I often fly in planes that don’t have a wind monitor. I’ll fly over the airport looking for a windsock. Or if I’m departing I’ll look around too. Obviously many airports do have a windsock, but I find myself unable to find one at a surprising amount of airports - even when they are hard surface and clearly not just some little rural strip.
Is this normal? I would have thought a windsock was pretty vital at almost any airport. Even tiny farm strips around my area have a small windsock installed.
I can cheat and look @ LittleNavMap but I’d rather be able to view the windsock. I would look at the trees, but they don’t move
Any pilot will research a new airfield to work out any obstacles, issues and windsock locations. We will use official sources but also use something like Google earth to see where wind socks and other items might be located.
Bear in mind that the wind sock may move so while google earth is useful, it doesn’t guarantee the existence or position.
Wind socks aren’t vital (you can use waves , trees, smoke movement and even aircraft ground speed vs airspeed if you have to, to help gauge wind direction and speed) and certainly not all strips have them but it may depend on where you are in the world.
So can you tell me, IRL, do most airports have a windsock? Or is it common for many to not have one? I’m finding a lot that don’t in MSFS - but it may also be my fault for not spotting them, or some technical issue. Hence the question.
Yes, I believe all FAA certified airports have wind socks or equivalent (tetrahedrons, etc).
If you’re looking to scout out a specific airport, look it up on AirNav. Great site.
In MSFS, sometimes the objects just don’t pop into view unless you’re right on it. I don’t even try to “overtly” the airport @1,500 agl, because you just can’t see them. Short approach, if near the end of the runway, they usually are visible.
If that is the case for Windsocks, then its MSFS bug, (probably a LOD issue).
This has been brought up many times before - not being able to see windsocks at a reasonable displace as one would in RL, to determine wind speed and direction, BEFORE one is on top of the airport.
Maybe it did not get enough VOTES when it was brought up in the forum ?
Although Just ONE Vote mentioning it SHOULD have been enough – It’s pretty BASIC thing to get right.
Thank GOD for MSFS ATIS / AWOS (although if it is often Wrong !! )
I am not a Scenery designer, but the Windsock issue would seem to be easily “FIXED”, by adding a larger Invisible BOX around the Windsock, so that it remains visible at a greater distance,
Then the question is, can the addition of this large, invisible box, be added to existing scenery with some Automated tool, as doing this manually for every airport in MSFS would a massive undertaking !!
