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neilfwright

Surface Weather Unreliable at Regional Airports

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This topic was the subject of discussion on this forum several months ago but as far as I am aware no solution was ever offered. The problem is surface winds and temperature at regional airports in New Zealand (and to a lesser extent, Australia) as depicted in ASE (Build 645). Major airports of NZAA, NZWN and NZCH and minor airports in their close vicinity depict correct surface conditions but airfields outside these areas (about 85% of all NZ airfields) typically show the surface wind of 225 Degrees at 0 Knots and the temperature 10-15 degrees lower than it should be. ASV 6.5 (Build 533) does not have this problem. Examples of conditions at 192140Z are:NZWB WoodbourneASEWind 225/00 Temp 9.8/5.8ASV6.5 (NZWN closest station)Wind 360/10 Temp 18/13NZDN DunedinASEWind 225/00 Temp -4.3/-7.8ASV6.5 (NZCH closest station)Wind 230/05 Temp 13/13NZGS GisborneASEWind 225/00 Temp 2.3/-1.3ASV6.5 (NZOH closest station)Wind 310/01 Temp 20/16Other weather parameters are always correct and apart from this particular problem ASE is a great program and enhancement for FSX.I had anticipated that this problem would have been resolved with Service Pack 2 but unfortunately this was not the case. My question is, can this condition be corrected or is it just a limitation of the program that we will have to live with?RegardsNeil Wright

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Hi,It is still the fact that ASE uses interpolation for those stations and that uses data from 4 actual data stations even if they are many miles away. Sorry, but there is no solution and we are not going to re-program the whole advanced interpolation system for ASE. It will only be with a new AS program that we will look into this.

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Thanks Jim, for your very quick response. Are we likely to see a new version of AS in the foreseeable future that will overcome this limitation?CheersNeil

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Firstly, apologies about dragging an old topic up but how has AS2012 improved in this regard?WX depiction in Australia and NZ is usually quite unrealistic as a result of AS only interpolating between the major airports. Is this due to the weather sources not containing regional Aus and NZ METAR's? If so can these sources be expanded to utilise Airservices Australia METAR data? I am surprised (in ASE) every time I click on an airfield to see in the METAR remarks "interpolation" when I know that particular airfield has an automatic METAR station available.Looking forward to hearing a response from the devs of this great program.

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It appears as if there is no change. Even if using Vatsim weather only the main centre weather is accurate and the rest is interpolated. I doubt that the weather is coming from the Vatsim servers at all.

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I haven't used the VATSIM option and I am a regional FSX pilot in Australia under AS2012. How good is the VATSIM weather database for regional areas? Are you saying that AS2012 is not using the entire extent of the VATSIM weather database when that option is turned on? Perhaps there is some physical limit that prevents AS2012 from pumping regional data into FSX?Cheers

Edited by HarryO

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I can only speak for the weather in New Zealand from experience but even when using the Vatsim option and on a flightplan it appears the only weather that is actual Vatsim weather is Auckland (NZAA) Wellington (NZWN) and Christchurch (NZCH) and the rest are interpolated from station as far away as South Pole and Pegasus field in Antarctica. This is exactly the same result as downloading the weather from the Hi Fi servers (ie: not using the Vatsim option.) I have submitted a support ticket and have had a message back saying they will look in to it but have not heard anything since that time. At present the only option i have for online flying is to use the FSInn weather which comes directly from the Vatsim servers. This issue has been around since when i first started using Active Sky back with ASX and then all the way through ASA, ASe and now AS2012.

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I concur with you ZKiwi,3 stations only since NZOH tower was closed.Completely unrealistic for NZ except for NZCH NZWN and NZAA.Milford Sound I have have had -32C a couple of times, Yea Right !!!I can tune into the Frequency for NZWB for Automatic weather and receive on the scanner, clear weather, no wind and no rain.Same as looking out the window :Hypnotized:Run ASX and have rain and 30knot Southerly wind.


Trevor Golding

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I think the problem might be that AS2012 is not designed so that users can add their own regional airports to a list of airports that should be searched for data.AS2012 should have a process on the local machine of each user, that checks for METAR data for these custom user lists, and then combines it with the master download of weather that comes from HIFI. That would be great because it adds flexibility to the system. Users could trade off the downside of inserting more data into FSX without affecting other users who are not interested in that data.I'm only guessing, but AS2012 probably has one master list that applies to all AS2012 users around the world. The problem with that is that if too many regional airports are added to the AS2012 master list, the download and insertion times into FSX are deteriorated for everyone simply because of these regional airports.I'm only guessing! Thinking out loud.Cheers

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But they advertise AS2012 ( and older versions as well) as able to use Vatsim weather but it doesn't appear to at all. If it does then it is not getting it's weather from the Vatsim servers as there are several airfields in NZ that have Vatsim weather. IF you flight plan a flight between two airfields that have current Vatsim Metars then you should have that weather and not some interpolated weather from stations thousands of miles away. I can't use As2012 for online flying on Vatsim as i often have winds that are close to 180 degrees out and i am landing on opposing runways to other Vatsim traffic. I have relegated AS2012 to a backup hard drive and started using REX2 as it appears to use the correct Vatsim server weather.

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Devs,Any news regarding this?? Thanks.
The main dev, Damian was last active on this forum January 14th. Almost one month ago. I am beginning to wonder what is going on? All questions from users have not seen any replies from him.....

Eric 

 

 

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