FSUIPC 4.241 - Wind smoothing question

[Michael 2]

I have FSUIPC 4.241 installed and have a question about its function. I am using ASX for my weather and am still having wildly shifting winds aloft. The smoothing does seem to work as the wind speed is fairly constant and the changes in direction are gradual, which eliminates most of the overspeed problems. But the wind direction still rotates back and forth (gradually) through more than 180 degrees over the course of a few minutes. The flight in question is at a constant 37,000 feet. I have the FSUIPC wind smoothing on and suppress variance checked. The wind directions bear no relation to what ASX say I should be seeing.

Should FSUIPC be giving me reasonably constant wind directions, or its just the more violent shifts that it smooths out?

I feel that I am going to have to turn off winds aloft in ASX, although that hardly seems realistic.

[Pete Dowson]

I have FSUIPC 4.241 installed and have a question about its function. I am using ASX for my weather and am still having wildly shifting winds aloft. The smoothing does seem to work as the wind speed is fairly constant and the changes in direction are gradual, which eliminates most of the overspeed problems. But the wind direction still rotates back and forth (gradually) through more than 180 degrees over the course of a few minutes.

What smoothing rate have you selected? The default rate of 2 degrees per second would allow 180 degrees over one and a half minutes (90 seconds), obviously. You can slow it down a lot if you want, making it take a very long time to change indeed. Though if you make it too long the wind might never reach the correct target values before you leave that weather zone and come under the influence of another set of weather stations!

Anyway, how do you class changes occurring ovr minutes as "wildly shifting winds"?

The flight in question is at a constant 37,000 feet. I have the FSUIPC wind smoothing on and suppress variance checked.

Variance is variable wind direction inposed because that's what the weather report requires. That also suppresses the minor directional changes, very fast ones, you get with turbulence. Not sure why you'd want to suppress either.

The wind directions bear no relation to what ASX say I should be seeing.

I thought ASX, like all FSX weather systems, only showed you what the nearest WX station weather report says. If you are in between a number of weather stations with different weather conditions the weather you get might not accord with any of them. This can be very bad when some of the stations report weather at different times to others.

Should FSUIPC be giving me reasonably constant wind directions, or its just the more violent shifts that it smooths out?

Neither. It doesn't give you any weather. The smoothing does what it says, it SMOOTHS changes in FSX so they are not sudden and cause loss of control.

I feel that I am going to have to turn off winds aloft in ASX, although that hardly seems realistic.

It most certainly would be totally unrealistic. Why on Earth would you want to do that?

Maybe you need to fly in more deserted areas where the risk of conflicts between different nearby weather station reports would be far less.

Regards

Pete

[Michael 2]

Thanks for the reply Peter. I had left the rate of change at the default of "2". I guess it should have been obvious to me that I can stabilize the winds greatly by changing that setting.

ASX shows a weather report for the nearest station including winds aloft and these show the wind direction to be fairly contant as I fly down the California coast, i.e. the wind is not changing from station to station. But in the sim, the wind oscillates through an arc of about 180 degrees, back in forth, more or less constantly. It will stay somewhat still for maybe half a minute and then begin reversing direction again.

I am not an airline pilot nor a meteorologist and have little understanding of what the winds aloft generally do, I but I have a strong suspicion this behavior is not intended in the simulation nor realistic.

Maybe this is an anomally and I should look at what's going on over a variety of different flights. Anyhow, your reply has given me more insight into what might be going on to cause this behaviour.

[Pete Dowson]

Thanks for the reply Peter. I had left the rate of change at the default of "2". I guess it should have been obvious to me that I can stabilize the winds greatly by changing that setting.

The default value is what I think is the most reasonable, smoothing the wind enough to avoid any problems, but not stopping it changing so much that it is never what it should be.

ASX shows a weather report for the nearest station including winds aloft and these show the wind direction to be fairly contant as I fly down the California coast, i.e. the wind is not changing from station to station. But in the sim, the wind oscillates through an arc of about 180 degrees, back in forth, more or less constantly.

This may be a symptom of exactly the faults in FSX which folks were complaining about and for which I added the smoothing. Sorry, I don't know. but generally, in my experience and at least in Europe, the problems mostly occur with disparate weather at nearby stations, OR when you are flying at a level close to the boundary with a very different wind layer.

If all of your weather stations on all sides, and all of the levels, above and below, show similar winds, and you are getting opposites, I'm afraid I've no idea what is happening. It is something no one else has reported at all. I suggest you ask HiFi Simulations. Maybe you have some ASX settings wrong.

Regards

Pete

[JSkorna]

Hi Mike,

Please make sure your ASX is up to date.

Thanks!

[Michael 2]

My ASX is up to date. I think I'll have to look into it over a variety of flights.

Thanks for your help.

[Bill Casey]

Michael

One thing you havn't mentioned is whether or not you have ASX Wind Smoothing option on or not. I achieved my best results with 4.241/ASX with ASX Wind Smoothing OFF. Which way do you have it set?

[Michael 2]

I generally have wind smoothing off in ASX when its on in FSUICP. But I tried all combinations.

Anyhow, I tried the flight again with a new weather file from start to finish and the problem seems to have gone away, with the wind only deviating once or twice up to maybe 90 degrees of where it ought to be. Previously I was using a saved flight with a new weather file loaded over it and possibly this was causing the problem. So I will try to be consistent in saving a weather file for each flight and making sure I have online updates turned off after I save the weather.

[creppel]

I tried it with ASX too and the results are good.

But on the ground I have the problem that with wind smoothing on in FSUIPC the QNH is always 1013.

[Pete Dowson]

I

But on the ground I have the problem that with wind smoothing on in FSUIPC the QNH is always 1013.

Wind smoothing doesn't touch the QNH.

Pete

[creppel]

Yeah, I thougt that. But I can reproduce that.

[Pete Dowson]

Yeah, I thougt that. But I can reproduce that.

It isn't FSUIPC doing it. I've got any number of ways of changing the QNH here, and they all work. You can enable QNH smoothing in FSUIPC, but that won't stop it changing.

Incidentally, 4.241 isn't supported now that 4.25 is released.

Pete

[Pete Dowson]

Yeah, I thougt that. But I can reproduce that.

If you really can reproduce a problem, with no additional add-ons, just with a default aircraft, and using FSUIPC 4.25, can you provide the saved FLT + WX files so I can try it please. And your FSUIPC4.INI file so I have the same settings. Tell me exactly what to do and what to check. Okay? (Zip them and send to petedowson@btconnect.com)

Pete

[creppel]

As mentioned I am using ASX.

Have now V4.25 and the first flight gave good results.

Well done, Pete.