IFR Weather

[CrackerJack]

I'm planning on starting to go through the I ratings and have a question regarding weather.

As I understand PE uses real world weather when they report winds and altimeter setting. I have Active Sky Next so my sim weather should be pretty close to the PE system weather.

For the I ratings is it recommended to set IMC conditions in the sim? If I set IMC in the sim obviously my altimeter and winds may be different than those in the PE system. How is this dealt with?

[Scott Medeiros]

On pilotedge you're always free to set the weather however you desire. It is recommended that in the remarks of your flightplan you enter "IFR weather" or something similar to indicate to ATC that your setup may be different than real world. Be advised, the real world weather may favor a different runway configuration than your weather/winds.

[Kyle.Sanders]

If you ever want to know what PE controllers are using, use the http://myflightroute.com ATIS Player for controlled fields.

[BluesmanEP]

If you do set your own weather, I've always wondered what altimeter setting do you use? I assume you'd set the altimeter in the plane to match the current pressure in the sim - whatever you've set that to be. However, I wonder will this make your altitude appear wrong to ATC? Meaning, if they say climb and maintain 3000' and you climb to 3000' in your sim (with your altimeter setting), you might appear to ATC to be several hundred feet above or below, based on their altimeter setting.

I guess the bigger question is, how is altitude reported via the plugin to ATC?

Thanks!

[Kyle.Sanders]

Evan,

If your sim altimeter is 30.04 for your area and your plane is set to 30.04... Your altitude will report correctly to the PE ATC. Even if the real world altimeter is something like 28.73

In other words, if you are cruising at 3,000ft, you will be seen by ATC at 3,000ft

[BluesmanEP]

perfect, thanks! I always wondered...

[schwed]

Hey guys,

I've found that using "RW weather" brings everything to a new level of complexity as ADM becomes critical. Setting own weather when the skies are clear is a good way to practice approaches to minimums. But on those rare occasions when weather is IMC over SoCal, it's a great idea to use real weather. Now listening to ATIS, looking for alternates during pre-flight, etc become critical.

The past couple of days have been mostly IMC over SoCal. I've had to go missed, change plans mid-flight, fly on a hold due to controllers being busy and even declare an emergency for severe turbulence and thunderstorms. All of these were unplanned.

This made me think it would be great to have PE service somewhere in the northeast where, unlike beautiful California, IMC, icing conditions, etc are very common.