Avwriter Posted March 11, 2017 Report Share Posted March 11, 2017 Has anyone else noticed that the game (at all airports) seems to have a bias toward easterly and north-easterly winds. I mostly use the random weather setting, and out of dozens and dozens of sessions over several days, have yet to see a session begin with winds out of the west, thus resulting in nearly continuously east flow operations. It does not seem to matter which airport I choose (KJFK, KLAX, KSAN), the wind is always out of the east or out of the northeast. At first, I thought this was just a fluke, but I have been testing it now for days, and have not once seen winds out of the west. The exact direction will shift, but it is always out of the east. If the winds are supposed to be random, then clearly, they are not. If they are supposed to be realistic then this is also not the case, as at many of these airports the prevailing winds tend to be out of the west. I would provide a log, but unless I send you dozens of them, I am not sure it would be helpful. Has anyone else noticed this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winsaudi Posted March 11, 2017 Report Share Posted March 11, 2017 Yes. I only use random weather and I have only ever seen winds with an easterly component never a westerly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Avwriter Posted March 11, 2017 Author Report Share Posted March 11, 2017 Good to hear it is not just me. Hopefully, Vic can take a look and find a way to make the wind direction/speed truly random. It would also be really nice there there was a way to define custom winds. Maybe that is asking too much, but after all, this is the Pro version, and this is exactly the kind of customization that would really be handy for more advanced users. Would love to just be able to look up the METAR for a given airport and be able to set the winds to match in the sim. I don't even need it to be automated; just let the user have the option of manually setting it however he desires. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FeelThere_Vic Posted March 12, 2017 Report Share Posted March 12, 2017 We are using a real weather statistic. By selecting random weather will still use a typical local wind direction based on real world statistic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Avwriter Posted March 12, 2017 Author Report Share Posted March 12, 2017 13 hours ago, FeelThere said: We are using a real weather statistic. By selecting random weather will still use a typical local wind direction based on real world statistic. In that case, the statistics you used are either misinterpreted, or largely incorrect. In Los Angeles and San Diego, for example, the prevailing winds for most of the year are out of the west, not out of the east. It really would be better if we could simply set the winds ourselves. Having this option would make the sim much more useful. Being able to set weather conditions is one of the basics in most flight-sim related products and has been for decades. Can you imagine a full motion sim at a flight training center in which the operator was not allowed to change the winds just because they did not match the statistical average for that part of the world? Random weather should really mean random. Beyond that, 180 wind shifts are not as uncommon as you might think. Just a few weeks ago the wind reversed itself here in Atlanta twice within an hour. Some of the planes in line at KATL literally had to taxi all the way down to the opposite end of the runway two times before finally getting to take off. It was like some kind of crazy ballet. Getting to do that kind of thing in the sim every once in a while would be fantastic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FeelThere_Vic Posted March 13, 2017 Report Share Posted March 13, 2017 When you say it happened twice, please consider how many hours the year has and how many percent the last two shifts were out of that number :) Vic Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Avwriter Posted March 13, 2017 Author Report Share Posted March 13, 2017 11 hours ago, FeelThere said: When you say it happened twice, please consider how many hours the year has and how many percent the last two shifts were out of that number :) Vic 1. Perhaps, but again, in a sim, one should be able to set up a specific scenario when desired. It is kind of the whole point of a simulator. Having a realistic scenario options is great, but deliberately NOT including the ability to set up custom winds in order to practice a particular operational configuration (or including a "shifting winds" scenario to specifically practice that type of scenario) in a product dubbed as the "Pro version" is a big drawback from the user's perspective. I suppose we can always just use the "clear" setting where the winds are rarely over 2 knots in any direction (and pretend that the winds are something other than what they are), but that just seems sad considering that the addition of winds and dynamic runway switching are a major feature in the Pro version. I mean no disrespect; Pro is fantastic overall, but this one aspect is an unnecessary handicap for the product. Please reconsider allowing the user more control over winds. 2. In any case, the prevailing easterly winds at both California airports are backwards to reality by any standard. It is well known that both airports use a west flow configuration most of the time (due to prevailing winds out of the west), and yet every time the "Random" feature is engaged the wind is nearly ALWAYS out of the east. This needs to be reversed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crbascott Posted March 13, 2017 Report Share Posted March 13, 2017 I just spent the last several minutes starting the sim in Random mode at LAX at 11:00am with 25L selected. Below are the results of 20 sim starts: 033@4, 053@5, 051@2, 068@3, 017@9, 028@1, 025@9, 068@6, 033@11, 093@3, 105@06, 106@9, 063@10 (rain), 054@5, 010@4 (rain), 040@12, 066@6, 017@6, 014@10, 029@5. 20 starts and the wind direction ranged from 010 to 106. Just in case the runway selected impacted the "randomness", I selected 7R and received the followed results: 072@10, 003@6, 022@1, 062@2, 005@10. Above are the results which should be a decent sample set to draw some conclusions on the randomness of winds. In this post I'm just here to state the facts, I'll let others come to conclusions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winsaudi Posted March 14, 2017 Report Share Posted March 14, 2017 I did 48 starts at KSAN, two for each selectable hour, and not once did I have a wind with a westerly component. I think that there is a line of code that needs rewriting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FeelThere_Vic Posted March 14, 2017 Report Share Posted March 14, 2017 11 hours ago, winsaudi said: I did 48 starts at KSAN, two for each selectable hour, and not once did I have a wind with a westerly component. I think that there is a line of code that needs rewriting. As far as I remember (will check with Martin) the wind is coded into the aiport so you could be very well right about a bug in KSAN. We will look into this for sure! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Avwriter Posted March 14, 2017 Author Report Share Posted March 14, 2017 3 minutes ago, FeelThere said: As far as I remember (will check with Martin) the wind is coded into the aiport so you could be very well right about a bug in KSAN. We will look into this for sure! Please look at LAX too. It has the same issue Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FeelThere_Vic Posted March 14, 2017 Report Share Posted March 14, 2017 Quote I just spent the last several minutes starting the sim in Random mode at LAX at 11:00am with 25L selected. Below are the results of 20 sim starts: 033@4, 053@5, 051@2, 068@3, 017@9, 028@1, 025@9, 068@6, 033@11, 093@3, 105@06, 106@9, 063@10 (rain), 054@5, 010@4 (rain), 040@12, 066@6, 017@6, 014@10, 029@5. 20 starts and the wind direction ranged from 010 to 106. Just in case the runway selected impacted the "randomness", I selected 7R and received the followed results: 072@10, 003@6, 022@1, 062@2, 005@10. Above are the results which should be a decent sample set to draw some conclusions on the randomness of winds. In this post I'm just here to state the facts, I'll let others come to conclusions. I will check it but did you see this post? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Avwriter Posted March 14, 2017 Author Report Share Posted March 14, 2017 18 minutes ago, FeelThere said: I will check it but did you see this post? I guess I am missing your point. No matter what runway he selects, he never sees westerly winds, which are the predominant winds for that area. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crbascott Posted March 14, 2017 Report Share Posted March 14, 2017 Yes, please check LAX ... I think my post made it clear there is an issue with the randomness of the wind (i.e., nothing between 107 and 360). Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crbascott Posted April 5, 2017 Report Share Posted April 5, 2017 Looks like the prevailing wind issue for KSAN has been corrected in the KSAN SP2 release. In a small sampling, the wind direction was always westerly - between 254° and 339°. With the dominant wind direction being 292°, this is very much an improvement. Now the question is: if and how often will an easterly wind randomly appear at KSAN? FYI - I don't believe the wind issue has been resolved at LAX. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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