Is real weather out?

[Drzook]

Hey all,
I was going for a flight tonight and I did my usual routine; hit ok for the real weather and got an error message; something to the effect that 'an error has occurred while loading real weather; check your internet connection and try again'. I exited out, tried again with the same result. I have an internet connection; that's good; I got here after all. I even tried rebooting my computer, still getting that error message. Perhaps it's something on Jeppesen's end? Any help on this would be most appreciated; thanks in advance

[Willy]

Not sure that's the problem tonight, but it's happened before that Jeppesen drops the ball.

[Dangerousdave26]

Actually the site that FS uses to pull the Jeppsen weather is fs2k.zone.com

That is out.

I wonder if MS has shut it off seeing how they are announcing there new release.

I had to use FS metars tonight.

[OBIO]

I gave up on Jeppsens after a few times of not getting real weather. I now use FSMetars exclusively...and in my opinion, FSMetars is are more accurate. The weather that FSMetars puts into my sim looks like what I see when I look out my window....meaning, when I am flying in my home area and it is storming in the real world, FSMetars has it storming in my sim world. Using Jeppsens, I have had my local weather depicted as sunny and clear while my real world weather was tornado watch and severe thunderstorm warning kind of stuff.

OBIO

[PRB]

Looks outside... Nope real weather is still working...

Ok, sorry.

I just recived my new Modem/router/modem combo from Verizon. It's cool, has four ports, so I can actually use it for a router! (My last "modem/router" had only one port, a lot of use that is!) So tonight I plugged it in and fired up FS, selected real weather, and got the error message. Natually I thought my modem/router/modem was to blame! Glad to hear it's not just me.

[Willy]

What is this FS Metars?

[PRB]

I found it:

http://personal.telefonica.terra.es/web/fsmetar/

Looks interesting.

[OBIO]

FSMetars is a freeware weather report (Metar) grabbing software package. It links to your flight sim via that FSCUIP or whatever it is called and reads your location in the sim. It pulls down the most current METAR from the weather reporting station closest to your in-sim location. It's neat seeing the weather change as you fly from one location area to the next....which can give you some pretty drastic weather changes. I have been flying and start off with heavy snow fall, then fly into an area that has reported clear skys, then 10 minutes or so later enter a third reporting location and end back up in heavy snow with heavy ground fog.

FSMetars is very easy on system resources and had shown itself to be highly stable and pretty darn accurate when I fly in my home area. FSMetars will even give CFS2 users real weather when coupled with an older version of FSCUIP.

OBIO

[Drzook]

How often does FS Metars refresh itself? The default weather would refresh every 15 minutes or so.
As for accuracy for the most part the default system worked fine enough; there's been many a time where I was flying in a thunderstorm in my area I would see lightning out the window then see it coursing across my screen.

[OBIO]

I have my FSMetars set to do an internet refresh (looking for newer Metars) once a minute and a FS refresh every 10 seconds.

OBIO

[TomSteber]

I keep trying to get FSMetar, but every version I download (from early to pressent) when I go to install it, it says there's a invalid or missing file.
What's up with that?

[Motormouse]

I have my FSMetars set to do an internet refresh (looking for newer Metars) once a minute and a FS refresh every 10 seconds.

OBIO

FsMetar is a great addition.

In R/W Metars only update at the 'top of the hour' GMT, and then 20 minutes past hour,and 40 minutes past hour so an internet refesh every 15-20 minutes is all you will need.

They consist of an actual weather observation and forecast weather observation for the reporting station (which is not necessarily an airport/airfield btw, many lighthouses and other
coastal stations are reporting stations as well)

Tom, did you d/l from here ---> http://personal.telefonica.terra.es/web/fsmetar/
make sure you get the revised .ini file too.

Installation instructions

REQUIREMENTS

• Microsoft Flight Simulator
• FSUIPC 2.95 or higher (no tested with previous versions)

INSTALLATION

• Just unzip downloaded FSMetar file into a folder of your hard disk.
• Run FSMetar and your Flight Simulator

FSUIPC & FSMETAR 1.5.0

• FSMetar needs acreditation with FSUIPC 3.x versions. Input this values in your FSUIPC 3.x if you don't have a registrated version of FSUIPC 3.x:

Product Name: FSMetar
KEY: U90O 7AMH 4PAI

hope this helps

ttfn

Pete

[Dangerousdave26]

I keep trying to get FSMetar, but every version I download (from early to pressent) when I go to install it, it says there's a invalid or missing file.
What's up with that?

You are probably missing the Visual Basic Runtime controls.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...4-7c039d9bf629

VB controls
http://activex.microsoft.com/controls/vb6/msinet.cab
http://activex.microsoft.com/controls/vb6/mscomctl.cab
http://activex.microsoft.com/controls/vb6/comdlg32.cab
http://activex.microsoft.com/controls/vb6/mswinsck.cab
On most systems these files are already installed. If not, FSMetar gives an error message when it starts. If so simply download these files and install them by decompressing the content in a folder and clicking on the ".inf" files.

Of course that is not the end of it. If you are running a 64bit system then no VB 6 is not supported. You can run the older version of FSMetars 1.54 with the above files minus the mswinsck.ocx file. That file will not run on a 64 bit system. You will not be able to run FSMetars 1.55 and if anyone wants to prove me wrong please do. I have spent a lot of time trying to register that .ocx file. I could not do it but if you can on a 64 bit system please tell me how.

Note the program FSMetars does not need to be installed. Just extract the files to a folder and place it on the drive of your choice where you want it.

The thing I don't like about FSMetars is that it has not been updated in years now (of course the fact the latest version is a no go is not thrilling either). The IVAO and NOAA links fail all the time. The only one that works is VATSIM.

IVAO changed the domain location again so the INI file update does not work. NOAA I have no clue why it fails but I wonder if the file format changed.

I use the VATSIM link but since I am not a member I really don't think that is proper.

[jkcook28]

The one time I tried this, only Vatsim would respond too. Also would not load winds aloft; you might check that too Dave.
I'll stick with Active Sky, thank you.:mixedsmi:

[Dangerousdave26]

Real World Weather is back up now

Carry on as before