FS2004 has no tailwind/headwind!

Pro Member First Officer
KevinTsai First Officer

Hey guys, I have been noticing-everytime when I make a flight from east to west, I seem to arrive at my destination local time around the same time when I depart local time.

My most recent major east to west flight was from Newark to Shanghai in Continental B777. I used time compression 16X as usual.

However, I departed at 10 A.M. in Newark local time and arrived at 10 A.M. in Shanghai local time-the sun didn't even set!

I concluded on what is the problem-FS2004 has no tailwind/headwind-the wind that blows from west to east at high altitudes!

If it does, I should have take a longer time to get to Shanghai.

Is there such a download that would help get me a tailwind/headwind?

Help me if you can.

Answers 15 Answers

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Pro Member Captain
Welshflyer Captain

Hi KevinTsai, i don't know if there is a programme but if you fly while connected to the internet and fly under "real world weather, updated every 15 mins" this gives you the weather as it is now in real world time (or as close as possible)! 🙂 So i'm lead to believe! I've had more realistic and accurate weather whilst flying using this part of FS9.

Pro Member Chief Captain
VegasFlyer Chief Captain

I think that time compression spoils everything, meaning that you won't be getting the time zone difference and AI traffic.

Pro Member Chief Captain
Cheeks Chief Captain

VegasFlyer wrote:

I think that time compression spoils everything, meaning that you won't be getting the time zone difference and AI traffic.

agreed. but if you were flying over 20 hours or something. im pretty sure there is a program which lets you fly when not actually IN fs2004. if i can find it i'll give u the link 😉

Pro Member Chief Captain
Drew B (belgeode) Chief Captain

Yeah time compression does ruin the effect. Try it without it.... on a shorter flight of course.

Pro Member Captain
nottobe Captain
Pro Member First Officer
KevinTsai First Officer

So are you guys saying that if I use time compression, it cancels the tailwind/headwind effect?

Pro Member Chief Captain
Drew B (belgeode) Chief Captain

In a nutshell yes... cause it does not have TIME to accurately represent the weather conditions.

Pro Member First Officer
kieranja First Officer

do what i do and use x4 most. any more and everything gets messed up.

Pro Member Chief Captain
VegasFlyer Chief Captain

KevinTsai wrote:

So are you guys saying that if I use time compression, it cancels the tailwind/headwind effect?

I belive evrything under 8x compression is fine. Over 8 you loose all reality. 😉

Pro Member First Officer
lionlicker First Officer

Hi KevinTsai

Really, I am shocked at what all these guys are saying, because they are totally wrong.

X16 compression does not negate the influence of the wind at all.

I have made hundreds of flights using real weather and carefully examined all the variables of flight and have never noticed a discrepancy

One simple example would be if you are flying into a 90 knot jetstream in a Boeing 747 and you notice you GPS ground track speed reading 385. If you wack it into X16 time compression, you will notice the GPS still reading 385.

Another thing: Of course if you fly east to west at approx 40 degrees lattitude you will keep up with the sun more or less, so there is nothing unusual about arrival time being similar to take off time. especially if you have a reasonable tail wind.

Also, if you are using time compression, it is moronic to use real weather updated every 15 mins. Just download real weather once at the beginning of the flight and let the weather sim model do its work. Think about it - - if you are updating real weather every 15 mins when you are in X16 compression - - you are overiding the natural progression of dayly weather --- the atmosphere cools down when the sun goes down, and warms up when the sun climbs in the sky --- something the sim model will take care of for you if you don't interrupt it with continual downloading.

Pro Member First Officer
Steve (SpiderWings) First Officer

VegasFlyer wrote:

I think that time compression spoils everything, meaning that you won't be getting the time zone difference and AI traffic.

My experience is not the same VF. I've just recently used the F-16 at 16x real speed to simulate the space shuttle as an orbiter so was circling the earth about every 90 minutes and I was very interested in keeping track of time... total mission time... so had my eye on the clock the whole time to watch for time zone changes so I could subract each one from the clock so as to reflect the accurate total flight time. I wonder if there are some settings that make it work sometimes and not at others.

Pro Member First Officer
KevinTsai First Officer

lionlicker wrote:

Hi KevinTsai

Really, I am shocked at what all these guys are saying, because they are totally wrong.

X16 compression does not negate the influence of the wind at all.

I have made hundreds of flights using real weather and carefully examined all the variables of flight and have never noticed a discrepancy

One simple example would be if you are flying into a 90 knot jetstream in a Boeing 747 and you notice you GPS ground track speed reading 385. If you wack it into X16 time compression, you will notice the GPS still reading 385.

Another thing: Of course if you fly east to west at approx 40 degrees lattitude you will keep up with the sun more or less, so there is nothing unusual about arrival time being similar to take off time. especially if you have a reasonable tail wind.

Also, if you are using time compression, it is moronic to use real weather updated every 15 mins. Just download real weather once at the beginning of the flight and let the weather sim model do its work. Think about it - - if you are updating real weather every 15 mins when you are in X16 compression - - you are overiding the natural progression of dayly weather --- the atmosphere cools down when the sun goes down, and warms up when the sun climbs in the sky --- something the sim model will take care of for you if you don't interrupt it with continual downloading.

Actually, I think I agree with others but I also agree with you too.

If I use 16X time compression, I hypothesize that the module or code that controls the simulation starts to lose control because it has trouble keeping up with all the updates going at a fast speed.

That's my theory.

Pro Member Captain
Doyley Captain

This reminds me of a conversation with my mate recently.

He has just come back from America and he said the flight took him two hours longer coming back because you are going against the way the earth spins. Is this correct?

Pro Member First Officer
Steve (SpiderWings) First Officer

Doyley wrote:

This reminds me of a conversation with my mate recently.

He has just come back from America and he said the flight took him two hours longer coming back because you are going against the way the earth spins. Is this correct?

The earth spins to the east Doyley. But the atmosphere you are flying in stays pretty much with it I believe. In fact the jet stream moves to the east and at a faster pace. So you'd think the flight would actually be shorter going east. (I'm assuming you are in Europe).

However, in terms of your local time zones, the clock would indicate a longer trip going east versus west.

Pro Member Captain
Doyley Captain

Ah, I might have switched it around by mistake.

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