So finally this morning, I did a flight using the inclement weather setting. Previously I had pretty much always flown with low and threatening as my weather theme.

Wow, big difference. I flew about a 160nm job in the Maule and felt like I was fighting it most all the way. A 16kt headwind in inclement, really knocks the aircraft around, whereas a 16kt headwind in low and threatening, does not. Definitely made this job seem like it took forever, felt I should have gotten some bonus points for just completing the darn thing in inclement weather lol.

Heavy Weather is another good one. Those are the three Wx themes I use the most.

If only I could find some way to tweak their temps up/down, just the temps ... I am almost sure the effects would be noticed by the FDM, although MS FLIGHT was still in an early phase when ... well you know....

I've found that mixed weather actually contains the greatest potential for high winds. Only with mixed weather have I encountered 69kt winds....which is obviously how I got my "landing backwards" award. And, by the way, it actually wasn't on purpose!!! LOL

Some of the weather themes show you very very clearly why you don't want to be up there in a light plane. Maybe not in any plane!

 

I don't think I ever felt lucky just to make it down in one piece from a weather theme before. And fog? Don't get me started! :P

I've found that mixed weather actually contains the greatest potential for high winds. Only with mixed weather have I encountered 69kt winds....

 

Whew, I felt like I had my hands pretty much full with that 16kt headwind in inclement weather, don't think I could handle winds like that!

Mixed Wx is just too mixed. There's way too much extreme variation across short distances for it to have any plausibility.

The winds in most of the more "interesting" weather themes are a minor niggle, for me at least. The Maule, in real life just as in Flight, a bit of a slab as it is, doesn't like excessive crosswinds on landing or takeoff, and although it undoubtedly adds to the challenge of completing a flight, it gets to the point where you really struggle to control the aircraft, even with full into-wind aileron and so on, and in real life you'd not even bother trying. Additionally, none of these planes are particularly fast, and a 68kt headwind is quite a chunk out of your speed over the ground, even in the RV. It also seems to me that the wind-gradient with altitude isn't very steep, if even present, so 60kts at 10k ft means that's pretty much what you'll be dealing with on the ground. I've attempted in the past to descend to seek less fearsome headwinds, without much luck.

 

Does anyone have a good handle on the conditions in each theme (particularly with regards to winds)? I like to fly with a little more cloud and variation than clear skies, but I've yet to find a theme that gets me cloud without a howling gale.

 

As for fog... even a CAT III autoland would probably have to be thrown away in those conditions!

http://forum.avsim.net/topic/373247-low-threatening-winds-aloft/

Many thanks indeed, Mike, exactly what I was after. I might just do some weather missions and add to that list.

I just did another job in the Maule, hauling a medical patient and her nurse to a hospital.

I forgot to change my weather theme, so flew it also in inclement weather.

 

Poor, poor Agnes...

Well I have now flown three more jobs in inclement weather, I am kinda liking this having to stay on top of things...

Good for you guys! I finally tried flight again today and went through a few landings.......

 

Thing is a freaking weather vane! :P