Active Sky wind lock not working

[QuaxTheSnoopie 16]

Hi,

I run Active Sky for P3Dv4 7410 in P3D 4.5 HF3 to fly with historical weather and have the option "ATC wind lock" on.
It should set the wind speed at the target airport to a minimum of 6 kts to get a "stable" approach direction.

In P2A, I set the weather folder to C:\...\AppData\Roaming\Hifi\AS_P3Dv4\Weather but it seems not to work:
although ASP3Dv4 "Briefing" tab states LOWK RW28 as destination runway, P2A will guide me to RW10.

Now I found that the files in the ASP3D weather folder have LOWK entries for VRB01KT,
even in activeflightplan.txt, I find under the waypoint list LOWK with 238@1 (I assume this as wind direction and speed ?).

Example activeflightplanwx.txt :

DepartureMETAR=LOWL 121320Z AUTO 30004KT CAVOK 07/03 Q1019 NOSIG
DestinationMETAR=LOWK 121320Z VRB01KT 9999 FEW060 07/02 Q1022 NOSIG
AlternateMETAR=
AverageWinds=280@14
AverageHeadwind=-1.2
AverageTemperature=-1.9
CruiseAltitude=11500
CruiseSpeed=200
LOWL        253@5(8)    267@22(1)    262@29(-3)    282@35(-12)    314@28(-23)    318@33(-35)
        316@47(-52)    320@50(-60)    322@50(-62)    299@29(-58)    295@29(-61)    278@41(-63)
LIMRA        253@5(8)    267@22(1)    262@29(-3)    282@35(-12)    314@28(-23)    318@33(-35)
        316@47(-52)    320@50(-60)    322@50(-62)    299@29(-58)    295@29(-61)    278@41(-63)
TOC        253@5(8)    267@22(1)    262@29(-3)    282@35(-12)    314@28(-23)    318@33(-35)
        316@47(-52)    320@50(-60)    322@50(-62)    299@29(-58)    295@29(-61)    278@41(-63)
GRZ        263@6(6)    284@15(1)    289@19(-2)    292@16(-11)    328@23(-24)    342@35(-36)
        337@54(-52)    338@50(-60)    334@39(-60)    305@28(-58)    296@28(-62)    283@38(-64)
TOD        238@1(6)    278@7(1)    280@15(-2)    284@17(-11)    332@25(-24)    343@39(-35)
        335@53(-51)    339@50(-59)    337@48(-61)    298@28(-59)    299@25(-61)    284@39(-64)
WK824        238@1(6)    278@7(1)    280@15(-2)    284@17(-11)    332@25(-24)    343@39(-35)
        335@53(-51)    339@50(-59)    337@48(-61)    298@28(-59)    299@25(-61)    284@39(-64)
KFT        238@1(6)    278@7(1)    280@15(-2)    284@17(-11)    332@25(-24)    343@39(-35)
        335@53(-51)    339@50(-59)    337@48(-61)    298@28(-59)    299@25(-61)    284@39(-64)
WK833        238@1(6)    278@7(1)    280@15(-2)    284@17(-11)    332@25(-24)    343@39(-35)
        335@53(-51)    339@50(-59)    337@48(-61)    298@28(-59)    299@25(-61)    284@39(-64)
LOWK        238@1(6)    278@7(1)    280@15(-2)    284@17(-11)    332@25(-24)    343@39(-35)
        335@53(-51)    339@50(-59)    337@48(-61)    298@28(-59)    299@25(-61)    284@39(-64)

My question:

• On what information relies P2A ?
  Is it DestinationMETAR (VRB01KT) or the last waypoint LOWK 238@1 (I guess it's wind direction and strength ?) ?
   
• In my opinion, ASP3Dv4 (Version 7410) is incorrect in injecting the "wind lock" feature into P3D and showing RW28 into its flight plan briefing
  but just writing "VRB01KT" into the external files in its weather folder.
  So I thought about upgrading to the newer "ASP3D for P3D V5 and P3D V4",but - as its not a five bucks shopping -  I want to be sure, this bug (or feature) doesn't hit
  me again in this newer program version.
  Could some user of ASP3D for P3D V5/V4 state that P2A would get the wind lock corrected information from the newer ASP3D ?

[Dave-Pilot2ATC 871]

As the ASNWeather entry shows, P2A uses the current_wx_snapshot.txt in the folder you enter for the ASN Weather folder.

Dave

[vadriver 248]

4 hours ago, QuaxTheSnoopie said:

-  I want to be sure, this bug (or feature) doesn't hit
me again in this newer program version.

I see no difference in this between ASP4 & ASP3D  ...... it's not a feature I recommend / can use for props or jets.

The "prevent download" feature (of weather updates within 50nm of destination) would be a tad more successful if beyond the arrival clearances of P2A.

And remember, AS may further synthesise VRB winds to a specific direction (heard on the sim's atis) which could lead to a downwind operation.

[QuaxTheSnoopie 16]

Hmm, I don't think "prevent download" hit in my case as winds at the destination airport were reported 1-4 kts over hours on this (historical) day.
The "ATC wind lock" should only become active when winds are below 6 kts, it locks the winds to 6 kts.
But I found an entry at Hifi leading to a bug in ASP4 7410.

Checked current_wx_snapshot.txt :

LOWK::LOWK 121320Z VRB01KT 9999 FEW060 07/02 Q1022 NOSIG::LOWK 121115Z 1212/1312 VRB02KT 9999 FEW050 TX07/1213Z TNM02/1307Z TEMPO 1217/1309 0800 PRFG BKN010 TEMPO 1220/1308 BKN004 PROB30 1302/1306 0300 FZFG

So it seems, despite the "wind lock activation bug", ASP4 doesn't set the "ATC wind lock" in these files at all.

...thinking about, the problem may arise from ASP4 not knowing a wind direction at all (VRB), therefore assuming the runway randomly.

I had some troubles with the speech recognition (omitted words), so the force pilot runway selection may not have known my direction intentions, I've trained the grammar again - may it lead to better success on my next flight.
 

Edited January 22, 2023 by QuaxTheSnoopie
Forgot link to ASP4 7410 bug

[vadriver 248]

On 1/23/2023 at 2:50 AM, QuaxTheSnoopie said:

...thinking about, the problem may arise from ASP4 not knowing a wind direction at all (VRB), therefore assuming the runway randomly.

I have always suspected so, not that my regular airports have as benign winds as your example.

Any ATC that can offer "force a runway" despite a possible but acceptable downwind gets a vote in my book.....even better of its own calculations within the boundaries of preferred & acceptable.

It would be interesting to know what your sim's atis wind is ....... as I believe AS synthesises VRB to an unknown direction not seen in the appdata by P2A.

[QuaxTheSnoopie 16]

Found https://forums.hifisimtech.com/threads/wrong-runways-active.11223/
 

Quote

This wrong runway assignment has nothing to do with our product.
The force ATC wind lock feature just try's to help fix a hard coded issue in the ATC part in FSX and P3D.
This will happen regardless of what weather program you use.
This has been an issue for many years.
There are also quite alot of other parameters that affect runway assignments in the sim.

I will compare Shift+Z "wind direction and speed" on my next flight, but after some further investigations,
I suppose, I have to offer my runway request to P2A in a more precisely spoken way
or look for a day with winds of >6 kts (even then P3D's internal runway selection may be stochastic 😖).