Hello, so I have been a simmer since the days of FS 98 but only really getting into the complex stuff with the release of the Level D 767 in the late 00’s or early 10’s. And while I have learned a lot in that time, there are lots of things I really don’t know much about. In this instance, mainly relating to planning around weather and such. For example, today I planned a flight from PHNL to NTAA (near Tahiti). I am aware there is a hurricane or TS near Hawaii currently, so I had a look at the significant WX chart and manually routed the flight plan to avoid any storms/icing. Also looking at the winds the sim was showing for the airport, everything seemed normal but just after takeoff, I encountered some strong crosswinds, which caused the plane to overbank during a turn even with the AP engaged and in LNAV mode. Also, upon reaching my initial cruising altitude, I was encountering strong turbulence and had to descend to 35,000 to find more stable air, although it wasn’t perfect but much better. Usually on most flights I don’t run into issues with weather, and I know the basics of how to read a SigWX chart and what the symbols mean. I don’t always know when to avoid certain weather like when winds might be too strong for a given route, or how to know what the best altitudes are for getting a smoother ride. Like I said, I thought I was doing everything correctly and specifically edited my route according to the WX chart to avoid flying through any CB or icing and stuff like that but still encountered a rough ride.
So are there any guides that explain in depth on how to interpret the weather when planning a flight and knowing what stuff to avoid, or finding out what the wind or turbulence is like at a given altitude?
A crosswind will make the aircraft crab and as such, will need to be countered in order to hold track. The autopilot in LNAV limits its own bank angle (25-30 degrees). When the aircraft rolls past that at low altitude, the usual case is that a sudden gust or big wind shift coming from the sim’s weather engine, rather than anything in your flight planning. By the way, what Sim are you using currently? and do you have any 3rd party weather engines? or is it just the sim’s own weather engine?
On the planning side of things, low-level wind is found in the METAR and TAF. Look for gusts marked with G (eg 19025G35) You can also check the wind barbs at low flight levels in Navigraph charts. Just enable the weather option and check the various layers just over the scratchpads/telemetry area on the bottom of the screen.
Turbulence at cruise level and choosing a smoother flight level.
The SigWX chart is a good starting point for avoiding CB clouds, icing and forecasting CAT (clear air turbulence) areas. It is a rather broad overview, though, it wont tell you exactly what level the phenomena will be encountered.
Look for windshear between levels. CAT mostly happens where wind speed/direction changes rapidly with height, such as near jetstreams, around the edges of storms, near the tropopause etc. When you generate a SimBrief OFP, this will show the forecast wind and temperature at a range of flight levels for each waypoint. If the wind changes a lot between two nearby levels (eg 30+ knots across 2000-4000ft), expect a bumpier ride than normal. Levels where the wind stays consistent are a lot smoother.
Navigraph Charts weather layers is a really good option. Turn on the turbulence layer and use the flight level selector to step through the flight levels on your trip. The forecast slider on the bottom of the map lets you look ahead in time. The jetstreams, wind, convective cloud top and tropopause layers are very helpful also.
Flights heading across the hemisphere will pass through the ICTZ (intertropical convergence zone) which is a band of towering convection at and around the equator. Its imperative that you plan through there thoroughly because you will encounter turbulence there.
Treat your altitude/FL as something you can adjust. Its never ever an issue to climb or descend to avoid weather. Real crews regularly ask for different levels when the ride is poor or something coming up is observed (thunder storms or large areas of convective activity).
There is a lot of real world material available, the FAA’s Aviation Weather Handbook is amazing and is free on the FAA website. It covers pretty much all we discussed and more.
