I assume you are talking about PFPX. If you are using AS2012 you can use the feature. See my post #9 in this thread.

 

Michael Cubine

Primarily PFPX, but I was talking about both. I don't have either. I use a freeware wx program and a free dispatch service, simbrief.

If you are using PFPX you are lucky. The latest version 1.9 (I guess) does support wx export. Just select PMDG weather export and you are good to go. Tested yesterday with the T7 and it worked liked a charme. No need to hassle with copying txt or wx files...

  Thanks for the heads up on this, now  to update to the latest version

 

 

Ryan, the import format should be easy to use, based on what the FMC needs, not based on one suppliers weather export format. The format is not straightforward. Also why make it rigidly use ten defined altitudes only? The altitude data from the weather engine may not match those levels. The FMC allows you to enter any altitude's data IIRC. If the data you have is not from a weather engine then you are stuck. The data I get from simbrief has only four altitudes for any given flight plan.  To use that, not only do I need to convert it to AS format I need to extrapolate and interpolate the wind data to match their altitudes. Then your software has to convert that to match the actual cruise flight levels. It's actually easier for me to hand enter the winds in the FMC CDU than do all that conversion each time to enable automatic import.  Please make it more user friendly.

 

To be honest, my understanding is that this whole thing was supposed to be kept under wraps until the various developers caught up with the requested format.  The only people who would've known about it at this point would have been the team and the testers.  Instead, it got accidentally released and too many people are biting off more than they can chew by either not following directions, or not knowing how to follow them (most of the issue, I'd argue - they either don't know about the "All Files" trick, or don't know how to change the extension).

 

It's just like the PLN format.  If you open a PLN file, it's not at all convenient to edit, and if your program doesn't support it, you're SOL.  On that front, though, nobody really complains because just about everyone supports it.

 

For what it's worth, the format is essentially the standard NWC format (FAA-side) that Active Sky happened to use.  I never really dug too deep into the file, but I think it's essentially a tab-delimited file, which is relatively easy to program for.

 

 

 

Very nice, but it would be good if you didn't have to buy an expensive add-on to make use of this feature.

 

You don't.

 

http://aviationweather.gov/products/nws/all <--- Have fun!!! (World wind is here, but it's charted, not textual, so good luck with that one)

 

The problem is, that "expensive add-on" is doing all the leg work for you.  Wind is only measured at certain stations, so not only is that expensive add-on finding all the data sources you need, it's also interpolating for all of the fixes that aren't measuring points.

 

 

Mmmm...then this confirm that perhaps I have a little issue with that feature. As long as I know, there's no need to type the whole name of the .wx file, but every time I click on REQUEST, I got the hated "Invalid entry" message. I think that I'm doing everything correct, but simply doesn't works. The only way for me is typing the full name

 

Sounds like the file is named incorrectly.

 

If the route is on the RTE page as KIAD to EGLL, the weather file must be KIADEGLL.wx.

 

No zeroes, no bunny rabbits, no underscores, no lemmings, or anything else.

To be honest, my understanding is that this whole thing was supposed to be kept under wraps until the various developers caught up with the requested format.  The only people who would've known about it at this point would have been the team and the testers.  Instead, it got accidentally released and too many people are biting off more than they can chew by either not following directions, or not knowing how to follow them (most of the issue, I'd argue - they either don't know about the "All Files" trick, or don't know how to change the extension).

 

It's just like the PLN format.  If you open a PLN file, it's not at all convenient to edit, and if your program doesn't support it, you're SOL.  On that front, though, nobody really complains because just about everyone supports it.

 

For what it's worth, the format is essentially the standard NWC format (FAA-side) that Active Sky happened to use.  I never really dug too deep into the file, but I think it's essentially a tab-delimited file, which is relatively easy to program for.

That would explain why it's buried away in the Intro Manual. Still the cat is out of the bag now. Fair enough if the format is a standard one, but it's still not easy to use data not presented in that format. The FMC uses a very simple altitude/direction/speed entry for each waypoint and if a data file in that format could be used it would be very user friendly.

 

The problem with the AS format is it uses fixed altitudes. The weather output from simbrief gives four flight levels which vary depending if the waypoint is in climb, cruise or descent. So if you want to design a utility to put that data into AS format used by PMDG you have to not only rearrange the wind data into the specific format used but also extrapolate the data to the ten fixed altitudes that system uses too.

 

Working with XML style text files like the PLN format is not the problem. It's all the reformatting and extrapolation necessary that is the issue.

