PilotEdge Forums

Hello Everyone, my first post here... When I used to fly as a VFR rated pilot in real life, I started each flight by setting the altimeter by twisting the baro knob to set the altimeter to the field elevation. What I've found in X-plane is that there's a difference in the baro setting gained by setting the field elevation and the baro setting given by the ATIS of the field I'm located at. Shouldn't I fly with the altimeter setting of the field and not by the one given in the ATIS? I do change the altimeter setting to the destination airport before landing, so maybe it is a moot point. Thanks for your feedback.

Are you using real world weather within XPlane? Or are you setting your own custom weather?

By the way, quicker answers and community involvement can be found on the PilotEdge Discord. Info below in my signature.

MidnightDrum wrote:What I've found in X-plane is that there's a difference in the baro setting gained by setting the field elevation and the baro setting given by the ATIS .

Everything I've been taught suggests that the current baro setting has to be Within 70 feet of actual field elevation. Most of the time the two match, but sometimes due to temp, pressure, density altitude etc, the baro will be off a little. But that's okay because what ever the atis shows is what the controllers will use to see your altitude correctly.
However i do want to also add that if your weather injector of choice is maybe a few minutes behind what the current metar is showing, then always use the baro which the sim is currently using, even if different than what atis is showing. The in sim baro is what pe uses to see your altitude while airborne. I find my weather injector even though it updates every five minutes is still about 20 minutes behind real weather conditions.
I'm no expert and could be wrong, but this is my understanding of it all. + or - 70 feet actual field is within tolerance.

Dave

Thank you both for your replies... I should have added that I use the "match real world weather" setting in X-Plane 11, so I use the default service offered by X-Plane. That said, I believe that the variances have been off by ~100 feet which is probably not a big deal in the scheme of things as I am currently flying the CAT ratings. Since I plan to progress to the I-Ratings, I assumed that 100' of variance could be problem when flying to minimums.

Noted on Discord, thanks, I have joined and will ask future questions there.

MidnightDrum wrote:Thank you both for your replies... I should have added that I use the "match real world weather" setting in X-Plane 11, so I use the default service offered by X-Plane. That said, I believe that the variances have been off by ~100 feet which is probably not a big deal in the scheme of things as I am currently flying the CAT ratings. Since I plan to progress to the I-Ratings, I assumed that 100' of variance could be problem when flying to minimums.

Noted on Discord, thanks, I have joined and will ask future questions there.

It's possible that X-Plane's wx was just having a bad day. I find that the real world weather through XP is very reliable and shouldn't be off by much at all.

Roger, thanks Kevin, I will keep an eye on it.