As promised the latest Beta 3.03.5 has been posted on our website. This is part of the beta dev cycle for the Flight Planning Assistant software and also includes the changes incorporated to impove the accuracy of the destination weather within FSX to much greater distances. Previous versions normally guaranteed accurate weather within the simulator at about 32nm away. Now with the new weather updating methods this has been extended to 240km (130nm) or more !

 

Note, the Opus Destination Weather Report still provides 100% accurate weather details, a perfect ATIS 400 miles or more away.

 

Please feel free to participate in the beta dev cycle and it's testing. If you do, then post all feedback on our SimForums topics, not here in Avsim.

 

Announcements ...

 

OpusFSX Beta Version 3.03.5 is now available for download on our website.

 

Remember when installing the OpusFSX_v303_Beta.msi file you must uninstall your current version before installing the new version (do not delete your previous \OpusFSX installation folder).

 

After installing please check all the settings in your Configure and Weather dialogues. You can download from http://www.opussoftware.co.uk/opusfsi/downloads.htm

 

Flight Plan En Route weather reports now update as you pass through the weather cells and any station report for your specified Destination no longer show the 'Static XXX/XX XXC' data. Delays for camera view changes increased slightly. GRIB data can also be used when importing from a METAR file.

 

The interpolation, weather update and injection procedures for the Destination and Alternate sites has been changed along with all wind handling and smoothing procedures. All the changes have been aimed at enforcing the Destination weather including all surface conditions and coaxing the simulator into accepting the RW surface conditions at your specified destination at much greater distances than before. In house tests now show the destination weather is accurate out to about 240km (about 130nm or 150 miles), in some instances even out to 270km (about 146nm or 167 miles). As a result of the new weather updating methods far fewer updates are now required as you approach your destination.

 

Navigraph Navdata in the form of the Navaids.txt and Waypoints.txt files are now supplied as part of the OpusFSX installation. These files will be automatically installed into your <SIM>\Navigraph\Navdata folder whenever you need to use nav data and the files do not exist. These files supplied by Navigraph provide navigation data for those who want to make use of the flight planning assistant and en route weather reports, but do not fly the big jets and hence do not have any Navigraph, or similar, data on their systems.

 

Regards

Stephen

Sounds very promising Stephen, thanks for the update.  I'm heading over there now to download it.

May take a few betas before we are ready to post the release, but hopefully that won't be too long now. There are several more phases of development planned for the Flight Planning Assistance software but the people should find the current phase of use so we will most likely go to release soon and then continue with the beta dev cycle.

 

Regards

Stephen

Thanks Stephen. By the way how was the trip?

It was a fantastic trip thanks, although we had a bit of a struggle with the changeable weather we are getting in Europe at the moment. Set off 3 days early to get ahead of a weather front forecasted to sweep across France and Italy, Vicenza proved to be a great place to stop over though, and close enough to explore Verona. Also had a slight detour and weather delay on the way back, but again ended up with our aircraft in a hangar at Carcassonne so not too bad. Have you seen our Facebook page, access it via our OpusFSX website, we posted updates and some photos. The short flight from Vicenza to San Nicolo, Venice was one of the most pleasant flights we've ever made, didn't want it to end.

 

Stephen

Looking forward to the upcoming release and really appreciate your short release cycle methodology.

Hi Hans

You're welcome, it shouldn't be too long, just long enough to allow people to use the new beta on their systems. It may need a few tweeks then we will probably release it as Release Version 3.1 and continue with the beta dev cycle for the next phase(s) of the Flight Planning Assistant. I think you will find the new Flight Plan En Route Weather Reports useful, and of course the new long range accuracy for the FSX destination weather. It should allow FSX to select the correct runways for its AI traffic.

Feel free to comment or make your wishes known on SimForums, you can also follow the beta developments as well.

Regards
Stephen

Sounds great. Thanks!

BTW. The enroute weather plan, is there any way I can pull the average winds aloft or is it just the cell by cell weather purpose.

 

 

We will be including things like average winds in a future phase (in the not too distant future) when we will produce an OpusFlightReport.txt file containing all weather details for the user's flight plan. When we do this we may be able to include some essential data within a General En Route Weather Report so you can display that on the screen and get the data without needing to refer to the text report. We also have plans to allow flight plans to be imported from a variety of sources, the users will determine which sources no doubt during the beta dev.

 

Stephen :-)

 

 

We also have plans to allow flight plans to be imported from a variety of sources, the users will determine which sources no doubt during the beta dev.

 

The upcoming PFPX would be great. Then flight planning would be quite accurate as can be if they are both on the same page. 

Look forward to that phase. Thanks for the reply

We will be including things like average winds in a future phase (in the not too distant future) when we will produce an OpusFlightReport.txt file containing all weather details for the user's flight plan. When we do this we may be able to include some essential data within a General En Route Weather Report so you can display that on the screen and get the data without needing to refer to the text report. We also have plans to allow flight plans to be imported from a variety of sources, the users will determine which sources no doubt during the beta dev.

 

 

Stephen :-)

That sounds very promising!

In which format does the flightplan has to be entered right now? Can I copy and paste it from Routefinder or Vroute (ICAO format: Dep Airport - waypoint - airway - waypoint - ... - Arr Airport)?

Certainly. At the moment you must type or paste the flight plan into the text box, in the form <departure> <route> <destination>, entered as a normal sequence of ICAO codes, navigation aids, waypoints and fixes etc..

 

Stephen

Certainly. At the moment you must type or paste the flight plan into the text box, in the form , entered as a normal sequence of ICAO codes, navigation aids, waypoints and fixes etc..

 

 

Stephen

ok, thanks for the fast answer!

But are airways between two waypoints accepted?

Yes they are.

 

Stephen

Yes they are.

 

 

Stephen

Perfect! Thanks a lot for clarification, Stephen! You made FSX so much more enjoyable for me with your outstanding work. Keep it up!