PSX weather options

[Hardy Heinlin]

Good evening,

before some of you call hurray: No, there won't be broken clouds in the outside window :-) That will be kept as simple as in PS1.

This stuff is mainly used for the radar model and, of course, for the aerodynamics.

(The screenshot can be enlarged by clicking on it.)




Ahoi,

|-|ardy

[Pierre Theillere]

Hi Hardy!

Wow, nice shot: the "weekend fix" comes right before starvation from our PSx drug started to become effective!!!
Just a remark: on the "Volcanic eruption" line, there also a checkbox saying "Clear Air Turbulences". I guess that "Turbulence" would be better without the "s": you choose if you want to encounter some turbulence, and not how many turbulences you should cound on...
Well done for the "long" droplist saying "Moderate" for the Turbulence intensity setting...
Last minute: hey, why did you set an heavy southerly jetstream right over France?

[Hardy Heinlin]

Good morning Pierre,

that over France was the random generator. I'm not guilty :-) In winter the northern polar jet drifts to lower latitudes and gets stronger.

You're right, CAT shouldn't be in plural. We Germans tend to use the plural where it is actually not necessary, also e.g. "informations" instead of just "information".

|-|ardy

[Mariano]

Thank you Hardy. I can go on living for another week.

Mariano

[frumpy]

before some of you call hurray: No, there won't be broken clouds in the outside window :-)

he wants to make sure we dont mix up dreaming, simulation and reality. *g*


very sweet hardy, really.

[Peter Lang]

he wants to make sure we dont mix up dreaming, simulation and reality. *g*

Mix it. It will work  

Peter

[Holger Wende]

Oh, volcanic ash again  :shock:

Gosh! How I hate particularly this scenario in PS1. I never managed to get out with more than 2 engines running    
For sure I should have trained more often, but it's so frustrating seeing the engines spool down... I started this nasty PS1 situation a few times, and each time my heart beat went up already before the volcanic ash encounter and I lost at least 1 kg like being in a Sauna.

I wonder what additional sinisterness PSX will hide for its users :twisted:

Holger

[Holger Wende]

Hi,

Are CAT distributed equally over the globe or are there (geographical) areas of higher probablity, e.g. leeward of mountain areas?

I think having read somewhere, that north-south streched high mountain ranges can cause significant CAT at cruising levels. East of Sierra Nevada, Spain, was said to be one typical example in Europe.

Regards. Holger

[Jeroen Hoppenbrouwers]

[here comes the standard pub story]

I remember running the full, official volcanic ash scenario in the brand-new Lufthansa 744 sim... You start off at the gate in Singapore for what is claimed (by the instructor) to be a line flight to somewhere. Everything goes fine until FL290 and then the circus starts. I flew the thing all by myself, Joerg was on standby for sim problems in the other rigs (we were hydraulics off). After hitting the cloud I gave my alter ego twenty seconds to decide what was going on, and then turned 180 degrees back and started the relight procedures. Of course, by then you are on full manual, the indicated air speed is zero, stick shakers go off continuously, and EICAS looks like Las Vegas. Limped back on 2.5 engines, made my best landing ever, adrenaline works!



What do you mean, do I want a hamburger now?

[John Davis PC]

[here comes the standard pub story]

Oh God .... dont you people know NEVER to mention Volcanic Ash when Hoppie can hear !!

Pierre, I aksed Hardy to put the Jetsream there so we get blown away from France as quick as possible

[Holger Wende]

dont you people know NEVER to mention Volcanic Ash when Hoppie can hear !!

oh dear PC, please forgive me!

...Limped back on 2.5 engines...

Hi Jeroen,

It looks as if you are handling all 4 thrust levers allthough engine no. 2 is off.
Is it just an optical illusion or standard practice?

Regards, Holger

[Will]

Looks great, Hardy.  What's the long vertical slider on the right edge of the window, the one with "Set" at the top? [Edit: I'm guessing it lets you slide the values inside the yellow window... is that it?]

For METARs, do you load as many as are available, or only selected ones?

Also, since the weather outside METAR areas, seems to be fixed, I guess there's no smoothing between them?  I'm thinking of the baro pressure, for example, and what would happen if you flew between two airports that were close, but not so close that their METAR radii (however you've defined them) overlap.  In the real world, there would be a gradual transition between baro pressure at station A and station B... What do you do?

