Hey all.
Embarrassed to admit this, but I, finally wanting to break out of the USA/Mexico and start some flying from parts unknown.
I’m sitting on the tarmac at NZMO going through my pre-flight and there is no ATIS or local airport weather service I can tune to.
In cases such as this, how are we meant to obtain the current barometric measurement?
Yes, I know I can press B, but that doesn’t answer my question.
Thanks.
You can grab a METAR from a website.
And this will be accurate for the current live weather?
I noted the in-sim METAR was blank for this location.
I’ve just read way too many weather threads on this forum to believe it, ha!
If you know the elevation of the field you are at (Skyvector or other airport charts), you would adjust the baro knob on the altimeter until it matches.
It will be the same metar used in the sim, as it is the current one which is drawn from the web, as is the sim’s.
The issue is, will it be displayed properly in the sim.
Again, results will vary, even from the displayed metar in the sim.
I really need to get my a** to ground school!
If the METAR is on the website it should be accurate because it’s real world data. It also shows the time of the report.
Ofcourse you can also just set the altimeter to the field elevation. But if you’re not going to look it up you might as well press B. I always check the real METAR.
I’m completely the kind of person who will look it up!
This forum continues to be awesome.
I think you’re on Xbox if I remember correctly? If that’s right, then I guess you can ignore this suggestion, but among the many things I love about Little Nav Map is being able to hover your mouse over an air field and the METAR showing in the info box that appears.
Even if you have ATC voices turned off, the permission to take off includes baro pressure. Just pop open the Air Tragic panel
I’m flying out of a tower-less airfield.
I’lol consider that, though, when applicable.
Yes, I primarily have been flying on Xbox, but I do fly on PC and did so throughout the beta.
I’ve tried to not “go there” with mods and services that are PC only, so I keep parity between my platforms.
I’m more than happy to utilize “paper” charts. I’ve got all the FAA VFR, low and high IFR charts on my iPad here on my flight deck.
I’m just mega unfamiliar with where to go for non-USA references. For instance, I had a hard time finding airport plates for Mexican airports.
If you know the altitude of the airport, you can adjust the pressure until the altitude shows correctly.
If you’re going to keep flying in New Zealand, you can go here for charts for every airport in the country
This is an issue when RL flying at a field with no tower or automated ATIS. As mentioned, if you know the field elevation, use the pressure knob to set to that elevation.
If you have the charts for the airport, it will tell you what the elevation of the runway is. You can set your baro until your altimeter matches that. That will get you close enough for the purpose of takeoff.
During my RW flying days, I flew mostly out of small, uncontrolled fields. There was usually no BP available. All of us did what several here have already mentioned: dialed in the field elevation which then gave us a fairly good setting for the location’s BP.
One great option is a Navigraph subscription. Navigraph keeps all of my approaches around the world up-to-date in the sim and supplies all of the charts.
BTW, if you are doing a lot of IFR flights in Mexico, be aware that about 98% are VOR approaches.
Something I am also learning; not all fields, even at large airports, have things like PAPIs. 19L at KMCI is one of the, ask me how I know 
Apparently landing just visually without the aid of something like a PAPI is a thing, going solely on the sight picture of the runway. Probably a good skill to develop for just such occasions, though it’s probably not as applicable in a jet.
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