Clouds?

[rzoltan]

Hi Folks,

just one question for you: is there any way to determine that the plane currently is inside a cloud, or outside? I'm currently working on an external hardware, and I need this information for it. I've tried to check the ambient air density, current visibility range, current icing etc, but it is the same for inside and outside.

Thanks in advance,

Zoltan

(p.s. I'm just learning English, sorry for my spelling errors :)

[Pete Dowson]

just one question for you: is there any way to determine that the plane currently is inside a cloud, or outside?

No. I wish there was. They just seem to be graphics in random places and no information about them is available. You can get a cloud density pattern matrix for FSX, from SimConnect, but I don't think it has the resolution needed -- it's intended only for WX Radar use.

Regards

Pete

[Andydigital]

Damian over at Hifi said to me that he thought he could find out via simconnect if the aircraft was in a cloud or not, as I suggested to him that he could possibly use it as a trigger to update the weather engine while in a cloud to make the cloud pop issues less obvious, he may have been wrong though.

[rzoltan]

OK, thanks for everybody for the replies.

I need this info because I want to make a lighting system into my home cockpit with LEDs, where the lightness depends on the environment. For example, if the plane flying through a cloud, the lights switches to lower power.

Another question: I saw a weather radar for FS somewhere on the net, which able to detect the lightning strikes. But how? I need only one info: it is far from the plane, or in the vicinity? Nothing else.

Sorry for the lot of questions, if somebody can help me, he will get 50% discount from my own 737ng MCP ;)