 

Here's an example of the output from simbrief relating to winds aloft (cruise flight level in this case is 350):

 

 

CIRRUS FLT PLAN
PAGE 6 OF 7 BA 93/05 - PLAN 1 2138 04OCT13

LAT    LONG    WAYPT  ITT DIS FL TMP      SECTOR W/V

                                      100   200   310   350
N5128.7W00027.7 EGLL  193 26
N5103.2W00037.5 MID   157 55     P04 24018 23018 20028 21033
N5012.6W00004.6 DRAKE 155 7      M26 24020 22021 20056 20047
N5006.0E00000.0 SITET 165 26     M30 24020 22021 20056 20047
N4941.0E00009.8 ETRAT 165 13     M46 24020 22023 20059 20049
                                      310   330   350  370
N4918.6E00018.8 DVL   164 32 350 M50 20067 20063 20055 20044
N4847.4E00031.8 LGL   165 17 350 M50 19066 20063 20057 20046
N4831.3E00038.1 SORAP 164 17 350 M50 19064 20064 20059 20048
N4815.2E00044.7 BENAR 165 26 350 M50 19064 20064 20059 20048
N4750.2E00054.4 VANAD 165 25 350 M51 19066 20066 20062 20053
N4725.7E00103.9 AMB   181 55 350 M51 19066 20067 20063 20055
N4631.0E00102.0 BALAN 155 37 350 M51 19068 20067 20063 20056
N4557.0E00124.0 BEBIX 171 22 350 M52 20067 19069 20066 20059
N4534.8E00128.8 VEGOB 171 12 350 M52 20064 19066 20064 20059
N4522.6E00131.5 TUGLI 171 24 350 M52 20064 19066 20064 20059
                                      100   200   310   350
N4439.0E00140.6 TUSAK 171 22     M32 22021 21043 20054 20055
N4417.7E00144.9 NARAK 202 43     M13 22021 21043 20054 20055
DESC FL 100 150 200 310
WIND 22021 21031 21043 20054

N4338.1E00122.1 LFBO

Converting wind direction and speed to the AS format is fairly straightforward with a good text editor that uses macros (or by writing a conversion utility). However converting the wind data to work with the fixed altitudes the format requires is impossible to do accurately unless the wind happens to vary linearly between those altitudes. I suppose as that simbrief wind aloft data might be derived from NOAA information at those fixed altitudes then it might all line up correctly, but it is a headache to work out.

 

So while this is still in some form of development, I would urge PMDG to allow user defined wind aloft altitudes in such data files, just as you can enter any altitude manually in the FMC, not stick to these fixed altitudes.

 

The AS2012 data includes temperature at each altitude. Is this used by the PMDG FMC? In the wind aloft entry for the FMC the temperature is not a possible entry, just altitude, direction and speed. This particular output only gives temperature at the planned altitude/FL.

 

 

You don't.

 

http://aviationweather.gov/products/nws/all <--- Have fun!!! (World wind is here, but it's charted, not textual, so good luck with that one)

 

The problem is, that "expensive add-on" is doing all the leg work for you.  Wind is only measured at certain stations, so not only is that expensive add-on finding all the data sources you need, it's also interpolating for all of the fixes that aren't measuring points.

You missed the point. You don't need to use such raw data, which also requires interpolation to waypoints. The data specifically for your flight plan is available in various ways for free, but it won't be in the format required by PMDG. Manual conversion to that is next to impossible as I described above. So this very nice feature included in the 777 will require weather utilities which work to this same format or will provide an output in this format. I can't see freeware weather utilities doing this kind of development. It's possible simbrief might as they are adding new features all the time, but even so a user created text file input to the PMDG FMC (allowing user defined flight levels relating to the planned cruise level) would be very welcome.

 

---

 

One question to users who currently have this working using PFPX or AS2012. Do the altitudes in the wind data correspond to the fixed levels in the data format, or does the FMC show wind at cruise level and flight levels above and below?

altitudes in the wind data correspond to the fixed levels in the data format, or does the FMC show wind at cruise level and flight levels above and below?

 

Think I can answer your question since I use pfpx  and  now  currently  flying  from omdb to egll   on the fmc  if  you select a waypoint  and  than it  shows you oat  and  wind directions  and wind speed at 4 different  altitudes  above  and below

 

 

Very nice, but it would be good if you didn't have to buy an expensive add-on to make use of this feature.

Kevin, SimBrief does have the weather export function. In the Despatch Output page under Tools and Links, Download Flightplan, select "PMDG WX", then select Download Flightplan and then copy the downloaded .wx file to your ....\PMDG\WX folder and you are good to go. You then just have to select REQUEST in CDU RTE page. Works like a charm.

Kevin, SimBrief does have the weather export function. In the Despatch Output page under Tools and Links, Download Flightplan, select "PMDG WX", then select Download Flightplan and then copy the downloaded .wx file to your ....\PMDG\WX folder and you are good to go. You then just have to select REQUEST in CDU RTE page. Works like a charm.

Is that a recent update? Every time I use it something new pops up but I hadn't noticed WX in the flightplan download. That's excellent, problem solved.

