Hi all!I just did a little experimenting with very high winds and different aircraft. I set the wind manually to 110 knots gusting to 120. Than I picked different aircraft. First the default cessna 172SP. Initially the wind just blew me of the runway. I than changed to a DC-10 with full flaps deployed and about 50% fuel. I managed to do a several vertical lift-off's and touchdown's.Than, pretty unexpected a AI mooney bravo taxied to the parallel runway and started its takeoff-roll. The mooney accelerated and took off like there would be now wind at all!!Has anyone experienced this too? Does the weather have no influence on the flight performance of AI aircraft in FS?curious,C.G.

Yep, AI aircraft aren't prone to the same laws of physics as the aircraft you fly. I'm hoping the next version of flight simulator remedies this.Many car racing games had the same problem, until Forza Motorsport for the xbox came along. Hope the trend also appears in future versions of FS.James

Once you lifted off the ground (I assume you mean low power) the aircraft would slow in terms of airspeed, not ground speed, since once in the air only it own power of forward thrust would overcome its drag. Think of flying a kite. Once you let go of the control tether, it just flows with the air like a balloon and their is no airflow over its surface while it just blows with the wind.In terms of ground speed in a high headwind did you notice the AI in a slow approach as opposed to no headwind?

AI aircraft apparently have two different phases of operation - a ground phase and an airborne phase.I've seen AI aircraft on many occasions impacted by weather. My favorite is the 60 degree crab for landing.But the takeoff2 phase of flight - the ground roll and lift off is part of the ground phase of flight. Weather doesn't appear to hit AI aircraft until they move to the flight phase when told to contact the departure frequency.I definitely agree that AI aircraft have an exemption from the laws of physics. How on earth does an aircraft descent at 2500 FPM with no flaps, grear or spoilers deployed and LOSE air speed?

I didn't know about AI aircraft having a ground and flight phase.Thanks for clearing that up!best regards,C.G.

One of the really interesting things available is the TrafficToolBox SDK from Microsoft's Flight Simulator site.The TrafficToolBox.dll is placed in your modules folder - and will give you two options within FS.A Map display which looks a lot like an ATC radar. It also gives you an Explorer which list all AI aircraft and their "state" of operation.You can really learn a lot about how FS works by watching those two - what happens in which state, how approaches are flown, etc.It really is a lot easier with a two monitor setup - but can work from small windows also.