Active Sky review

[turbomax 3,339]

1 hour ago, Stearmandriver said:

This is definitely not right.  Sight picture does not change in a meaningful way with headwind vs tailwind.

I don't feel like arguing with you, I posted a thread among A320 airline pilots. problem though they didn't refer to  ASFS but real A320 operations in tailwind situations. 🤣 

But how would they know when they don't use MSFS:

C_Star , 12th Sep 2015 19:09

"I presonally don't like Conf3+tailwind combination on the A320, due to tail clearance issues. In TW conditions you carry no extra speed, so have a higher approach pitch attitude to start with. Then, since you have higher ground speed and sink rate, you need even more pitch during flare... These effects combined leave not much room for mishandling which can happen on a bad day.
So, for my personal comfort Tailwind=Conf Full, even on a long rwy...."

https://www.pprune.org/tech-log/567591-tailwind-landing.html

Edited May 8 by turbomax

[eslader 1,821]

For me, the main depiction issue with ASFS seems to be cloud height. I've been flying through the severe storms that have been hitting OK/Mich/etc the past few days. Especially Monday, we were dealing with massive supercells, but in the sim they topped out at around 12,000 feet. Things looked pretty good sitting underneath the clouds, but it was pretty surprising to pop out into the sunshine before I even got to the flight levels.

 

[Bond 138]

I saw cells top at 30000+ feet around the US a few days back.

[RNAVV19R 5]

6 hours ago, Stearmandriver said:

  I don't know if AS uses turb in a different way, but even the default sim behavior seems often overdone to me.

From my experience with Active Sky (version 8883) the turbulence seems much better on approach than default weather. In calm weather, everything feels very smooth. Windy and gusty weather will push the plane around more, but it doesn't feel like you are landing in a hurricane. It's not perfect, but it feels better than default weather. 

The issue with turbulence I've experienced was mostly at cruise. On every flight I encounter heavy or severe turbulence that results in extreme banking which even the autopilot can't compensate for. This is a known issue that they are working to fix.

[eslader 1,821]

5 hours ago, Bond said:

I saw cells top at 30000+ feet around the US a few days back.

Yeah, I'm strongly suspecting something is messed up with my setup somewhere.

[jcomm 6,039]

One of the various advantages of using ASFS over default is the way it adds proper turbulence and shear effects to those which should be tricky approaches, but look tame when using MSFS default weather...

 

 

[Stearmandriver 2,333]

23 hours ago, turbomax said:

I don't feel like arguing with you, I posted a thread among A320 airline pilots. problem though they didn't refer to  ASFS but real A320 operations in tailwind situations. 🤣 

But how would they know when they don't use MSFS:

C_Star , 12th Sep 2015 19:09

"I presonally don't like Conf3+tailwind combination on the A320, due to tail clearance issues. In TW conditions you carry no extra speed, so have a higher approach pitch attitude to start with. Then, since you have higher ground speed and sink rate, you need even more pitch during flare... These effects combined leave not much room for mishandling which can happen on a bad day.
So, for my personal comfort Tailwind=Conf Full, even on a long rwy...."

https://www.pprune.org/tech-log/567591-tailwind-landing.html

It's not an argument.  I've been doing this, and teaching it, for a lot of years, in airline jets as well as GA.  Look, PPrune is a great board, I've been on there for probably 20 years now... But just because it's a board for professional pilots, that doesn't mean no one is ever wrong.  People are wrong there all the time 😉.

Everyone has configuration preferences in various situations, but they're typically just that - personal preferences. 

Think about my examples - if there's no noticeable difference in landing attitude between 10kt headwind and calm wind, can you tell me why there might be a difference in landing attitude between a calm wind and a 10kt tailwind?  In both examples, all that's happened is your groundspeed has increased 10 kts.

Edited May 9 by Stearmandriver

[F737MAX 5,759]

A few things I noticed yesterday:

1. LIMC had TSRA in its METAR, which on the ground in Preset mode looked very realistic. In the air, however, clouds turned from BKN to FEW and none of the cells gave any turbulence. #Disappointing.
2. Flew LICJ to EIDW in the PMDG 737. Was thrown around, including "bank angle" cautions on climb and into early part of cruise. No SIGMET for flight, so turned down wind turb and in-cloud turb to 40 for it to be reasonable. #Bumpy
3. Having ASFS in Preset mode during departure and approach, and in Passive mode during cruise gives me the best of both worlds. Seeing and approaching, vectoring away from, and passing an active cell over Corsica in Passive mode is the best thing about Live Weather. Approaching Dublin with multiple cloud layers (including stratus) is the best thing about Preset mode. #FantasticCombo.

 

LIMC storm:

[mikeymike 366]

etting of terbulance effect is severe.

needs to be adressed

mike

 

[mikeymike 366]

setting of terbulance effect is severe.

needs to be adressed

 

also stuttering while smooth transitioning

mike

 

[bebaszov 0]

Hi guys!

Do you know any solution against sudden changes?
My settings:
Download interval: 15
Depiction smoothing range: 15
Periodic theme reload interval: 0 (it used to be 15, but I lowered it because I thought it was causing the sudden changes)

Despite the above settings, I encounter some sudden changes in all my flights, sometimes quite extreme ones, for example from few clouds to overcast.
"Prevent downloads on approach and departure" unticked.

I have no idea what I have done wrong. 🤷‍♂️

[Fiorentoni 4,460]

11 minutes ago, bebaszov said:

Hi guys!

Do you know any solution against sudden changes?
My settings:
Download interval: 15
Depiction smoothing range: 15
Periodic theme reload interval: 0 (it used to be 15, but I lowered it because I thought it was causing the sudden changes)

Despite the above settings, I encounter some sudden changes in all my flights, sometimes quite extreme ones, for example from few clouds to overcast.
"Prevent downloads on approach and departure" unticked.

I have no idea what I have done wrong. 🤷‍♂️

I have the same settings (except for smoothing actally even higher, at 25). I see no sudden transitions. Probably a rare bug. You might want to send the logs over to HiFi for support.

[Cpt_Piett 4,878]

I noticed something strange with historical weather. Set up a flight on December 20th 2023 in Nepal (wanted sub-zero temperatures). Started from VNJS Jomsom (8976ft) around 0600z. Temp 6 Celcius. Arrived in Pokhara (2684ft) a few hours later: -13 degrees. Then, around 0800z (same day) in Kathmandu, 19 degrees. 

It doesn't seem right. Jomsom is a high-altitude airport close to the border of Tibet. Pokhara is in a subtropical region with temperatures up to 40 degrees in summer. The coldest months are December and January, with record lows (1969-2020) of 0-1 Celcius. 

Also, the snow coverage changes abruptly when closing in on Pokhara, as well as when flying towards Kathmandu. Strange. 

[Cpt_Piett 4,878]

Something definitely weird about snow coverage. Lukla yesterday had up to 27 degrees. ASFS: snow everywhere. It does not have access to the VNLK METAR. So I guess the GFS forecast is not accurate enough. 

MSFS: Green grass and regional variations. Definitely the winner.

[Cpt_Piett 4,878]

8 hours ago, Cpt_Piett said:

Something definitely weird about snow coverage. Lukla yesterday had up to 27 degrees. ASFS: snow everywhere. It does not have access to the VNLK METAR. So I guess the GFS forecast is not accurate enough. 

MSFS: Green grass and regional variations. Definitely the winner.

I completely misread https://metar-taf.com/history/VNLK. It is showing VNKT (135km away) only. So I guess both MSFS and ASFS have to use forecast models (or whatever it's called) in this area. According to the windy.com forecast, max/min temps for next 24 hrs are 8/2 C.