August 25, 201610 yr After the interruption of the normal service of METAR text-based dissemination by NOAA, some flight simulators and applications using that source have seen their real world METAR data stopping to work. During the last two weeks the original URL has been up and down, and it appears that now only the alternate site is really working. There are already at least two threads on this subject here at AVSIM and at X-Pilot. Yesterday I had some time to test XP10 latest 10.50r2, and indeed when real world weather and winds aloft are enabled the last downloaded METAR is from a few days ago, when the original service was shutdown again. I will try to open a ticket with LR to point them to the presently available alternative, still in text format, that has been used by users of Aerowinx PSX and which also works fine with ELITE, namely: Alternate METAR D/L URL Recent METAR cycles can still be downloaded from this URL, but NOAA is clear about the changes: initially stated here: http://www.nws.noaa.gov/dm-cgi-bin/chgshow.pl?fn=DM051602.txt https://www.aviationweather.gov/dataserver https://www.aviationweather.gov/dataserver/bestpractices But a very positive detail I found yesterday while trying to find if XP10 was being affected was that regarding aloft winds AND turbulence, XP10 is actually using GRIB data already, something I was not aware of, although I knoew that some versions ago Austin / Ben re-enabled the winds aloft downloads. Being based on turbulence and aloft GRIB data means that XP's weather system is, at least regarding this data, up to the best possible level for an application of it's type! Learning to fly gliders since 1980Stopped using flightsims for good since early August 2026, after 34 yrs using some really great specimens... If I'm asked to name the preferred one, after all these years, MSFS 2024 is my answer without hesitation.(No desktop :-// after the last one crashed for good, so no simming, but I keep polling AVSIM - my main ludic activities spot since around 2006...)
August 25, 201610 yr Author And further to the above post, just a confirmation from Laminar Research that for the next version, the alternative servers will already be configured, so, with the next update of XP10, we will get back real world weather. Learning to fly gliders since 1980Stopped using flightsims for good since early August 2026, after 34 yrs using some really great specimens... If I'm asked to name the preferred one, after all these years, MSFS 2024 is my answer without hesitation.(No desktop :-// after the last one crashed for good, so no simming, but I keep polling AVSIM - my main ludic activities spot since around 2006...)
August 25, 201610 yr Author You're welcome Wayne, actually starting Jan 2017 dissemination will have to be done in text and xml formats, for the GTS systems, and from 2019 on only xml format will be supported. One of the above links explains the basic format/syntax. Learning to fly gliders since 1980Stopped using flightsims for good since early August 2026, after 34 yrs using some really great specimens... If I'm asked to name the preferred one, after all these years, MSFS 2024 is my answer without hesitation.(No desktop :-// after the last one crashed for good, so no simming, but I keep polling AVSIM - my main ludic activities spot since around 2006...)
August 25, 201610 yr Great news! that update will be in this 10.50 release candidate run? Alexander Colka
August 25, 201610 yr Author I believe it is due for the next update, in the current run. Learning to fly gliders since 1980Stopped using flightsims for good since early August 2026, after 34 yrs using some really great specimens... If I'm asked to name the preferred one, after all these years, MSFS 2024 is my answer without hesitation.(No desktop :-// after the last one crashed for good, so no simming, but I keep polling AVSIM - my main ludic activities spot since around 2006...)
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