OK, it has been several days and flights completed since the release of ASV. Now I would like to hear honest opinions from the ASV users who had AS 4.5 and FE and upgraded. Was it worth the upgrade?Other questions:How do you install it with Wide FS? Does it have a seperate graphics install for the cloud configuration? Any special install for the users who have FE currently installed? I don't have AS 4.5 on my primary flight simulator machine.Thanks for the feedback!Barry

I have FE plus ASV. The biggest difference I see so far is the vertical air movement and turbulence effects add much to the simming experience, and to me are worth the price of the upgrade. I flew into Ft Lauderdale airport last night and I was getting up and down drafts on final, just like I used to when I flew RA in there years ago. Since I use the FE clouds, and already had FE with 4.5 , I don't see a dramatic change in the way it looks, but I am only using 3 layers of clouds like I did with 4.5 so my frame will be good. I probably should fly some comparison flights to see the difference, but I hate to give up the turbulence and vertical air movement for even one flight:)

I like it so far; especially the vertical winds. However, on an approach last night into KBDL with the PMDG 737 the autopilot was having a bit of a time dealing with the vertical shear. I think I would like to tone it down just a tad as I suspect it may be a bit overdone (maybe 60% of what it is now). Hartford is not exactly mountainous terrain to expect such vertical effects. Another aspect is that now loading is much more cumbersome for me. I do not have a third party flight planner. So, for me, I have to start FS, develop a flight plan, shutdown FS, start AS and load flight plan, then restart FS in order for AS to properly load the new textures. Previously I would just start AS, start FS and do the flight plan and then import the flight plan into AS after starting the flight. Those are the "warts" that I've seen. However, the new clouds and textures are really good. The flight I did was from KDTW to KBDL and yesterday the northeast had a lot of clouds, etc. The weather was very well-depicted along the entire route. Mike

My geography is not great, but did you fly over the mountains in NY state from DTW to BDL as you decreased altitude and feel the vertical drafts induced by the topography at lower altitudes?I've flown real GA from Minneapolis to Bridgeport going south of Chicago and then back north and experienced this recalling drafts over Carmel, NY as I started descending to Bridgeport, CN. I do have 2004.5 and plan on upgrading.(I'm familiar with BDL and BDR areas having lived in the region a number of years.)

Besides verticle winds, is there any other features ASV brings to the table?Barry

Hi,www.hifisim.com/activesky5.htmA few of the major new features: Increase winds aloft resolution depiction (oceanic and sparse areas), Offline sequential playback, 24 hour archives, Wx Configurator interface, new interface...A few not-so-major features but also very nice: more cloud control options, more startup control options, AI auto refresh, decoded wx display..I know I'm forgetting a few.. please check the ASV product page link above!Best,

I did notice a few "bumps" over the Catskills which were fine(FL330), but where I had the difficulty was on final for Rwy 6 while passing over the ridge in Simsbury. Wind was about 8 kts @40 degrees. I was getting variations of about 700-1000 fpm which threw the AP into fits. Mike

Barry,I don't have FE, so I'll defer to someone that does. I can tell you that you have complete control over how the AE textures are loaded. You can select manual where you choose the textures or remain with the same textures, you can let ASV randomly select textures, and there is the Intelligent Cloud Selection system that will build a set of textures based on your enroute weather. Of course ASV ships with its own AE textures, but there is no reason one could not disable the AE textures and use FE textures .I keep reading on the forums how cumbersome the texture loading sequence is on ASV. People don't understand that flight plans are only needed prior to starting FS when one wants to simulate the best combination of textures for their route of flight. One can always start ASV, not use a flight plan, and textures will still get loaded (or not loaded depending on the ICS options). I've flown lots of flights without a going through the flight plan preloading process and the weather looks great.More importantly is your second question about WideFS. The program ships with a complete version of ASV, not just an upgrade. Whether you load it on your FS computer or a WideFS computer, ASV knows how to find your FS folder via the information it collects during the setup. The full texture set and ASV program are loaded onto your WideFS computer. You launch ASV prior to starting FS, and depending on the options enabled, textures are copied across the network to the FS folder. Then when you start FS, the copied textures are loaded into memory.The ASV program will conduct successive updates online or offline (depending on the options you've selected) and the FS weather will change accordingly. Following each update (mine is set to 10 mins), cirrus textures are copied across the network and appear in the sim. Cirrus textures are the only textures that can be changed dynamically. All other cloud textures are fixed in memory after FS loads.During the ASV setup, a backup is made of your current FS texture folder. This saves any custom textures and changes you have in effect. You are free to sample and experiment with the AE textures and if you wish, you simply copy the backup folder back to the FS texture folder to restore your original textures.If you are running FE, you'll want to set the ASV texture option to Manual. This disables ASV from copying AE textures over the network to your FS texture folder. You can then change your FE to suit your needs and ASV will not interfere with your selections.I think that Peter and Damian are planning to work together to integrate FE with ASV so a similar ICS routine can exist for FE textures. You'll need to check with Damian regarding this.Bruce

Bump for more feedback...Barry

One can always start ASV, not use a flight>plan, and textures will still get loaded (or not loaded>depending on the ICS options). I've flown lots of flights>without a going through the flight plan preloading process and>the weather looks great.Now that is worth knowing!, if i recall correctly this is not possible with AS2004.5?

>>Increase winds aloft resolution depiction (oceanic and sparse areas)This feature is also worth the upgrade to ASV.I've flown London

Hi ds,You are correct, this is new! (The texture loading that is). A plan is not necessary in AS2004.5.Hope this helps,JimActiveSky Sales and Supporthttp://www.hifisim.com/images/asv_dev_team.jpg http://www.hifisim.com/images/asv_proud_supporter.jpg

Hi,A flight plan certainly isn't needed to run ASV effectivly.If you choose not to use the ICS ( intellegent cloud selection ) feature, then you can choose your textures manually or randomly or even leave what you already are using ( including FE )... just go fly. There are also AE themes, that I like to use.If you do use the ICS feature, then, if you load a plan before FS starts, you get some advantages. These are that the cumulous clouds (and other textures excluding cirrus) are selected based on your plan and the weather reported for it. These clouds can only be submited before FS starts.Cirrus clouds can be submited while the sim is running, so if you have ICS and a plan, then it will submit cirris clouds as you progress your flight, based, I understand, on winds aloft direction.If you have ICS and no plan, then the winds aloft calculation for the cirrus clouds isn't taken into account, and you will get some cirrus, but not the full effects that the ICS is capable of.This is how I understand it. Please correct me if I am wrong.Cheers,Paul

EXCellent nneeewwwwsss., ill get ASV this weekend. What with all my add-ons and there associated flightplans thats a major enhancement (apart from everything else!)CheersDan:-)

Bruce,Thanks for the info.. My particular setup has the following.. (1) Main FS computer(2) Laptop which I use as my WideFS system and I also have FS installed on it as my mobile FS system.It works great now because if I use the FS on my laptop AS 4.5 sets the weather on the laptop session of FS. Or if I have WideFS loaded, then it updates the Main FS computer.Do you forsee any problems with this configuration?Thanks!Barry