Hi guys;

 

I'm a little confused about which procedure to follow, so I would like your help.

 

I was on the Radar Contatc 4 forum discussing about traffic patterns, especially the problem of "wrong direction" traffic in departures and approaches.

 

I use RC4, Opus and World of AI in my flights, so I was trying to understand what I did wrong to make this happen.

 

Then, seeing the FAQ page of you, I found this:

 

 

 

Weather keeps changing erratically

Ensure you don't have any other software packages injecting the weather and disable the FSUIPC weather options (registered version). In FSX Free Flight, Weather, set your FSX Current Weather to any weather theme, just don't enable the real world weather options. Check that no other weather engines are running. If flying online don't inject weather from FSInn etc.

 

 

 

 

On your "getting started" page, I found this:

 

Ensuring AI Traffic uses the Correct Runway

To ensure your AI traffic uses the correct runway you can do one of two things,

1. Check the current wind and specify that wind manually within FSX before loading the flight. It doesn't matter about any other weather parameters since Opus will update it, but it will allow you to stipulate what the wind is going to be (matching the RW) BEFORE the flight is loaded.

2. Simply select RW Weather in the FSX Weather settings, update the FSX weather and ensure at least the correct wind has been injected. This requires that your point of departure is a met station and has a valid METAR in the now almost defunct Jeppesen database. Again this will set the wind BEFORE the flight is even loaded.

Now you can take your time, process your flight plan, specify your intended destination and cruise altitude and finally instruct Opus to generate and load the weather. The Opus LWE will automatically put the sim back into custom weather mode.

Using this simple procedure will always ensure your AI traffic start out using the correct runway.

 

 

 

So, let me see if I understood this:

 

As I am using AI traffic, should I select "real world weather (static)" and leave it there, correct? 

 

The "wather themes" mentioned in the FAQ page does not apply here, right?

 

Or I'm doing a damn mess?

On previous versions we always recommended disabling FSX RW weather since it conflicted with our weather injection. However we subsequently found that enabling FSX RW weather at the start of the flight was one method to ensure the AI traffic used the correct runways so we modified the software to set the weather back to custom weather.

 

I would actually recommend you use our second method and do not set RW weather in FSX (even though it will work as above) but instead manually set the wind direction before loading the flight. What you are trying to achieve is to tell FSX what the wind is before starting the flight and before it assigns runways to AI traffic. There are limited ways to do this.

 

As I said both my suggestions above work but by far the easiest is to simply set the surface wind yourself using the simulator's weather dialog before loading the flight.

You really have limited choice in what you can do, as indicated in my previous suggestions.

The aim is to ensure the sim has the correct wind direction 'before' it loads the flight and allocates the RW to the AI traffic. Hence, you must somehow inject or specify the correct wind to the sim before you load the flight. This has to be a manual process at the moment although I am not ruling out coming up with a better solution in OpusFSI.

So I was just making suggestions how you might achieve this and feedback suggests it works just fine.

Yes, OpusFSX will force the sim back into Custom Weather mode. But if you turn on the sims RW weather I would also suggest checking and making doubly sure it has been turned back off after Opus injects the RW weather. Of course it should not be left on or turned on after Opus has taken over weather control.

Stephen :-)

So I would have to check the "user-defined weather" option and manually put the wind direction? 

 

And this wind direction, I would find within the Opus program? Or I could find another way? Because my fear is putting the wrong wind direction, depending on my source/Opus source.

 

I do not know, but for me the "real world weather (static)" option seems to be more reliable. Because, theoretically, eliminate the likelihood of me to mistake the interpretation of weather.

The whole process is very simple to do if you need to do it.

 

For a start if you want to see what the current weather is at your departure (before loading the weather using Opus).

 

Then 'simply' go to the NOAA ADDS site and type in your departure ICAO code.

 

http://www.aviationweather.gov/adds/metars/java

 

You could even Google the weather, its very simple either way. Takes less than a minute to check and something all pilots should be able to do in a heartbeat.

 

But do not consider flying with the simulators RW weather or even static weather, that's like stepping back into the dark ages.

 

Stephen :-)

 

Personally I don't bother or worry about AI traffic using a different RW, never seems to be a problem. But for those that want to force the issue then any of the above techniques are extremely simple and fool proof. Always best to 'keep things simple', usually works without error or fuss.

 

Stephen :-)

 

Alternatively, you can wait and see if we can implement the option to load the weather before running the sim in OpusFSI then consult the Opus weather report or LWA weather map. The NOAA ADDS site is extremely simple though. Just Google NOAA METAR or NOAA ADDS and away you go.