 

So in real operations, is it usual to see winds aloft predictions in these set altitudes, or related to planned cruise altitude as per the Cirrus plan?

feel sorry for some folks havin problems with this, i am using simbrief and you can now export winds aloft

direct to the wx folder of T7 without all the other nonsense, works great when you request winds in fmc.

just a pity still cannot complete a flight due to freezing problems, though  it does not help when a smart &amp;@(&#036;*

verges on being rude telling everyone with such problems to (RTFM) as if we hav'nt. sure we might get a fix

soon from pmdg regarding this issue. granted there are some really trivial issues being brought up on the

the forum as some of the posts today will confirm. however real acknowlegment of this problem instead

of stuff bordering on insults would go a long way. sorry for adding this to the post!

 

best regards, graeme crawford.

PFPX now allows to export route winds directly to PMDG/WX folder

Can someone please explain why we import wind data to the FMC? Is it really effecting the performance prediction accuracy, seeing it only display 4 flight levels (usely FL300 FL340 FL390 FL440, depending on entered cruise altitude) What If we fly FL360 or FL370 for example? I have experienced the predicted wind data entered completely differs from wind data display on a flight (Online flying, IVAO). Sometimes its seems accurate but other times not. On a recent flight RJAA to KSFO (Initial FL330, step to final FL370) the flight time predicted was 8H46 and the flight eventually was 10H18 due to winds aloft completely different to predicted ones. (tailwinds predicted turned out to be headwinds, fortunately I had ETOPS fuel loaded  :rolleyes: )

Can someone please explain why we import wind data to the FMC? Is it really effecting the performance prediction accuracy, seeing it only display 4 flight levels (usely FL300 FL340 FL390 FL440, depending on entered cruise altitude) What If we fly FL360 or FL370 for example? I have experienced the predicted wind data entered completely differs from wind data display on a flight (Online flying, IVAO). Sometimes its seems accurate but other times not. On a recent flight RJAA to KSFO (Initial FL330, step to final FL370) the flight time predicted was 8H46 and the flight eventually was 10H18 due to winds aloft completely different to predicted ones. (tailwinds predicted turned out to be headwinds, fortunately I had ETOPS fuel loaded  :rolleyes: )

 

Headwinds eastbound? 

at FL330?

Mid pacific in the N30 range?

 

Something odd about that. Not about the forecast. about the actual wind being headwind eastbound mid pacific.

 

Real world:

http://weather.noaa.gov/fax/wafswindb.shtml#ft340

N America & Pacific PLOT

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prevailing_winds

 

I'd be suspicious of the weather being injected into the sim if the prevailing wind is almost all headwind on an eastbound flight.

 

So why does the FMC like wind predictions?

 

Have a look at that Plot (WAFS) wind prediction. A thick strokethrough is a 50kt wind, and a thinner one is 10kts.

 

There's some points on the map there at FL340 with 2 thicks and several thins... so 120+ knots at FL340.

 

Without giving the FMS any wind information, the fuel, time etc prediction is based on 0kts wind.

 

If you had a Cessna 172 doing 110kts into a 120kts headwind, you'd have to go backwards the wrong way around the world to get to your destination... at 10kts. so a 10 mile trip would take 2160 hours (going backwards at 10 knots around the whole earth).

 

So obviously letting the thing that is calculating how long it till take to get somewhere know what the wind is doing is integral to it's effectiveness. Of course, matching what you tell it to what is really is happening is useful too. "Yes, the wind will be from the west at 107 knots" and ending up with wind from the east at 5 knots is just as useless as telling it nothing.

Hi Captains,

 

Sorry for getting this up again.

Couldnt find an answer so i thought i'm trying my luck

 

Is there a Chance to Import the online ivao weather into the fmc? As it differents from "real" weather so if i plan in pfpx(i dont own it btw) or Rex or whereever i will not be the exakt weather on ivao.

 

So long, i Hope i wrote it understandable

 

Regards Patrick

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

 

Is there a Chance to Import the online ivao weather into the fmc?

 

The 777 wind import isn't platform dependent.  I could write my own wind data and put it in there if I wanted to.  The issue is finding your source for that IVAO weather.  Some add-ons, like ActiveSky, have options to use "network" weather (I think ActiveSky only does VATSIM, though), so whatever weather program you use that pulls IVAO weather could be your source.

Personally, I very much DO NOT recommend using IVAO online weather. The engine is VERY basic and can be VERY erratic. I suggest you use a proper weather engine such as Active Sky, Opus or FSGRW.

 

Only use IVAO weather when you must (e.g. when rules of a tour you are flying ask you to)

Ok so i will decheck weather on ivao, and will use Rex and buy pfpx, Looks like a good programm to me

Thanks for your help!