Not much wind inside a hurricane

Today I was flying in the area around New Orleans, where the current hurricane is. The weather looked real, but there was not much wind around. I use the PC version (Steam) with online weather.

I can’t remember where I took off from, but it was not very clever trying to do so with a 90mph crosswind… it was ummm… interesting!

Well, whatever wind there was, it was a consistent speed with no gusts!

The sad part is, it’s been that way since May 25th when Sim Updare 4 hit. 3 full months without wind gusts. The Devs have not acknowledged it either. Not a word from Microsoft or Asobo. And, it effects both PC and Xbox.

More information at this link:

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"Not much wind INSIDE a hurricane might be due to Eye of the Storm phenomenon where it is quite calm?

Missing windgusts is the problem. I flown in it with a savage cub in 80kts constant windspeed without any adjustments on Yoke. The kts should go up&down you know never stand still on the same windspeed. I could see on the news about it yesterday and the wind in ida was around 145mph and gusts was 165mph. Try shift+z addon and look how the kts is just constant at the same kts all the time. Maybe goes up&down max 2kts. I’m not touching this ”sim” before this is fixed. It’s too predicted for me as it is right now.

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Not necessarily. I’ve flown in wind speeds of steady 140kts at rather low altitude (FL200) with absolutely zero turbulence IRL.
Higher wind speeds at higher FLs can be totally smooth as well.

Yep, nice laminar flow at altitude or even in a jet stream is common, even at well over 200kts.

In a hurricane though? Pretty much nothing is laminar. Updrafts, downdrafts, gusts, microbursts, moats, tornadoes etc. None of those effects were there in Ida or any tropical storm since gusts stopped working.

No gusts and nerfed turbulence = no longer a simulation. What I can’t understand is that environmental effects are right up there in the list of most important things to simulate but this issue has not been acknowledged.

Who knows, maybe the “weather improvements” are coming soon so no effort being put in now…

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I know they can be smooth the higher you are but I don’t think it would be smooth in clouds like that and in gusts between up to between 125kts-140kts.

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For sure. If you think that a hurricane is basically a large low pressure system made up of organised bands of violent thunderstorms then nothing about that setup has “smooth” in it :grin:

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They who flown in a hurricane they say they never know what to expect when flying through the wall, In msfs right now i know what to expect i can say for sure just a smooth flight and watching the clouds passing by.

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The point I was trying to make is that I wouldn’t stop using MSFS due to the lack of turbulence and gusts. AFAIK, turbulence from mountain ridges etc. still exists.

If you used this sim from the release and then the gusts just dissapeard after sim update 4 you constantly feel that there is something missing that make the sim more unpredicted It’s hard to get back flying. I’m trying to enjoy those bigger planes for the moment because in those you not feeling that something missing that mouch because they are heavy and more stable but as soon as i coming in for landing right over runway there is just this constant wind thats not giving me any type of challenge. It’s not enjoyable anymore for me. Hope they fix it soon though. I belive it’s just a bug they will fix soon, hopefully in the next World Update 6.

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I fly also today from Atlanta to New Orleans with the A320 and I was impressed about cero turbulence, that cannot be…

I’ve seen a video of hurricane hunters, they were punching the eyewall of Ida like butter.
I’ve always envisioned it with one of the most extremely severe turbulence ever experienced, but it was just a slightly more bumpy ride.

Some things to say here - perhaps it was the aircraft (Lockheed Orion) specifically flown to punch through a hurricane? Perhaps it has something to do with the hurricane being above water… less mechanical turbulence?
Maybe tropical convection is not as gnarly as “regular” convection? In the end, hurricanes absolutely hate wind shear… which is exactly the thing that makes summer convection severe and dangerous.
While airliners can survive such windspeeds without a problem, they don’t like to fly there because of passenger safety, and other phenomena associated with convection, such as icing, hail and lightning.

So even with all the things missing in this sim (wind gusts, convective updraft and downdrafts), I don’t think it was THAT far away from reality.

Yes the plane they using makes a big difference. I wouldn’t go there with a savage cub IRL😂

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Without gusts you can go in the storm with a small plane and fly hands off.

I don’t get why there aren’t much people asking for the broken wind to be fixed.
You can also fly an approach hands off, it’s too easy. There is always a bit of gusting going on.

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Lots of people are asking. Jayne said she will relay our message to the devs so I’m pretty sure they are aware. We just have to wait what they have to say in the next Q&A.

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I think not everyone know what is missing and maybe not care. What i can see the most care about dx12 and cirrus clouds and stuff like that. Thermals are limited too. It’s limmited to around 500ft/min. Both thermals and gusts make the planes fly like on a rail if we not have them. But we can enjoy the scenery easier now though if thats the most important :rofl: For me the important thing is that the planes feel believable to fly in a flight simulator like this. Or is it a flight simulator? I though it said that on the name of the software. If they limit stuff that make it more realistic then i can’t call it a simulator. I realy hope they unlimit thermals soon and fixing this what i think is a bug with gusts.

When the hurricane was at its strongest I took off just east of it. Should have had insane winds…nope. Flew directly into the hurricane. Using both FS live weather and eventually switched to REX wxforce. Both were quite pathetic. I was in a Cessna and should have been getting my ■■■ handed to me. Eastern side of a hurricane is always the worst weather and most severe winds. I was flying in clouds. That’s it. And is it just me or (note: I have not flown in the sim until a couple weeks ago for over 5 months) do the clouds look like pure ■■■■ now? They used to look great. You could watch them change shape and they looked like what I see when I fly my plane in real world. Now, they look like cartoon ■■■■!!!

Very disappointed in what has happened since I last flew in terms of the weather…

Greg

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Hope they realise they going backwards with this sim as it is right now. Hope they listen to us and that they starting to focus on those important bits soon.

Hope you vote on the no gusts thread that was linked earlier in this thread. Gusts are a very important thing to have a dynamic and unpredicted flight experience. Now it’s very predicted and unrealistic in my opinion. You who has not used it for that many months know exactly how we felt when they released sim update 4. Gusts gone from live weather and we can’t change it in custom weather either.

The clouds i agree with you, but gusts are more important if you ask me. Hope they fix both soon.

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