Transatlantic weather reports

[Drzook]

Hey all,
I am planning a flight across the Atlantic from Bermuda to the Azores in a Cessna 404 with real weather enabled. Now without any winds affecting it my range is just about 1800-1900 nautical miles which is just about how far Bermuda is from Lajes field. Now here is my quandry: for flight planning in the United States all I have to do is punch up ADDS or NavMonster, mainly to find winds aloft data. Where does one look for weather reports and winds aloft data elsewhere, most especially the Atlantic Ocean? If there's a headwind at a given altitude it would make it much easier to avoid; conversely if there's a good tailwind at another given altitude it would give me that much more of a cushion to make it to the Azores. Thanks in advance.

[Willy]

A lot of times out over the ocean like that Real Weather will default to a pleasant, partly cloudy weather scheme due to a lack of data. Although it's also been known to default to a fog that's 15,000ft high too.

As for favorable winds, sometimes you just have to vary your altitude and find them. Although there is a Winds Aloft popup gauge that can be found at FlightSim.com. Can't remember the file name off the top of my head though. I'd enter winds aloft into the search parameters and see what kicks up.

Bermuda to the Azores is a pretty good haul in a smaller aircraft. I got lucky with the winds once and did it in the AH Spitfire XIX.

Good Luck!

[phantomx1]

(actual realtime weather stations) (click the drop down for Africa, U.S. etc. then place pointer over the stations)
http://weather.uwyo.edu/upperair/sounding.html
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http://www.jeppesen.com/aviation/personal/aviation-weather.jsp#
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(Several good general reading links at the bottom of page)
http://www.jeppesen.com/aviation/personal/aviation-weather.jsp#
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I find this interesting in that you can get animated satelite loops from around the world. Very interesting to observe for weather flow patterns. I believe they are live loopings. Maybe you can take advantage of the flows.
http://www.yr.no/satellitt/europa_animasjon.html

[Drzook]

Thanks for the links and sage advice. :ernae:
I never really thought of the Titan as a smaller plane; it's about the same size as a Twin Beech or King Air C90 (of course this is coming from someone more used to flying Champs and LSA around the patch). I picked the Titan because it has that kind of range but also there's a challenge to flying a non-pressurized plane long distances (I'll bring the virtual O2 but I've a feeling I wouldn't like it too much so we'll keep down well under 9500'
I think I found another cool site for those hard-to-reach places: http://www.passageweather.com/. It's mainly for sailors and all around crazy folk (OK the site says 'adventurers') but there's some wind data at least at ground level. Might come in handy.

[srgalahad]

Between RTWR planning and other events we've found quite a few weather sources, but for places like the N. Atlantic where there aren't many "low-budget flights" most sources are pay-per-use. Sometimes you have to use a bit of one, bit of another to find enough free data...

http://weatherroanoke.com/natlantic.png

http://www.pilotfriend.com/av_weather/eurocasts/gib_winds.htm

http://www.weathercharts.org/

http://aviationweather.gov/sitemap/

not as detailed, but fun...
http://www.universalweather.com/aviation-resources/free-aviation-weather-videos-for-pilots.html

Then, bear in mind that FS will not be as precise, esp with winds where it tends ot average or guess when there are long distances between reporting stations.

[phantomx1]

Interesting venture stuff Drzook. You are a pioneer and adventurer. Apparently crossing the Atlantic even in real life today are still in the pioneer stages considering the lack of technological advances for ocean weather dat retrieval such as layered wind speed analysis.

From some of the data I've looked at, it seems the most favorable routes used are eastward around the north Atlantic with westward routes near mid Atlantic crossings and more towards the equatorial westward air mass flows. At least that's the picture I get. If you look at this animation of the northern and southern hemispheres and the flow near the equator, you can get a sense of what I am saying.
http://www.yr.no/satellitt/verda_animasjon.html

Good luck on your pioneering cross Atlantic challenges. Be sure to pack a little food and a life raft:) I May have to try out one of those flights myself. You could also set it so the aircraft never runs out of fuel to simulate carrying extra fuel bladders. That is done in real life when making ocean crossings in twins and such. But I know that will take some of the challenge away from your calculations. At least it would be interesting to see if you hit your navigational mark on the other side over such long distances.

One would think with todays satellite technology, they would be able to point a sat beam at any place on earth and detect what the layered wind speeds are for that particular point. Apparently many discoveries lay still ahead.

For some reason I am getting half vivid visions of the Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria. Now there were some real adventurers. They didn't have no satellites.