Question on wind direction

O

OBIO

Retired SOH Admin
Having had FS9 for a year now, I am working on becoming a better pilot....paying more attention to fuel and payload configurations, manifold pressures, rpms, mixture, etc. Also doing more flying with real weather.

During my aborted flight last night, I had a heading of 265 at 4000 feet. I popped the Shift Z lines up to check frame rates and noticed that wind was listed as 263. Now, is that the direction the wind was coming from..thus giving me an 18 knot head wind...or is that the direction the wind was going...thus giving me an 18 knot tail wind?

OBIO
 
It's the direction the wind is coming from. This also helps you pick the proper runway to land on. If the wind is "180 at 10 knots", then land on runway 18 (or closest).
 
I might also add that the wind shifts as you climb or descend so you have to keep an eye on that. You might be better off switching on teh com radio and pick up the ATIS frequency to get on-ground info.
 
You can enter kdtw or KDTW and NOAA will find the METAR.

Even KgSo will work.
 
Maybe it recognizes it differently from your system, but it's case sensitive on my end. Either way, you can pull up just about any major airport world-wide.

It's COLD in Moskow!
http://weather.noaa.gov/weather/current/UUEE.html

By the way, I have a "custom search" set up in my IE so that all I have to do is type in the ICAO and select the search from the list.
 
Is there any way--other than Shift+Z--to get the winds aloft? Or more in the style of a pre-flight weather check from DUATS (but ensuring it's MSFS's version of the "real" weather)?

I've also been wondering if there is a gauge or some other technique out there for getting the weather at your destination (or alternate) similar to how airliners get their weather via Dispatch (or an FSS/RCO for the little guys).

It seems many of my favorite aircraft lack a working COM2, and I don't like to flip COM1 to get the ATIS when I am descending into the terminal area. Preferably I'd like to get the latest weather just prior to committing to the instrument approach.

Any ideas or suggestions?
 
I think the first thing I'd do is add a Com2 radio. Even though I like flying vintage planes, I also like flying in a modern setting. I have yet to see the cockpit of any real "vintage" aircraft that hasn't had at least some kind of modern upgrade - whether it be a GPS on the glearshield or a full compliment of VOR/ILS/DME/ADF/Transponder bolted into the panel.

As for winds aloft, I don't know of any other method besides the Shift+Z lines. You can also get a feel for what kind of crosswind you're getting by comparing the heading your nose is pointing to and the track direction from your GPS. If your nose is pointing 90° but your GPS says you're tracking 95°, then you know you're being pushed from left to right. You can adjust your path to crab nose-left and come back on course.
 
FSMetars, which I use for real weather generation, will pull up Metars for any airport that reports weather. Your destination airport may not report weather, but it will pull up the Metar from the closest reporting airport...which it what it does while you are in route. I haven't tried pulling up a Metar while in flight and using FSMetars to generate real time weather.

OBIO
 
adhockey said:
Is there any way--other than Shift+Z--to get the winds aloft? Or more in the style of a pre-flight weather check from DUATS (but ensuring it's MSFS's version of the "real" weather)?

I've also been wondering if there is a gauge or some other technique out there for getting the weather at your destination (or alternate) similar to how airliners get their weather via Dispatch (or an FSS/RCO for the little guys).
Click to expand...
If you have FSUIPC then, included in the download there is a (freeware) program called WeatherSet2.exe that will give you all you ask for. It gives the Winds Aloft in the FS incremental altitudes, vis, precip. etc. (****) - don't confuse it with the other program (Weatherset.exe) which is for FS2002. Active Sky will do the same, if you have it. You don't need the registered version - the free FSUIPC is fine.

By selecting the 'location', pressing ENTER opens a window where you type in the ident of the airport you want, press ENTER again and it will display the data. Note that if the airport is not sending wx it gives data based on the nearest. It will NOT be perfect due to the idosyncrasies of wx data in FS (see the Weather thread for more of this)

FSUIPC is useful so it's worth the d/l anyway and required for a few other programs like the Duenna prog. used to track RTWR flights.

You can also get a feel for what kind of crosswind you're getting by comparing the heading your nose is pointing to and the track direction from your GPS
Click to expand...

There are several gauges that will show this either in a digital format or graphically. I posted a list in another thread a couple of days ago.

Rob
 
srgalahad said:
If you have FSUIPC then, included in the download there is a (freeware) program called WeatherSet2.exe that will give you all you ask for.

Rob
Click to expand...

The latest release of FSUIPC does not include WeatherSet or WeatherSet2.

It was available in the previous versions so you will need to find the old down load at one of the other sites or packages that included it.
 
Anyone that needs it, it is a single file that I can attach back to an e-mail: jim(AT)hifisim.com
 
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