 

Stephen :-)

Hi Stephen;

 

Ok, now I understood.

 

What I mentioned about "misinterpretation the weather" was just the fact that I may eventually use a different source than the Opus uses. For example, a site that had a longer update than the Opus source. I do not know if I made ​​myself clear right.

 

About "real weather - static" I thought I could just select it to download the current weather conditions, and then Opus overwrites with its data.

 

Anyway, my question was solved. Now, it's time to fly and test.

 

Thank you very much.

 

Edit: Stephen, sorry, just one more question: and the runway changes on approach, can I do something about that? Sometimes I'm approaching, and the App says "expect approach runway x"... then I do the set up of the ILS course/frequency and seconds after, he says "expect approach runway y"

Edited June 13, 201411 yr by Cristiano Mueller

Hi Christiano,

 

Glad to hear you have it sorted. I have made a note to see if there is anything that can be done to force the weather to load before the flight is loaded, using a specified flight plan, even if it as simple as EGNX EGKK, to define the departure point. If I manage to load weather before the flight is loaded and the sim accepts this weather then problem sorted. It may not work though.

 

So yes, use whatever method you find suits you best, normally the simplest and quickest. In the meantime I will investigate to see if there is anything that can be done to force the simulator's hand before flights are loaded.

 

The RW Static option sounds a good solution.

 

I haven't checked, so when you do this just have a quick check to make sure its been out back to Custom after Opus loads the actual RW weather (the old FSX RW static or not, does a very poor job using the old defunct server but based in feedback, the surface wind can be relied on).

 

Regards

Stephen :-)

Stephen;

 

Reading again what you wrote, I believe that the NOAA's site is the more reliant and easiest way to do the "wind injection". 

 

I will do some flights tomorrow (here in Brazil is World Cup time, but I don't like football) and I see what I will get.

 

The "startup weather injection" for me is solved. No doubts. But in the destination airport, the weather/wind direction will solve automatically?

Yes, if you follow recommended practices none of these problems will occur and your destination weather will be accurate from 200 miles away. Also remember to specify your destination and monitor the Destination weather report.

 

Regards

Stephen

 

 

Edit: Stephen, sorry, just one more question: and the runway changes on approach, can I do something about that? Sometimes I'm approaching, and the App says "expect approach runway x"... then I do the set up of the ILS course/frequency and seconds after, he says "expect approach runway y"

 

Stephen,

 

I don't know if you saw my edited post. I think you were answering while I were editing, but there is something I can do about that?

 

This has been very common in my approaches.

 

Or for example, on my last flight, bound for SBPA (runways 10-28), the wind direction was 300, or something similar, and yet Radar Contact instructed me to land on 10.

 

I kept thinking "runway 10 has ILS, the 28 does not have." Perhaps this is why the approach was guided in this way. But there would be a problem of Radar Contact, and not of Opus, right? Opus pointed me the correct wind during approach,  but some takeoffs of AI traffic were made on runway 10. And I had to ask for approach and landing at 28.

Just use Recommended Practices as documented. Your specified destination weather will usually be 100% accurate from over 200km, long before runways and approaches have been allocated. You must of course have specified your Destination and Alternates to Opus.

 

But in the RW you follow ATC instructions which may be using a runway for other reasons, not just the wind. Plus I have absolutely no control over how FSX or P3D allocates runways. Your destination weather including its surface wind will be correct though, I would expect long before all this happens.

 

You MUST use Recommended Practices though, otherwise the software cannot take those extra measures to ensure your Destination weather is accurate from great distance, far greater than the sim usually stores accurate weather at any specific point. I can only say this and no more.

 

Opus generates the weather, the sim does the rest, so do as recommended. Also monitor your Destination weather, check for the (Actual) label indicating all is correct after a weather update (this will be from anywhere up to about 220km away), Prepare for your expected approach but be ready to follow other instructions, just like in the RW. In real life you would have to do this. Your destination may have other more important reasons for using a runway, noise abatement, RW slope, conditions, maintenance, who knows. Don't expect everything to be written in stone before you take off, that's not real and of course FSX is not perfect.

Stephen :-)

Hi Stephen;

 

The advice about adjusting the wind direction before loading the flight works like a charm. No more problems on departure and neither on approach.

 

Thank you very much.

You're most welcome, once you get used to the procedure it is quite straight forward.

 

Thanks for the feedback.

 

Regards

Stephen