest location, yet interpolation is being based on the African 0/0 stations.I have a theory - maybe it has nothing to do with this issue, but on the other hand...In my particular installation, I am a "triple upgrader". I have been using this same computer as my Active Sky server for over three years. I started out originally with ASX, which had at least two patches. Then, when ASA came along, I upgraded to that software, using the "former ASX owner" upgrade option.ASA was patched at least 3 times with various service updates during the time I was using it.Then, when ASE came out, I applied the free ASA-to-ASE upgrade, and then most recently, the SP1 patch. I am wondering if my HiFi software installation is in some way not functioning quite right due to all the many upgrades? In my C:\Program Files\HiFi\ASA directory, I have a mixture of both ASA and ASE DLLs, exe files and ini files. I know that this was by design, and as I recall, those of us who upgraded from ASA to ASE, were not supposed to delete the older ASA program, as the ASE upgrade depended on ASA being there to function.Could it be that there is a subtle difference between the upgrade version of ASE, vs. the full install version (i.e., one did not depend on a previous installation of ASA)? Perhaps an older DLL or ini setting is coming into play that prevents ASE from using the aircraft's current position as the basis for selecting interpolation stations - even though there are no obvious error messages in the logs that would explain why it just isn't working? Or perhaps a Windows registry setting (left over from an older version) is causing problems?I'm wondering if other users who are also seeing the African 0/0 interpolation problem are using the full-install version of ASE, or the ASA-to-ASE upgrade?I would be perfectly willing to pay for the complete stand-alone version of ASE to try to resolve this. In that case, I would use the add/remove programs wizard in conjunction with a registry cleaner to remove all traces of HiFi software from my computer going back to ASX, then reinstall the full version of ASE with a completely clean slate, so to speak.Jim Barrett

My installation is a clean install of ASE, and I've seen interpolation issues with the wind as well (see some earlier posts).Scott

This is an addendum to my most recent post, in which the simconnect and ASE logs would seem to indicate that I should be seeing interpolation based on the closest location, yet interpolation is being based on the African 0/0 stations.I have a theory - maybe it has nothing to do with this issue, but on the other hand...In my particular installation, I am a "triple upgrader". I have been using this same computer as my Active Sky server for over three years. I started out originally with ASX, which had at least two patches. Then, when ASA came along, I upgraded to that software, using the "former ASX owner" upgrade option.ASA was patched at least 3 times with various service updates during the time I was using it.Then, when ASE came out, I applied the free ASA-to-ASE upgrade, and then most recently, the SP1 patch. I am wondering if my HiFi software installation is in some way not functioning quite right due to all the many upgrades? In my C:\Program Files\HiFi\ASA directory, I have a mixture of both ASA and ASE DLLs, exe files and ini files. I know that this was by design, and as I recall, those of us who upgraded from ASA to ASE, were not supposed to delete the older ASA program, as the ASE upgrade depended on ASA being there to function.Could it be that there is a subtle difference between the upgrade version of ASE, vs. the full install version (i.e., one did not depend on a previous installation of ASA)? Perhaps an older DLL or ini setting is coming into play that prevents ASE from using the aircraft's current position as the basis for selecting interpolation stations - even though there are no obvious error messages in the logs that would explain why it just isn't working? Or perhaps a Windows registry setting (left over from an older version) is causing problems?I'm wondering if other users who are also seeing the African 0/0 interpolation problem are using the full-install version of ASE, or the ASA-to-ASE upgrade?I would be perfectly willing to pay for the complete stand-alone version of ASE to try to resolve this. In that case, I would use the add/remove programs wizard in conjunction with a registry cleaner to remove all traces of HiFi software from my computer going back to ASX, then reinstall the full version of ASE with a completely clean slate, so to speak.Jim Barrett

Jim,If you would like to try the ASE Full, just e-mail me for the link.

I was on the ASA upgrade to ASE as well...can I try the full ASE as well please?

Hi,Yes, of course!