Live Weather and IFR flight planning?

[ctalpas 113]

Hi Folks,

Apologies if this has been covered elsewhere.

I was wondering how people approach flight planning with Live Weather.  Given that it is model based and the Metars may not correspond to the current real weather, how does one go about determining proper take-off runway when creating a flight plan in Sim-brief for instance.  Do you start the game at the intended departure airport, determine the weather, go into simbrief and create appropriate flight plan and export it, and then finally load it into the flightsim?

I've bee enjoying the WT CJ4 mod and wanted to do some IFR flying with Live Weather rather than the clear skies setting where wind speed doesn't play a significant factor.

Thanks in advance,

Chris

Edited March 27, 2021 by ctalpas

[sidfadc 1,344]

Dunno about anyone else but I find the actual wind using Live Weather in the sim to be pretty close to the metar - what sometimes doesnt match is the cloud cover, precip etc.  But for the purpose of flight planning and "which runway should I depart from" I find the metar reported in Simbrief to be reasonably close.  So I just plan the flight in simbrief, create the OFP, launch the sim and away I go.

Edited March 27, 2021 by sidfadc

[Ajb376 59]

20 minutes ago, sidfadc said:

Dunno about anyone else but I find the actual wind using Live Weather in the sim to be pretty close to the metar - what sometimes doesnt match is the cloud cover, precip etc.  But for the purpose of flight planning and "which runway should I depart from" I find the metar reported in Simbrief to be reasonably close.  So I just plan the flight in simbrief, create the OFP, launch the sim and away I go.

Unfortunately, cloud cover is one of the most important parts of Ifr flight planning, specifically convective weather. While real world buildups don’t seem to be modeled of a factor (ie you can fly through any level of storm), knowing the cloud layers and tops are really important. 
 

the answer here is it just doesn’t matter to plan for it like you would in the real world. Bummer for sure because it’s so close but storms can bring down light aircraft easily. At the very least if you have passengers, You don’t want to spend too much time in the clouds

[Tomaz Drnovsek 440]

I still can't fully understand why they ignored such an integral part of aviation and flight simming - METARs. 

[Gilandred 690]

4 minutes ago, Tomaz Drnovsek said:

I still can't fully understand why they ignored such an integral part of aviation and flight simming - METARs. 

They didn’t ignore it.  Metar data is used for winds and barometric pressure at airports.  Meteoblue data feeds everything else.

[kakihara123 144]

10 minutes ago, Ajb376 said:

Unfortunately, cloud cover is one of the most important parts of Ifr flight planning, specifically convective weather. While real world buildups don’t seem to be modeled of a factor (ie you can fly through any level of storm), knowing the cloud layers and tops are really important. 
 

the answer here is it just doesn’t matter to plan for it like you would in the real world. Bummer for sure because it’s so close but storms can bring down light aircraft easily. At the very least if you have passengers, You don’t want to spend too much time in the clouds

Interestingly enough it has some kind of impact in the sim. The DA-62 mod has a finite supply of de-icing fluid. So if you fly through any kind of storm in colder weather you will stall eventually if it is long enough. The ice can build up so much that you just go down with 100% throttle. 

Not really storms per se, but strong winds can actually cause crash damage in the sim of the winds are too string and gusty. Had a hell of a ride going over the alps in a C172 a few months ago. 60+ kn winds which the AP could not handle at all so I needed to hand fly it and was stalling every few minutes. 

[Flic1 976]

I use Simbrief to plan flights (CRJ & CJ4) and have found winds aloft and temps are very accurate to what you see in the sim.  I do flights where I land within a minute of my planned ETA.  Metars are hit or miss but usually pretty close, especially winds/altimeter.  Clouds are also hit or miss when comparing metars but the overall cloud conditions tend to match the Meteoblue satellite composite. I think the issue is that the sim cannot depict thin cirrus clouds so sometimes you get a high, overly thick overcast layer which should actually just be a thin layer of cirrus clouds. The one thing that the sim is severely lacking is visibility depiction.  It's always unlimited visibility in the sim unless you are in rain.  I remember this coming up in one of their Q&A sessions and the guys at Asobo didn't even seem to understand and did not think this was an issue at all.  Anyone that flies around during the summer IRL...especially in the mid-Atlantic US knows how hazy it can get.  If they could incorporate visibility I think that would also help with the draw distance complaints since there are many times you only have 5-10 miles of visibility.

Edited March 27, 2021 by Flic1

[ryanbatc 12,845]

9 minutes ago, Gilandred said:

They didn’t ignore it.  Metar data is used for winds and barometric pressure at airports.  Meteoblue data feeds everything else.

You're right.  They only ignored the important parts like ceilings and visibility lol.

[Highmike 68]

It may be a cheap and nasty option but I use the Weather program included in Win10 to determine departure and arrival runways. It hasn't let me down yet. If you look closely at the top of the display there's a little wind arrow which gives you a rough measure of expected winds.

[Gilandred 690]

5 minutes ago, ryanbatcund said:

You're right.  They only ignored the important parts like ceilings and visibility lol.

They aren’t ignored either.  It’s just that the data source for those items is meteoblue’s forecast model and not the local metar report.

[ctalpas 113]

Just wanted to thank everyone who replied with suggestions.  I'll trust that the metars are close enough.

Chris

[Ixoye 1,821]

I set the world map to Live Weather and create a simple strict VFR flight plan between the airports I plan to fly, then I know which runways sim will be using for departure and arrival, then I reset the world map and start making my own flight plan outside the sim, or in the aircraft itself.

Edited March 28, 2021 by Ixoye

[ryanbatc 12,845]

5 hours ago, Gilandred said:

They aren’t ignored either.  It’s just that the data source for those items is meteoblue’s forecast model and not the local metar report.

Really?  If so perhaps Asobo could enable an option for meteoblue or airport METAR.  That would be slick!

[Flyfaster_MTN002 412]

2 hours ago, ctalpas said:

Just wanted to thank everyone who replied with suggestions.  I'll trust that the metars are close enough.

Chris

They are not. If you want 'real' METAR/ATIS data you need to use Unreal Weather. That being said, Live weather can be more fun/interesting enroute and approaches as it is generally a bit more dynamic, if not realistic. 

[MrFuzzy 2,118]

8 hours ago, ctalpas said:

Hi Folks,

Apologies if this has been covered elsewhere.

I was wondering how people approach flight planning with Live Weather.  Given that it is model based and the Metars may not correspond to the current real weather, how does one go about determining proper take-off runway when creating a flight plan in Sim-brief for instance.  Do you start the game at the intended departure airport, determine the weather, go into simbrief and create appropriate flight plan and export it, and then finally load it into the flightsim?

I've bee enjoying the WT CJ4 mod and wanted to do some IFR flying with Live Weather rather than the clear skies setting where wind speed doesn't play a significant factor.

Thanks in advance,

Chris

I suggest you to start the flight from a Gate/Parking and not set the departure/arrival runways. You are not supposed to know the arrival runway anyway, because the wind and visibility at destination may change during the flight. 

The ATC will direct you to the correct departure runway once it gives you IFR clearance and you can go to SImbrief and set the MCDU after that.

The same on approach: wait for the ATC to give you clearance to a certain approach / runway and set the MCDU according to that and the weather at destination. 

Edited March 28, 2021 by MrFuzzy