Hi,

 

I have both Active Sky 2012 and OpusFSX installed on my system, I've tried the trial version of FS Global Real Weather aswell.

 

But none of these satisfy me in the simulation of wind and turbulence. I have tested many airports (which I picked from badbadweather.com focusing on the "High wind" and "High gust" reports) and the result in FSX is kind of disappointing to me. The depicted weather seems static to me. I have tried to setup Active Sky 2012 in the most "alive" way I can in the Wx options. Neither OpusFSX or FS Global Real Weather have as detailed setup as Active Sky 2012 what I know of. I have fiddeled with FSUIPC and Accu-Feel both on/off and together to get a more dynamic feeling while flying with no good result.

 

The best combo I found so far is using Active Sky 2012 (set up with 0-100% sliders on the wind options) and with Accu-Feel set to 100% "Turbulence Chop/Gusts/CAT", however I can't seem to get these small changes in both wind directions and strength during turbulent weather to get that feeling of being "in the middle of it".

 

I know, sudden wind shifts/S-turns is no fun when they shouldn't appear and most are probably try to get rid of it, but in these conditions as I mentioned above I feel that something is missing.

 

Any suggestions or thoughts about this?

 

Yep, that's FSX. The wind seems to have little to no effect on the planes. MS Flight and XP10 seem to model this better.

Active Sky Next is your answer, if it's all that it's cracked up to be, anyway.
I for one am looking forward to it.

You need Accufeel from A2A.

I totally agree, I fly GA as a PPL and even a 10knot xwind with a few gusts can make for quite a high workout especially in cold bumpy air, in FSX the ac seem to fly on rails without the fluidity that flying in a moving airmass brings in real life 

I'm with scotchegg: MS FLIGHT and X-Plane 10, and also Aerofly FS do a great job at replicating gusting and variable winds.

Reassuring to know I'm not alone in my disappointment with the depiction of winds. I raised it on the Opus forum and the response i got was basically that i hadn't set the program up properly.The lead developer referred to his experience of 'crabbing' into airports in heavy crosswinds My response to that is that the chance would be a good thing. Lousy weather depiction as you will be aware extends to precipitation and i will be interested to see whether P3D v2 offers any improvement. As someone pointed out on another thread the tools to depict rain convincingly have been available for about a decade as users of Flight Unlimited will agree ....

 

 

Alan

 

 

You can play with the gust timings in the fsx.cfg file.

I did it in FS9, but not yet in FSX. Also dont have my settings anymore.. :blush:

Watch until the very last seconds, you see a nice gust.. looking for my old settings now..

 

EDIT: you might try these..

[Weather]
WindshieldPrecipitationEffects=1
MinGustTime=5
MaxGustTime=1000
MinGustRampSpeed=2
MaxGustRampSpeed=100
MinVarTime=2
MaxVarTime=500
MinVarRampSpeed=5
MaxVarRampSpeed=75
TurbulenceScale=3.000000 

From the ASNext information list - 

 

 

"Speaking of entering clouds... be careful.. especially with those thunderstorms. They now can render your aircraft uncontrollable if the conditions are right (and your decision making is wrong). Synchronized turbulence and updrafts/downdrafts are here (and we can't forget about the new microbursts and redesigned wind shear effects).

Turbulence is also redesigned (along with wind shear), bypassing the FS-internal simulation. Vertical and horizontal wind action affects your aircraft realistically."

 

Vic

 

 

I've tried the trial version of FS Global Real Weather aswell.

 

I get very accurate turbulence/winds from FSGRW with AccuFeel.

I believe the new feature is really on the vertical component!  Up and Down drafts, like we have for instance in MS FLIGHT with the new weather themes introduced with the Alaska expansion, are unique.

 

This sort of vertical air currents will bring new life to FSX / P3D.

I believe the new feature is really on the vertical component!  Up and Down drafts, like we have for instance in MS FLIGHT with the new weather themes introduced with the Alaska expansion, are unique.

 

This sort of vertical air currents will bring new life to FSX / P3D.

 

Given AS2012 already has up and down drafts, it's unlikely that that's considered a 'new feature'.

Tried a windy approach into the Isle of Man with a real Q400 jockey the night before last - winds 29 gusting 39 and the picture was not at all what he would have expected to see. We had to crank the winds up to 45 gusting 60 before we actually got anything like the right amount of crab going. Think it's just one of those 'things' with FSX, sadly. 

Made a quick video for weather around Cardiff (UK) ... approach to Bristol using FSGRW and AccuFeel in A2A C-172.  Seemed accurate to me ... my crosswind landings needs some work, but weather wise it "felt" about right given the conditions.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsvQrwAx8O4

FSX really lacks in this area. Hope Active Sky can bring this to a whole new level! But without proper Ground Physics, there isn't much into it as well, since touching down with a 15 degree crab angle doesn't do anything bad with your airplane right now in FSX. Try that in real life and you will regret it for a long time!

 

For those who really want to try the best simulation of turbulence there is in Desktop simulator, try DCS P-51 under Gusting Wind. Wow.... I promise you will need a towel to wipe the sweat from your face afterwards!