ASE WX Config Question 2

[Guest BeaverDriver]

Alrighty, I have been doing many experiments of late to see if I can't solve much of what I perceive to be issues on my own, but there are still some things I'm seeing that seem to go against both the setup I have and what the manual is telling me I should have. This has to do with the WX Config function. It's simple really. I go online and copy a METAR that I want to use. I open ASE (after FSX is open and ready, otherwise I get a crash of ASE when I hit the "Apply Weather" button), and paste the METAR in the METAR (Editable) window. I then strip all the extraneous remarks and comments as per your previous instructions, select "Global" for the range, hit "Parse METAR" followed by "Apply Weather". I get the window that tells me that my weather has been processed and automatic downloads have been cancelled (or words to that effect). Unfortunately, neither the ASE Weather Edit section nor FSX seem to actually see that METAR. Instead it sees what was in there previously. Further, the winds in FSX are 20 degrees off the winds in ASE, so I need to see if ASE is reporting surface winds as True or Magnetic (FSX is in magnetic and there is 20 degrees E variation here so I think that might be the difference, but I'm not sure yet). Anyway, throughout the 1/2 hour flight, I got the old, downloaded weather instead of what was showing in the METAR window regardless of how many times I selected "Parse Metar" followed by "Apply Weather". Please see the screen shots below: That is my ASE window as it appeared when I started the flight, and throughout the flight That is what FSX was seeing and the winds in the sim itself as seen after hitting CTRL+Z. The Current Conditions shown match the METAR at CAU4 as confirmed when I went onto the web and checked the latest METAR for that station. They are obviously quite different from what I pasted in the METAR window. Is there any setting/option/whatever I can look for that might be preventing the METAR I posted from being read? Thanks very much for your help once again.

[Damian Clark 340]

Hi, "Further, the winds in FSX are 20 degrees off the winds in ASE, so I need to see if ASE is reporting surface winds as True or Magnetic (FSX is in magnetic and there is 20 degrees E variation here so I think that might be the difference, but I'm not sure yet)." Yes, this is magnetic variation, and you confirmed that it is working properly. ASE always reports data in TRUE, as does all official/real life sources of weather information. I discussed this recently in another thread which you may wish to search for. Pertaining to not seeing the changed wx inside ASE or FSX, I note two potential issues: 1) You have different IDs for the selected station (top section) and the METAR string. This should match. 2) The METAR indicates different conditions other than shown in the rest of the Wx Configuration screen, which indicates that PARSE was not pressed yet or failed to properly parse the data. Remember, the data that is injected is per the UI settings, not the METAR string. Specifically I notice that the winds and clouds are different. I would recommend that you try setting wx via the UI itself instead of the METAR, to get things working right and verify everything is OK here. Please let us know... We are aware of some issues with the METAR string parsing, and are working on that, but I don't think its related in this case, but lets try the UI only to rule that out. Thanks!

[Guest BeaverDriver]

Hello Damian,Thanks very much for this reply. I suspected the variation item as you noted. I always thought surface winds were in M not T, but obviously I've "forgotten" a few things since back in the day :). Thanks for confirming that. On the second point though, yes I did confirm that I pressed the Parse button. When it didn't change after the first time (and after subsequently hitting the "Apply Weather" button), I re-selected the Parse a couple of times. It does sound like there may be an issue with the Parse button that may go beyond what you were investigating? Not sure but it might be something to consider. So my question from this is, when you are inserting a METAR string, must/should you also adjust the weather in the GUI as well? I would have thought one would have overridden the other. The issue I might take with that is if you have a day where there are 4 or 5 cloud layers, it could take quite a while to insert everything manually, which is why I thought the ability to insert a METAR string was made available. I'm not being critical here - just wanting to make sure that I'm getting things right at my end before I issue a request for help. Thanks Damian, I'll try both methods again and see where we sit.

[Damian Clark 340]

Hi again, Please remember to sign your posts with your full name per our forum policies... thanks for your help here! Correct, the parse should "work" to set the UI values, which are used to "apply", and you should not have to "also" edit the UI values. The required order via a METAR string is: Load Current (for the main station you are wanting to apply to, or any station if global application), then Edit the METAR string as required, then PARSE, then APPLY. It does appear we have some issues with PARSE which we are investigating, thus I am hoping we can isolate the problem you're having to the METAR parse issues or something else.

[Guest BeaverDriver]

OK, sounds good. I'll continue to work with it and if I get anything that I think might help you troubleshoot that (or if you know of anything I can do now to help), I'll fire it off to you. Thanks very much for your help, and sorry for forgetting my signature (again :D ). I'll fix the signature line this afternoon. Thanks again Damian. Glenn Davy

[Guest BeaverDriver]

OK, maybe a clue here. I loaded a METAR string and hit Parse... but it made no change in the GUI above. I repeated hitting the Parse... several times with no effect. What I did then was go up and type in the CYXS ICAO code in the GUI window, and it suddenly all coordinated with the METAR string itself (the GUI changed all the parameters to agree with the METAR string below). I didn't input anything in the GUI manually, only the METAR string below. Now, I was using the latest METAR string from Nav Canada so I don't know if I'd have to change the time in the GUI as well if I was using an older string. I'll try that later and see. One thing still baffles me though, and honestly I'm not seeing it often enough that I suspect it might be a bug. Please see the screenie below of the ASE WX Config window: You can see the top and the bottom agree (I am puzzled though that even with the Application Range Window set to Global, the top GUI info didn't change until I typed in the CYXS code - maybe that's part of the problem). OK, please note the winds above. Now, have a look at what FSX is telling me: The direction we have already resolved as the difference from M to T, but look at the speed. It almost seems like when I'm getting interpolated weather OR plug in a METAR string as I've done here, the speed defaults to 6 kts no matter what. I see this windspeed more than any other by far while I'm on the ground, especially if windspeeds are under 6 kts. Am I missing something here or is this maybe part of the issue? Thanks much!

