How do I find out what the active runway of the destination airport is before I depart my current airport? I would like to know this for arangine my arrivals and approaches?Gary TrammellPro Rodeo Announcer

If you are using real-world weather, like Active Sky, you can get the weather report for that location. Or, ingame I think you can get weather reports for the area you are flying to. Keep in mind that weather can change quickly (if you use real-world updates), and you may have to alter your approach. Adjusting to deviations from the planned route is part of the multi-tasking management skills you need to learn to effectively operate an aircraft (just like the real deal).If flying to an uncontrolled airport, it's best to overfly the center of the runway at a safe altitude and check the winsock, in addition to any automated weather services available as they are not always reliable.

You can't know for certain which runway is active and you'll need to have appropriate charts for several approaches to hand. But if you can find out (or set) the wind direction in FSX you can pretty much know which alternative(s) is most likely.Cheers,Noel.

Gotta mention-in the real world you often don't know till the last second.Last year I had to drop a passenger off at St. Pete, Florida-then flew from there to Sarasota-a 10 minute flight in a Baron.It was night-because we knew it was short flight we got atis from Sarasota on the ground in St. Pete-got the landing runway,ils freqs. etc. all set up.Took off at night-5 minutes out and on final approach for the runway atis had predicted Sarasota called and said the ils was out of service-change to a different vor approach the opposite direction. Needless to say-fumbling with approach plates to a new approach at night at 186 knts. with a flashlight when 5 minutes out was a challenge...http://mywebpages.comcast.net/geofa/pages/rxp-pilot.jpg

A trick I've used is on the Map screen. Use the control to "hide" the airports. It makes it easier to find the weather stations. Well, first, you should center the map on your destination. Then, hide the airports. Find the weather station closest to your destination. The weather station icon looks like a little box with a diagonal line in it. Hover your mouse pointer over that box, and you will get an instant weather report. You can use this trick at any point in your flight. If you don't call for weather updates, then the weather prediction will stay valid for your entire flight. Of course, the wind direction pretty much dictates what the active runway will be, so that should do it. Jeff ShylukAvsim Product Reviewer

If you don't have Active Sky, you can check the weather on any weather web page. I like using weatherunderground.com myself, but any web page with current aviation weather reports will do. You can at least get an idea of where the winds will be coming from at your arrival time.As Geofa said though, in real life active runways can literally change "on the fly":) John M

Could be wrong, and I'm not in front of my sim computer, but doesn't FSX give you the destination weather when you select the destination airport on the map screen ina box at the bottom of the screen?Allcott

Hi GaryThe proceedure I use for ascertaining the active runway and weather for my destination airport is as follows:While enroute I select my destination airport in the Waypoint pages.Then I get the Atis Freq. for that airport and enter it into my Comm. radio either 1 or 2.When the plane gets within 50 or 60 miles from your destination the Atis for that airport will be displayed which gives you the weather and also tha active runways which are in use.I simply select the runway, if it is an ILS approach, inpute the correct freq. into my Nav 1 radio then when within 25 miles of the airport choose nearest airport select the proper one.I have never had the tower give me a runway different from the one I have selected unless it is a parallel runway which still allows me to select my original runway.Didn't mean to be to wordie hope you understand my post.Kenny G.