Active Sky review

[longhaul747 71]

I picked up ASFS last night and just took my first flight from PAE to LAS in the PMDG 738.  Today for reals was a very sunny day in the Seattle area and of coarse that was well depicted in the sim without a cloud in sight.  I was getting some minor bumps on climb out but nothing real bad.  I also have Realturb installed and I am not sure if it was ASFS or Realturb causing those affects but it definitely added to the immersion whatever was doing the work.

In route over the mountain areas I was getting knocked around pretty good and it was consistent.  This can happen with Realturb but usually its very severe but isolated turbulence.  South of Mount Rainer it started getting partly cloudy.  Clouds looked different over what we normally get with default weather but I am not smart enough to tell you exactly what type of clouds they were.

On approach into LAS it was a fantastic ride.  It was 33c and it seemed thermals were modeled pretty well and overflying the mountain range west of LAS created a lot of chop.  It smoothed out a bit over the city but again towards Lake Mead I was getting knocked around pretty good.  On final into Runway 25 at LAS I got a wind sheer warning and controlling the airplane was a challenge.  When you see those YouTube videos of a pilot really fighting the yoke that is what it was like.

For now I feel it was well worth the investment and adds a lot of immersion.  Since you are dealing with real world weather I will just have to wait until I fly in more severe weather to see what its really like but compared to default it is several steps up.   

One thing I noticed right away is the temperatures seem to be more accurate.  It seems default temperature settings are set at sea level.  With default if its 33c in LAS it will be noticeably colder at ground level in Vegas.  With ASFS it was right non the money at 33c in the sim as it was in real life.  This should make hot and high takeoffs much more challenging!  

 

 

Edited April 23 by longhaul747
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[vgbaron 3,714]

3 hours ago, aniiran said:

This what im talking about,  I'm not getting this anywhere.  Looks like I need to submit a support ticket.

Good idea - they'll bew able to look at the logs and have some ideas.

Double check your AV.  I've been having an issue in that I was getting no turbulence. Finally realized I had not excluded AS from my AV (Eset). Made the exclusion and got bounced all over the place in a TS. Usually the AV will block AS from connecting with MS, I was totally unaware it could affect it partially.

Hopefully they will help you sort out your problem - thanx for your patience  - I know you'll love AS.

[Sonosusto 694]

8 hours ago, Cpt_Piett said:

As the 56 page thread might close anytime soon, I'll share my latest video here. 

Background: I got AS a few days ago, but was busy in the weekend, so haven't had that much time with it. I've read the manual though - as that is one of the most common criticisms around here 😉 So I think I've got a pretty good grasp on the main features and settings, as well as what AS does, and what the limitations are. 

Anyway, in the video I compared AS to default in a strong crosswind scenario. I have a few opinions, but I'm interested to hear what other people are thinking first. 

 

Your nickname is Floater.

 

PS. I shouldn't make too much fun of floating because I did that yesterday with the LearJet. Should have made a slight bump and reversers but instead I floated!

Edited April 23 by Sonosusto

[MarcG 3,031]

Anyone able to register for the HiFi forms with a Gmail account? I tried on Sunday, never got the verification email and that was after requesting it be sent twice.

Sent a PM to Damian here but don't think he's been back since, nothing in my spam obviously.

Wanna post some ideas for features, thanks.

[Sonosusto 694]

Yeah.

Wow. There is no doubt this is better already.

Captain Piett was right. This looks better, performs the same but also more accurate. Even with passive mode.

I love AS (even FSGRW) for XP but AS was always better for me. After using it for years in XP11 and 12 this was surprising to hear they merged on over.

[threexgreen 3,156]

7 hours ago, longhaul747 said:

On final into Runway 25 at LAS I got a wind sheer warning and controlling the airplane was a challenge.

ASFS made the PMDG 737 give out a windshear warning? After weighing all the pros and cons of ASFS vs. default live weather I think this just was the final push I needed to buy ASFS.

