Weather update bug.

[Peter]

Hi all,

Just noticed during a session that there may be a problem with doing regular updates of the weather from another pilot, so I'm going to change the mechanism slightly so that you just copy the weather once from that pilot. Everyone can still copy the same weather and have a consistent flight, but if you want to get an update of the weather you'll need to go to the aircraft view and get the weather again.

Hopefully this won't cause a problem for anyone, but I'm quite sure that it will make things more stable.

Best regards,
Peter

[DCA1161]

So that would mean that the player that's providing the weather can not use a dynamic weatherprogram like Active Sky? Could it be made a choice between one or the other?
Roy

[Peter]

Hi Roy,

For formation flying I would advise against sharing weather from someone running a dynamic weather program because the weather will not always be perfectly synchronized and this could lead to minor wobbles hear and there or pilots having slightly different wind which can actually have a big effect on the formation.

However, if people are happy with the way it currently works then I can leave that as it is and just add an additional Copy Weather button. We did experience some odd behaviour in formation last night, which was almost certainly down to mismatches in the weather data.

I'll be keeping an eye on it and I'm also going to start showing the wind for each aircraft in the Aircraft View so at least any anomalies can be quickly identified.

Peter

[RCFlyer]

I can certainly see the weather update being a problem for precision formation flight. However, if one is flying cross-country or for a period greater than 30 minutes or so with a group it would be much more realistic to have periodic weather updates. For the type of flying I enjoy, I would prefer a way to selectively have the weather update periodically (using live weather) so one can approximate real flight conditions.

Regards,

Danny

[DCA1161]

On our regular multiplayerflight (DC3 Airways) we follow a flightplan with 3 miles distance. So dynamic weather would not be a problem. Only at special events, like Market Garden, we fly in formation.

[Peter]

Thanks for the feedback. I've left the weather column as it is, but added a new button at the bottom of the window that does a single update of the weather from the selected aircraft. It also shows the wind part of the METAR for the aircraft, to give an indication of the weather.

Peter