Using Opus and FSGRW, and a Duenna false report
Rushed upstairs to peer through the glass door to Miss Nellie's office. She was sitting at her desk, staring at the entry list, and humming with the barest hint of excitement. After a quick knock, I entered and handed her the last two inquiries about weather engines. And then added a more curious one about a false report of in-flight refueling. She examined the information, held up her index finger to request silence, and made a quiet phone call.
The weather matters seem easily resolved. The pilots merely need to follow the spirit of the instructions. If they are to use an auxiliary weather program, they need to be sure that it generates live real weather in a manner that is at least as realistic as the default (Jeppesen-sourced) engine. That is to say: The weather engine depicts the current real world weather and it changes over time as weather stations are newly updated. The winds are not made artificially constant for takeoff or landing. Winds aloft, at high altitude, represent those in the real world and are not made artificially constant over the flight path. Program-induced maximum visibility limits are fine, minimum visibility limits are not. The weather at a distant destination aerodrome may change over time as the pilot flies the leg. And so forth.
As far as we know, Opus supplies the winds aloft from its own sources and does not need to have the default engine's "download winds aloft" setting. If we hear otherwise, the ruling will change.
The second request is to use FS Global Real Weather (FSGRW) which also inserts its own weather representation into FSX (and FS2004 and P3D). We do not have a direct source as to its operation or suitability for this event. However, the professional reviews (and forum chatter) indicate that it is comparable to Active Sky and Opus in their development path. Tell the requesting pilot that he may use FSGRW as long as he emphasizes realism and dynamics in his settings. From a distance, that means that he:
- Chooses Dynamic Weather
- Allows weather updates while on the ground
- Uses the high altitude realism options (even if he is not flying at altitude, we want to be consistent)
- Optionally employs natural wind movements (they are ok) if he wishes
- Enables other options set toward realism -- as he prefers.
We emphasize comparability to the MSFS default weather engines with dynamic weather chosen. Some of these programs have plenty of extra features such as wake turbulence, enhanced mountain thermals, special densities for clouds, hurricanes, and so on. While admirable enhancements for our testing event, these features are not required.
It will be good to have the young fellow tell us his experiences with using FSGRW in this sort of event.
Finally, we have the instance of the Duenna monitor falsely reporting that the Lancair IVP added fuel when it did not. Apparently, some advanced models simulate the fuel flow in a way that works around the standard fuel weight in a way that keys the Duenna's false reports. We have had similar anomalies before. In these instances, as long as the pilot reports the case openly and quickly, then we can closely examine the flight record to insure that the apparent fuel addition did not affect the competition. This work-around suffice until we obtain a technical solution.
I smiled and quickly left the office. "This is going to be easy this year," I said to myself. "Everything is going to be routine…"
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