[Adamski_NZ 966]

Someone (in the old/closed) thread said that METAR cloud information only goes up to 5,000 ft. Is that correct?  The link below indicates 10,000ft.

https://wiki.ivao.aero/en/home/training/documentation/METAR_explanation

[threexgreen 3,156]

9 minutes ago, Adamski_NZ said:

Someone (in the old/closed) thread said that METAR cloud information only goes up to 5,000 ft. Is that correct?  The link below indicates 10,000ft.

https://wiki.ivao.aero/en/home/training/documentation/METAR_explanation

I don't think either are correct. There are frequently METARS reporting something like OVC250.

[Cpt_Piett 4,805]

5 hours ago, Sonosusto said:

Your nickname is Floater.

Haha, I think I’ll keep Piett for a while longer! Last couple of landings with default weather and strong winds, I’ve been floating to the end of the runway, something I don’t experience with AS at all. Not sure which one is more realistic…

12 hours ago, vgbaron said:

Instead of cirrus, stratus etc we get more bunches of cumulus gigantus. However, they are beautiful and majestic and really look cool when flying through them, bright white, dark blue and grey - fantastic - but not realistic.

I thought that was a great argument!

Here’s a short video from the final part of a flight from Guangzhou to Hong Kong. Quite impressive depiction of thunderstorms, but I’m unconvinced regarding cloud turbulence. Think I remembered reading that this is a work in progress. Still, I find that I increasingly prefer AS to default weather, despite its limitations. I don’t regret the purchase.

As for the cloud textures, I find that both AS and default can look equally terrible. I might post the full flight where I talk a lot about the various differences between default and AS, but I’m getting a bit worried about my recent video spam here on Avsim. Just think that a video is a pretty effective way of demonstrating AS in action. I’ll let the mods decide what is regarded as reasonable and within forum guidelines.

Edited April 23 by Cpt_Piett

[DModjo 122]

Same I can’t sign up to the official forum either. No confirmation email gets sent. 

3 hours ago, MarcG said:

Anyone able to register for the HiFi forms with a Gmail account? I tried on Sunday, never got the verification email and that was after requesting it be sent twice.

Sent a PM to Damian here but don't think he's been back since, nothing in my spam obviously.

Wanna post some ideas for features, thanks.

 

[turbomax 3,300]

25 minutes ago, Cpt_Piett said:

As for the cloud textures, I find that both AS and default can look equally terrible.

not surprisingly, (unlike in the old REX 2D-billboard cloud textures in FSX) as AS doesn't create any of its own but only presents whatever is available in MSFS2020. AS can only select different sets of default clouds instead of what MSFS would show in the same place or under the same conditions. 

[Stearmandriver 2,327]

37 minutes ago, threexgreen said:

I don't think either are correct. There are frequently METARS reporting something like OVC250.

It depends on the type of automated station used to generate the METAR, or whether it was created by a trained observer (an actual human being) either with or without the help of an automated station.  Different combinations of equipment and human intervention have different levels of capabilities.  Usually, METARs at smaller stations are purely automated, while major airports tend to have human input.

[Claudius_ 326]

42 minutes ago, turbomax said:

not surprisingly, (unlike in the old REX 2D-billboard cloud textures in FSX) as AS doesn't create any of its own but only presents whatever is available in MSFS2020. AS can only select different sets of default clouds instead of what MSFS would show in the same place or under the same conditions. 

I'm just one of the few that likes the default typical Asobo cloud live weather, no other flight sims have a better and very extensive cloud depiction with no terrible visible or hidden transitions. I don't know what's terrible there, especially compared to the AS depiction, but to each his own.

[Bobsk8 12,836]

59 minutes ago, DModjo said:

Same I can’t sign up to the official forum either. No confirmation email gets sent. 

 

Check spam filter. 

[Bobsk8 12,836]

2 minutes ago, Claudius_ said:

I'm just one of the few that likes the default typical Asobo cloud live weather, no other flight sims have a better and very extensive cloud depiction with no terrible visible or hidden transitions. I don't know what's terrible there, especially compared to the AS depiction, but to each his own.

Just CU clouds, isn't really an extensive cloud depiction for me.