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Weather/X-plane/Xsquawkbox(Mac)


Robert Greenberg 892610
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Robert Greenberg 892610
Posted
Posted

Not sure if I'm just that bad a pilot or I'm having trouble with my system. [iMac17", x-plane 7.63, XSB 9b]

 

The other night I flew from KLNS to KBWI in a C172. Granted, the weather wasn't really the best, although the METAR and airport ATIS weren't horrible, there were some pretty stiff winds when I got to BWI. I have 2 problems (at least):

 

1) when the weather is bad (light to moderate rain, decreased visibility, yet still within VFR rules) I commonly cant' find the airport. I know it isn't that I can't find it.....its not there. I have dropped from the net, manually cleared the sky.....and positioned my plane right over the "airport". .....looked down and saw pasture. I don't know if this is XSB or X-plane.

 

2) when the weather is bad....it stays bad. After coming to my aid, Travis Faudree (controller extrodinaire, frequently at KBWI) was brilliant in helping me convert from VFR to IFR for landing at BWI....and when I got badly blown off course (gusts to 20kts..) he got me on track to KFDK. But when I got there (where the METAR showed visibility at least 5SM and no rain or wind)....I was still being subjected to the weather from BWI. ...and yes, I "update"d the weather several times. I even tried to manually fix the issues by 1) setting visibility and weather to good, and 2) turn on the lights [set time to noon - it was the evening]. I saw nothing.

 

I post this for two reasons:

 

1) can anyone help me with the weather problems I am having?

2) I want to publicly thank Mr. Faudree for his efforts in helping a struggling pilot (RL Student). The ZDC folks have shaved hours/dollars off my training in RL.

 

Rob.

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Keith Smith
Posted
Posted

I recall a problem in 7.x where if the airport was loaded up while you were enroute in the clouds, then when you'd descend from the clouds, the airport wouldn't appear. Short of upgrading to 8.x, I'm not sure if there's a solution. I could be wrong about that one, though.

 

The next problem I think I can help you with. File your flight plan to your destination airport and when you get closer to the destination, Xplane will use that weather.

 

To see which METAR xplane is using, type .debug weather=1

 

Keith

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Robert Greenberg 892610
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Posted

Thanks. I've been sitting on the fence about upgrading.....most things work very well and I am worried that my machine will start to choke on the processing.

 

Super bit of info to be able to check the METAR. Thanks.

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Travis Faudree 821145
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Posted

I can't help you with the issues you've described, but I appreciate the compliment. Its always good to get the practice on things like you experienced, having to pick up an IFR en-route to get to your destination. It gets really boring sometimes moving airliners in and out of BWI. I like the GA traffic at the smaller airports (FDK, MTN, etc).

 

You're welcome in our airspace any time

 

Travis

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