PilotEdge Forums

I ask because on all of my flights, I have dialed ATIS, but received nothing. This has been at KPSP, KSNA, and KONT.

Todd

FSX or XP?

On a side note,
PE does not broadcast ATIS. This is a function of the individual simulators

Good to know. Thanks.

Not a big deal as I use OPUS in P3D.

Todd

Weather is controlled by the sim, rather than the network. For that reason, among others, users are encouraged to utilize the system-generated ATIS to get the weather (although the runway in use can be incorrect at times, you're best getting that from the controller).

Hmm, so what are the controllers using when they give me the weather such as tower on takeoff? Is that real-world METAR? I use ForeFlight on my iPad and find myself planning according to RW weather but having to cross-check "reality" against the sim weather that's my actual reality on the flight even though the sim is grabbing RW weather from the Internet.

We use real-time METARs.

Ryan Geckler wrote:We use real-time METARs.

So do we, we think. Some controllers will have noticed me asking for 'their' surface winds when I first call Ground. I kept a table of comparisons for a while, what a joke. And the controller wonders why I sound surprised when the runway is changed unexpectedly. If anyone thinks they understand the weather systems, please explain it all to the rest of us dummies, because it's way beyond me

Kim,

The controllers definitely use real time METARS, as that is what their ATC client software is programmed to use.The problem is there are a number of weather engines for FSX and P3D, as I am sure there are for Xplane. I know that at least one of the FSX/P3D weather engines would sometimes be an hour behind (and I've seen it be 1 day behind) on the METAR it used. I have no idea how good the default weather engine is for any of the sim platforms.

If you're getting that much of a discrepancy in winds, etc, I would compare the real time METAR with your weather engine before you connect to PE. I use a program called OPUS, for example, that allows me to read the current METAR directly, which I then compare to the active METAR on NOAA website. Just yesterday I was shooting a practice ILS into KSNA. The current METAR said few clouds at FL300, which my weather agreed with. On the localizer and cleared to land my weather changed to a ceiling of 700, which made the approach fun, but it wasn't right. Ends up I left my settings on from my previous flight. The wrong destination airport was entered. Guess what, the ceiling at that airport was 700. Oops. I forgot to check my settings before connecting to PE. Not a huge deal, I guess, although the controller had no idea what's going on on my end.

Todd

So, in terms of communications... when we call in and say we have Juliet or whatever from FSX, or if we say "have the weather"... it's just a formality, right?

In real life I'd have to listen to ATIS then tell the controller the correct letter. So I will do that in PE, just to replicate what I'd have to do in reality.

Is that a correct interpretation?