Destination Winds

[Steve1969 8]

I have just completed a flight from EGLL to LTAI and as usual on approach the ASE destination winds reported were different from those reported by RC4. I am aware that the global mode of ASE does not work with RC4 so that is turned off and I'm using FSUIPC for wind smoothing.I have always blamed ASE for this problem, but today I looked into the weather differences in detail during my approach. I found the following reported:ASE: 190/11 32/14Topcat 190/11 32/14ATIS: 187/10 32FSX Weather: 187/10 32RC4: 250/8 22/7So everything was consistent except RC4. The wind dierction, speed, temp and due point were all incorrect in RC4! The magvar is 4.0 so thats not the problem and there was no variable wind component reported either. Any ideas?Best wishesSteve

[ronzie 21]

How close to destination were you? RC gets its weather via FSUIPC and make sure it is current from the links at the forum top.I use AS 65 in FS9 and as I approached the pressure and winds the controllers gave graduated toward the AS METAR and was right on at landing.There is a look ahead limit in RC. Were you using the ATIS feature of RC? If your copilot has comms ATIS will automatically be reported at 50 miles out suggesting that as a limit for RC4.If you are looking at FS winds with SHIFT-Z remember that is at your aircraft, not destination unless you are there. Is ATIS at departure working OK?

[jd 57]

I have just completed a flight from EGLL to LTAI and as usual on approach the ASE destination winds reported were different from those reported by RC4. I am aware that the global mode of ASE does not work with RC4 so that is turned off and I'm using FSUIPC for wind smoothing.I have always blamed ASE for this problem, but today I looked into the weather differences in detail during my approach. I found the following reported:ASE: 190/11 32/14Topcat 190/11 32/14ATIS: 187/10 32FSX Weather: 187/10 32RC4: 250/8 22/7So everything was consistent except RC4. The wind dierction, speed, temp and due point were all incorrect in RC4! The magvar is 4.0 so thats not the problem and there was no variable wind component reported either. Any ideas?Best wishesSteve

without a log, it's hard to say. but rc is reading the weather from fs. are you using the global weather option in ASE, if so, that usually explains the discrepancy.if you can duplicate the problem, make a log and send it to me.jd

[Steve1969 8]

<br />without a log, it's hard to say. but rc is reading the weather from fs. are you using the global weather option in ASE, if so, that usually explains the discrepancy.<br /><br />if you can duplicate the problem, make a log and send it to me.<br /><br />jd<br />

<br /><br /><br />OK, I'll redo the flight with a log.ThanksSteve

[Steve1969 8]

Hi JD,I've just sent you the log as requested. I flew the same route at the same time of day and the problem reoccured.RC4 reported weather as 245/6 vis >10miles clouds scattered at 2.5 temp 23/dew point 6, baro 1009The green bar ATIS came on at the same time as the co-pilot got the weather and this showed 186/11 >20 vis, no clouds below 20K temp 32 dew point 15 baro 2980. I confirmed this by going into the FSX weather options and viewing the surface layer for LTAI.ASE showed 189/11 32/14 1009.Hope this helps.Best wishesSteve

[jd 57]

Hi JD,I've just sent you the log as requested. I flew the same route at the same time of day and the problem reoccured.RC4 reported weather as 245/6 vis >10miles clouds scattered at 2.5 temp 23/dew point 6, baro 1009The green bar ATIS came on at the same time as the co-pilot got the weather and this showed 186/11 >20 vis, no clouds below 20K temp 32 dew point 15 baro 2980. I confirmed this by going into the FSX weather options and viewing the surface layer for LTAI.ASE showed 189/11 32/14 1009.Hope this helps.Best wishesSteve

i didn't receive any log filejd

[Steve1969 8]

i didn't receive any log filejd

I have sent it twice and it keeps being bounced claiming it has a virus. I'll send it unzipped and see if gets to you OK.ThanksSteve Update: Just realised the file is 171Mb so I'll have to think of something else.

[Drumcode 1,892]

Please report back if you find a resolution to this. In a situation when RC is reporting different winds than reported by REX or any 3rd party weather software, is it why I can't ever complete a STAR landing to correct runway assigned with real time winds? RC always seem to vector me to a completely different runway than originally planned during route planning. I understand if the winds shift all of the sudden but if winds remain the same as at the time of the departure, I should have landed on the proper runway?

