Indeed - I fly mini GA planes like a 172 and DV20 and I had a moderate turbulence in mid air when flying in the alps - not even at an approach) So strong, that stuff in the plane went “0G” immediately. First reaction - keep the plane steady, second reaction, tighten your security belt
This was entirely caused by wind shear. And yes, for a small plane as a DV20 - that can be quite “noticeable”.
We have a small forest abeam to our RW 26 - when there is gusty / windy weather, you will have to work hard to keep the wings level when passing that part short before the threshold. This is because the wind gets “disturbed” by the trees, which can lead to sudden change of direction and intensity. So these kind of turbulence are absolutely real. My flight instructor often called it also, the dance on the pedals - since you have to work hard with the pedals to keep the plane established.
That is the second part, when it is windy, you cannot land a plane without rudder - it is impossible. In MSFS - that was possible in the past - as well as in X-Plane 11 (not sure about 12). Now - in SU10 - you cannot land a plane without rudder when it is windy - yes - correct. I love it!
Look, this is real world data not free speculation without any background knowledge. This web includes one of the gusts records measured on Earth (cyclone Olivia).
There´s a graph about the gust speed changes. Gust frequency is measured in hours there, not in minutes like in game implementation. The highest peak (50 m/s to 110 m/s) took around 30 minutes to change from its min value (would be around 100 kts) to its max value (would be around 200 kts) and back.
That frequency change would be equivalent to an average of 3-6 kts increase during a minute (6 kts if we consider the peak was reached in around 15 minutes). And that´s only for the highest gust peak. The other gusts speed changes during the cyclone (the regular ones) were much slower than the peak, as you can see in the rest of the graph. Unfortunatelly the scale on the graph does not allow to see details on lower time stamps, only the max values changes.
But the following is a much detailed graph of another cyclone in Oregon, where you can see the gust speeds measured by a real anemometer and in a scale of seconds:
There you can see also big wind changes peaks, but they also take several seconds to complete (around 10 seconds in the biggest peaks). Indeed the average values (orange lines) are quite steady. There´s another graph in a 30 seconds interval for just a strong wind, not a cyclone. That would be close to regular situations we face in game. Speed changes are also much slower than in game.
Now if you consider that gusts in game changing speeds 5 or 10 times faster during regular weather conditions than under real cyclones is correct because you feel wind strong while walking on the streets, fine. If pilots consider that this is also correct because they need to continuously adjust control surfaces, fine as well. Real world data says the opposite, and that´s why I have doubts about the implementation to be correct in game. My technical background tells me to trust on raw data only, not in human perception of the events that generate the data, because that´s the basis of physics.
As I said several times wind speeds can be really high on gusts (cyclones data shows that as well) but the speed changes of those gusts are not that fast indeed, at least according to real world data. I only shared my experience here to warn about a possible error in game. Nothing else than that. I do not intend to appear as the most experienced guy in world about weather, but I still have an oppinion about it.
Simulators are not only to play, but to learn something. How can you learn with “reduced” turbulence? However, a slider to reduce for those who just started or a bit disabled may help.
I can’t speak for the velocity, but I have experienced strong winds out of nowhere when out, and about. One time I was on a train station platform, quite exposed to the elements. One second there was very little wind at all, the next, it nearly pushed me off my feet. The change took less than a second.
Similarly I’ve been out on my bike in the fens of England, no hills for tens of miles. I’ve been hit by side winds that have pushed me into grass many times.
The actual velocity may not be that high, but the rate of change was.
If you are citing a single example to say that it is impossible for the wind to change that much in one second, anywhere on the Earth, ever, then fair enough, I have to defer to your experience.
But I’d still like you to provide evidence the sim is actually doing what you describe. As I say, there are graphing tools you can use to do just that.
For everyone praising the turbulence or gusts, I invite you to try the Sting S4 in VR with live weather. I would really like to hear from a real pilot or get more observations. Either I have been just unlucky with the weather or the left-right shake seems excessive.
I understand that light aircraft suffer more from gusts, but I do not think that people would fly them if they shake constantly.
The sampling rate of that graph is 0.5 seconds, when i look at that 27 knot wind gust i see it went from 17 to 27 knots and back to about 17 knots in about 1,5 second. That is an almost instant wind speed change, because the sampling rate of the graph is only 2 datapoints per sec and therefore it cannot show gusts in a higher resolution.
What might also be useful is if anyone has witnessed in the sim weather they believe too extreme to be believable, to record footage of the weather at that time, then upload it to YT so others can inspect it. It would also be useful to have dev. mod on showing the “Speeds” window, if I remember it correctly, as that has a data readout showing wind velocity, direction, crosswind etc. Couple that with the video footage, and there is data to work with.
I know and now I understand why But I suspect that there is too often gusts in live weather, or the frequency and amplitude is excessive (almost as if it’s forced on), or there is something wrong in the Sting. I must admit that I don’t have many data points to back this up, but so far every flight with the Sting has been very unpleasant in different locations around the world.
How about something a little smaller. Again, quite rapid, violent inputs having to be made as airspeed reduces, and control surface effectiveness correspondingly reduces.
Regarding the gust graph you showed, I’m not sure you can see that when using Live weather. If so it’s then down to the user to configure gusts by hand. I remember that interface had limitations, but I’ve not played with it since SU10 was released. At a guess I would also not take that graph as gospel. Before doing that I would want to have both the graph, and the dev. mode Speeds window both visible to compare the actual wind speed with the graph, and record that externally. Only when comparing the two graphs could we say that is a thing more than artisitic license.
I plan to have a play with this in a bit. What I would like to do is find somewhere with windy live weather, and see if I can record a graph of it over a short period of time. I would want to avoid manual weather in the first instance, and instead rely purely on Meteoblue data.
The simulation of wind in MSFS is poor at the moment. All the “gusts” seem to do is make any aircraft "twerk"gently. And there’s little or no turbulence in cloud which is unforgivable in software claiming to be a “Flight Simulator”.
If you don’t like turbulence in a Flight Simulator try a ground based game instead.
Agree, they need to reduce the frequency a bit, will make it feels more smooth and a bit easier to handle because then we got more time to adjust the plane. But less frequency also means more unpredictable
But I suspect that there is too often gusts in live weather, or the frequency and amplitude is excessive (almost as if it’s forced on), or there is something wrong in the Sting. I must admit that I don’t have many data points to back this up, but so far every flight with the Sting has been very unpleasant in different locations around the world.