I am trying to increase the accuracy of the FMC descent profile by applying forecast winds, but I'm not sure where to get them from.I am using Active Sky Evolution but I don't think the flight plan winds are that accurate, I may be wrong. Just wondering where other people get accurate forecast winds from for two or three different altitudes.Glen

I am trying to increase the accuracy of the FMC descent profile by applying forecast winds, but I'm not sure where to get them from.I am using Active Sky Evolution but I don't think the flight plan winds are that accurate, I may be wrong. Just wondering where other people get accurate forecast winds from for two or three different altitudes.Glen

If you're in the States, you could use this link:http://aviationweather.gov/products/nws/fdwinds/I'm sure other countries have something similar.Have fun.

Hi MattThanks for your help.I tend to fly mainly around Europe, I will look for some online weather information.As I use ASE for FS2004 weather I don't know how up to date ASE is compared to real world weather and if its vastly different I will just be wasting my time.Glen

Fortunately ASE in FS9 should work better than it does in FSX. Why it doesn't in this phase of flight is expressed here:http://forums1.avsim.net/index.php?showtopic=290982and my reply here:http://forums1.avsim.net/index.php?showtopic=290909In FS9 you are not required to use Global mode so your winds aloft reports affect the FS weather correctly.First, I use AS6.5 but I'll explain my method which would be similar I would estimate in ASE. Prior to flight I download the real world weather archive for that day using the FS GMT/Universal time closest to the time of departure at the departure location. I do that to take care of the local time of day effects on weather such as Sun provoked convection effects.I process my plan in AS65 and print the extended AS nav log. This gives a trip estimated average wind to placve in the FMC. For descent look at the winds aloft report from your estimated TOD and estimate the average you will experience in the lower altitudes of your descent for entry into the FMC. The lower altitudes are more subject to wind changes.I use FSBuild for flight planning. It couples to AS65 and maybe ASE for wind effects on your aircraft performance and fuel planning. The FSB flightplan shows heading corrections, ground speed, and the wind vectors at each waypoint in your plan. If there are descent waypoints in your plan then FSB's navlog will give the wind vectors at those altitudes which you can use for descent planning.In the real world aviation magazine Airways some pilots have written articles where they disagreed with the calculated descent profile in the FMC and chose it manually "according to rules of thumb" and had better results in getting correct waypoint crossing altitudes. Some rules of thumb can be found on this site here:http://www.b737.org.uk/rulesofthumb.htmand are in the "classics" section but may apply universally.