[ronzie 21]

Try renaming the file extension to .zxx but not zip. Make sure only the .log file is in there. If you need to send an .exe change that to .exx before zipping. A lot of firewalls on the sending and receiving end block .exe, .bat, .com, etc., included in .zip files and some any .zip as well.

I have sent it twice and it keeps being bounced claiming it has a virus. I'll send it unzipped and see if gets to you OK.ThanksSteve Update: Just realised the file is 171Mb so I'll have to think of something else.

[Byrna 0]

without a log, it's hard to say. but rc is reading the weather from fs. are you using the global weather option in ASE, if so, that usually explains the discrepancy.if you can duplicate the problem, make a log and send it to me.jd

I had a similar variance today during a flight using RC and ASE. However, the variance was not that much - around 10 degrees I believe. RC WX report (option 2) was reporting winds from 200 deg. and ASE had winds of 190 deg. This was for a landing and New York JFK (KJFK) airport. I do not have have DWC nor global mode on in ASE. I do have wind smoothing turned on in FSUIPC (version 4.60a from March 4, 2010) as well as suppressing turbulence etc.. under the "winds" tab in FSUIPC.I will do another flight soon and will see what happens, but would be interested in knowing the result of examining this log file.John

[ST1322 10]

Same problem here. @ flights EDDF to Dubai and EDDF to Tromso (Northern Norway). RC gave me weather completely different. Something closer to what was seen on departing airport (I remember I flew to Dubai few days ago and weather reported by RC was 4 degrees celcius ha ha ha ). However I suspect sim connect being an issue here...

[Tomaz Drnovsek 440]

I thought ASE "writes" weather to FSX, RC than reads weather from FSX. But how can this be if the reports are different? Why this difference?

[Pete Dowson 558]

I thought ASE "writes" weather to FSX, RC than reads weather from FSX. But how can this be if the reports are different? Why this difference?

Because ASE does not write all the weather at one time (to avoid causing stutters in FS), and also because FSX takes time to transition the weather from what it was to what ASE asks it to be. This time is adjustable, by program, and I believe ASE sets it to something over 60 seconds. The delay till ASE writes the destination weather (unless it is given your flight plan) will depend on how far away it is. I suspect it won't even send it until you are within 40-60 nm, if even that far. Add to that the "blending" delay in FSX ...On the other side of the coin, even after the correct weather is set, FSX will continue to change it, to develop it. How fast that changes then depends on the changes slider and things like wind speeds, blowing stuff about at cloud levels.I wrote weeks ago to both Damian and Jim in HiFi Simulations (ASE producers) to see if they could provide a way for FSUIPC to read the weather for specific places from ASE rather than from FSX. FSUIPC could then make that choice automatically if it detected ASE. It would also allow ASE's DWC/Global mode to be used with no adverse consequences.Unfortunately neither Damian nor Jim bothered to reply. I'm on holiday now for a couple of weeks. I'll try to remember to chase them up again on my return.RegardsPete

[ronzie 21]

From page 33 in the ASE manual I downloaded:Force Destination Wx Zone: Selecting this option instructs ASE to force all weather stations to your present destination conditions when you are within 80nm. Using this feature, you can start to see your final weather earlier and provides for less surprise on final approach, where conditions might have normally been much different. You must have a flight plan loaded for this feature to enable.------------------Note your flight plan must be loaded into ASE. It appears at 80 nm out all of your weather will be locked to the same as the current destination weather as I interpret it. This should also stabilize AI patterns which have priority and also weather/winds when RC examines them for approach assignment.If anybody tries this please post results.

[Cras 6]

Unfortunately neither Damian nor Jim bothered to reply. I'm on holiday now for a couple of weeks. I'll try to remember to chase them up again on my return.RegardsPete

Boy, I really hope they get back to you next time. Sounds like that could help things alot. But they do have a bit on their plate right not. The latest build of ASE has really created some changed. Gone is Direct Wind Control, and now we have three different Wx generating modes, Standard, Cloud Smooth, and Direct Weather Control. I tried a flight with the new DWC and RC seemed to handle it fine. I will of course try more flights to see if that truly is the case. But it does seem HiFi is getting ASE to come up with better in sim results (especially the winds aloft). As far as the force destination weather goes, I have always flown with that option on, even back in the ASA days. I suggest everyone fly with it on. It prevents some crazy things from happening, and gets you a consistant weather environment throughout your entire approach.