[Guest BeaverDriver]

OK, I'm totally lost now. This time I went in and deselected auto downloads, saved the option and exited. Then I copied a METAR that was a little older, restarted ASE and copied the METAR into the METAR window. After that I hit the Parse button. Nothing changed up top (GUI area). It was showing the weather and time for the later (current) time rather than what I had in the METAR string. The ICAO code was correct, but that was a left over from before, so I'm not sure why it was still there. Anyway, the top didn't agree with the bottom, so I changed the time in the top GUI section to 1800 from 1900. 1800 was what I had in the METAR string. The minute I did that, the METAR in the METAR string window changed completely. I think it went to the latest METAR, but I'm not 100% certain. So I repasted the original METAR that I had copied from the website back in and left the top alone. Now, in FSX, the winds from using the readout in CTRL+Z, was totally different again! I still had that "standard" 6 kts. On top of that, the top GUI readout says I have no clouds, the METAR string says it's overcast at something like 11,000 or so, and yet in FSX I have clouds extending right to the ground in places, which is around 2400 feet. None of this makes any sense to me whatsoever, and I'm at a loss as to explain any of it or why the serious discrepancies between all the different readouts. Below is my ASE window: Please note the differences between the top and bottom windows Now for the view in the simulator itself for the above shot: Please note the clouds extending to the ground ahead of me Lastly a close up of the CTRL+Z readout, which shows the ever-present 6 kt from 350 degrees, which in this case, agrees exactly with the METAR string, meaning the METAR string isn't really what's being produced in the sim (no T to M conversion). It does agree with the GUI window though, so it's partially at least, producing what's up on top and not the METAR string itself. Sort of... maybe... . As I said, nothing at all agrees here and I'm completely befuddled at this point. Thanks Damian, and insofar as tracking this one down, I'm reminded of a famous line I once heard (well, heard it several times actually): "Should you or any of your IM Force be captured or killed, the Secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions. Good luck Mr. Phelps."

[Damian Clark 340]

Hi Glenn, Forgive me if I missed it, but I think you are still trying METAR parsing, and we know that is problematic, so we need you to try without any METAR parsing.. simply "load current" then adjust the values with the UI, for clouds, wind, etc, and then apply. You should not be referencing or adjusting the METAR string at all. 6 knots being forced sounds like you are using the Wind Lock feature? Disable this feature to avoid this effect.

[Guest BeaverDriver]

Ahhh, ok. I thought we were still trying to work with the METAR string. OK, I'll give that a go tonight then. Yes, I think I do have the Wind Lock feature on. That would no doubt explain that. I'll rectify that as well tonight. Definitely a case of "finger trouble in the cockpit" and not a fault of the program (it's just doing what it's being told to do). Thanks Damian.

[Guest BeaverDriver]

Okayyyy, things are sorting themselves out. I did as recommended above and set everything using the GUI. That worked fine. Now, what I also did, as per above, was select the "Load Current". That had no effect. By that I mean the date and time remained the one I had in yesterday. Nothing changed, including when I hit the "Apply Weather" button (I did not hit the Parse button). So loading the current METAR seems to not have any effect at this stage. As such, I plugged everything in manually in the top GUI window. Also, I saved a METAR file from one I downloaded (placed that in the METAR String window and hit the "Save Metar file" button). Then I deleted what was in the METAR string window and subsequently selected the "Load METAR File" and selected the saved file. That too made no difference anywhere, even after hitting the Apply Weather button. Now, it's been a while since I've read up on that part of the manual so maybe I need to go have a look again, but I thought I would include my findings here in case there is something amiss there. Alright, hope that helps, and I'll be looking forward to having that Parse METAR function available. That sure removes a lot of the work involved. Thanks again Damian.

[Damian Clark 340]

Hi Glenn, "Now, what I also did, as per above, was select the "Load Current". That had no effect. By that I mean the date and time remained the one I had in yesterday. Nothing changed." That is normal, Load Current happens automatically when you first open the screen, it was a step suggested before to ensure any other actions performed prior to trying again had been cleared. "including when I hit the "Apply Weather" button (I did not hit the Parse button). So loading the current METAR seems to not have any effect at this stage. " You should not have had any weather change at this point until you change it yourself... hitting Apply should have applied the already current weather (no changes). "As such, I plugged everything in manually in the top GUI window." Ok now you've changed the weather... then you should Apply, and it should update eventually (within a couple minutes) across the board. Is that correct?

[Guest BeaverDriver]

That is correct Damian. After hitting Apply, the weather changed as per what I set in the top window. It would appear then that all is working as it should with the exception of the Parse METAR button as you have noted. That's great and allows me considerable flexibility between using RW over longer distance flights and setting my own for local, short term runs. Couldn't ask for more than that Damian. Many, many thanks for your help with this! Things are a whole lot clearer now.

[Damian Clark 340]

No problem! Thanks for the confirmation there, glad things are working ok for you despite the parse button. We'll get that fixed!

[Damian Clark 340]

Just a note that we've identified and fixed the parse issue, look for an updated beta build shortly. Thanks!