OPERATIONS MANUAL

Simulator Handling
Instructor > Situation > Weather > (Zone): (continued)
• When the checkbox Set zones by flight track and downloaded METARs is selected on
the Planet page or on a Zone page, the simulator searches the vicinity of the aircraft for the
seven nearest METAR stations (most of them are located at airports and use airport ICAO
codes). The simulator will repeat the search every 7 nm along the flight track. Whenever
new METAR stations are found, new zones will be created at the coordinates of these
stations, and the weather in these zones will be set by the respective latest METAR data
stored on the hard disk.
• When the checkbox Allow METAR files download from Internet is selected on
Instructor > Preferences > Basics, the METAR data stored on the hard disk will be
updated approximately twice an hour, provided the computer on which the simulator
runs is connected to the Internet (in a local Precision Simulator network, however, only
the Precision Simulator server—not the clients—must have access to the Internet). At the
bottom of the Weather pages, a status line indicates, for instance:
Disk: 1.3m/0.8m, 05 JUN 2014, 2115z (next: 2144z)
This example indicates: the METAR data files (there are two on the hard disk) are currently
1.3 mb and 0.8 mb in size (1.3 mb is the typical size of a complete world file); the last download
was executed on 5th June 2014, 21:15 UTC; the next download will start at 21:44 UTC.
Note: During every simulator start, all METAR files in the Weather subfolder, except for the
latest two files, will be deleted. METAR files have the suffix .metar.
• In summary: when the checkbox Set zones by ... is selected, the zones may be updated
in flight track intervals and in time intervals. Whether in space or in time—the data will
always transit smoothly and slowly inside the physical simulation. For instance, when the
QNH changes from 990 to 1000 hpa, the page will promptly indicate 1000, but the physical
environment around the aircraft will transit to 1000 hpa very slowly. When a transition is in
progress, the message “smooth transit” appears in magenta in the page header, and the tab
shows a magenta triangle. When the transition is completed, the triangle turns green, and
the header indicates “focussed” in green.
• The zone pages can be manually edited only when the checkbox Set zones by ... is
deselected. There are two ways of editing the data: change the METAR text in the upper
right-hand edit field—or use the other controls on the page. A smooth data transit is started
when the METAR text is changed (by the user or by an injecting add-on)—a quick data
transit is started when the other controls are used.
• M-labels in the tabs indicate the manual mode is active; A-labels indicate the automatic
mode is active. The colors indicate which zone has the focus:
Magenta: This zone is focussing; that is, the smooth transit is in progress.
Green: This zone is focussed.
Others: This zone is not focussed.
Dashed: This zone is more than 320 nm away from the aircraft, and hence,
cannot be focussed; or it is deactivated because the entered station
is not found in the database.
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