How do you handle transitions in general between regions of defined weather?  Like, is there a maximum "shear" set for deltas of wind speed, wind direction, baro pressure per unit distance, or per unit time?

What is the window "Dir Var" on surface wind?  I'm guessing it specifies the width of a cone of variance that the wind direction can vary through?  (Like if you set it to 15˚, the wind can vary ±15˚ around the specified direction?)  If that's true, what's your max rate of change of windspeed?

Do you load winds aloft from the internet too, or only METARs?  (Downloading winds aloft obviates the need for random jet stream winds, naturally.)

Finally, I wonder about having two different Randomize buttons (one for jet streams and one for between-station METARS).  From a design standpoint, wouldn't you want only one master "Randomize Everything" button, with individual options to deselect and specify all the various subcomponents?  (I'm thinking that for the users who want it all randomized, one mouse click is better than two...)

Thanks for posting.

[Jeroen Hoppenbrouwers]

When you conclude you are in volcanic ash and go over the VOLCANIC ASH checklist, you pull all engines to idle and try to bleed as much air off the engines as possible, hoping that the low pressure differential will save you an engine or two. You don't shut them down, but make them running 'as light as possible' so to say.

The way the clutch pack is built makes it very difficult to leave one lever on idle (or static in general) while moving the others back up for thrust. You literally would need both hands. The A/T, if operative, also would not leave one lever stuck down.

With no A/T operative, I decided to just use the levers as if every engine worked, knowing that the inop #2 just would ignore the lever angle input.

Jeroen

[Hardy Heinlin]

Are CAT distributed equally over the globe or are there (geographical) areas of higher probablity, e.g. leeward of mountain areas?

CAT is an integrated part of the dynamic weather model and therefore depends on various variables such as jetstream location (3D) relative to the aircraft, the temperature, as well as on the terrain profile.

CAT is not equally distributed over the globe. You'll have to learn some basic rules to avoid them. (For a quick simplified turbulence setup the sim-traditional turbulence layer feature may be used. But that's a different story.)


Cheers,

|-|ardy

[Hardy Heinlin]

Looks great, Hardy.  What's the long vertical slider on the right edge of the window, the one with "Set" at the top? [Edit: I'm guessing it lets you slide the values inside the yellow window... is that it?]

Yes.

For METARs, do you load as many as are available, or only selected ones?

Normally, all world-wide.

Also, since the weather outside METAR areas, seems to be fixed, I guess there's no smoothing between them?

It's all interpolated.

You have 7 METAR areas around the aircraft, they can be dynamic or manually fixed. The area outside of those 7 is just a gap filler, or for quick setups when all 7 are switched off. Quick setup features (not displayed on the screenshot) are also available in each of the 7 other pages.

What is the window "Dir Var" on surface wind?

Var 10 with direction 200 would make a random var of 195 to 205.
Var 359 would mean variable wind from all directions (+/-180).

Do you load winds aloft from the internet too, or only METARs?

Only METARs.

Finally, I wonder about having two different Randomize buttons (one for jet streams and one for between-station METARS).

The jetstreams cover the whole world. An airport weather, however, covers only a small specific area. There's one jetstream world, and many small airport worlds. A single airport cannot change the whole world.[/quote]


Thank you for your comments.

Cheers,

|-|ardy

[Will]

Hardy, I don't mean to distract you with so many questions... but what are you thinking when it comes to synchronizing radar returns with downloaded/randomized weather?

[martin]

what are you thinking when it comes to synchronizing radar returns with downloaded/randomized weather?

"D*mn, how do I do this" ??

 :mrgreen:

[Hardy Heinlin]

Hardy, I don't mean to distract you with so many questions... but what are you thinking when it comes to synchronizing radar returns with downloaded/randomized weather?

I'll show you later :-)

[Jeroen Hoppenbrouwers]

Do you load winds aloft from the internet too, or only METARs?

Only METARs.

I remember that a few years ago, actual winds alows were only available as plot charts, i.e. with the mesh of arrows, and not in numerical table format. Did this change by now?

J

[Hardy Heinlin]

I think there are some tables, but they cover only 1% of the planet.