Winds-Aloft Weather Programs (?)

[crauds]

I have been reading all the comments about real world weather, REX and Active Sky but the threads only address the SURFACE WEATHER. No one ever mentions WINDS ALOFT. Where can I find a weather product, commercial or otherwise, that will obtain wind/temps aloft data as well as correct real world Metar information? Since FSX does provide winds-aloft data, I assumed all products did. To get a feel for what was out there, I noticed several comments mentioning FSMetar which was a free program. I installed it but noticed that it kept the winds aloft the same as the underlying surface winds at every metar location. I do not want to buy a commercial product and find the same disappointing results. I really am not as concerned about upgrading the appearance of the clouds or textures as many of you seem to be. I just want to simulate real world conditons. Is there a product that any of you are aware of that does these things?

Craig

[Cobe]

A hurricane was fast approaching one day and I was flying FS2004 and set the program for real world weather to see what it would give me.

The winds were about 80 mph with fierce rain. But the program only gave me moderate 30 mph winds and no rain at low level and no different at high level. Not as realistic as I excpected.

[budreiser]

As a retired weather weenie (40+ years with NWS) I looked forward to each new issue of MS flight sim for the latest weather features. It is so much better than what we had in the beginning (early 80's...square clouds). Just remember that weather is one of a very few inexact sciences remaining so it is amazing what they have incorporated into the flight sim game. There's a lot of weather phenomena I'd love to see in this game before I go to that big airport in the sky but I have not been dissappointed. I am in awe of what these computer geeks have given us up to now, and the future holds more treasures. One has to have an understanding of the dynamics of meteorology to appreciate what we have in this flight sim program. It's not perfect, but nothing in this world is.

[JSkorna]

Craig,

Active Sky Evolution will do these things for you!

[guitarjava]

I just completed a flight this morning at FL320, and compared the winds aloft data from the web after I landed, and Active Sky Evolution was right on the money.

I also really like the ASE interface, extremely intuitive to use..... and the cloud layers/haze are very nice!

Chris

[crauds]

Just to bump this up. I have recently purchased ASE and registered FSIUPC. The FSIUPC provides the best smoothing and eliminates the idiosyncracies of upper level winds. ASE does provide great continuous coverage without the dreaded STP stations that FSX uses if they have one that is non-reporting. The problem with ASE is that it changes the arrival weather to VFR about 50 miles out no matter what the actual weather setup is in ASE. I have tried with both SP1 only and with SP2. ASE window shows that wx is being sent to FSX at that time but FSX does not respond. I have tried a static setup so that no new weather information would be downloaded during the flight - thus giving me a predicable wx situation in advance. All goes well for departure wx as well as a close semblence during enroute. FSX confirms correct arrival weather (from MAP window) but then suddenly begins to change to CAVOK with calm winds inside of 50 mile radius to destination. No amount of adjustments or reprogramming within ASE has any effect!! Those of you who still use ASX, do you have this same problem or is it something in the features of ASE that cause it? My OS is VISTA 64 on Quad Core, FSX Deluxe

Craig

[jcmmg]

Hi Craig

I don't have that problem with ASE, the only difference is that I don't use FSIUPC. Also you can check Hifi forum, they are very helpful and for me I always find the solutions there.

Clear skies,

jcmmg