Is there a way to visualize wind like updrafts, downdrafts, and turbulence? I know of the 3d thermal feature but that doesn’t seem to show what’s actually happening with the wind effecting your non-glider plane.
For example it seems that when flying between mountains passes you really get knocked around by crazy gusts even if the reported wind speed is very low. I would like to be able to visualize this to better understand what’s happening and where it’s coming from. Is this possible?
Well it’s not exactly what you’re looking for in addition to the 3d thermal feature you have on, but you can turn on “aerodynamic visualization” under “Assistance Options/User experience”. It will show more of the airflow around your actual aircraft. Be aware, it’s limited to some specific aircraft that have implemented it. I don’t have a list of which ones currently use it, but I’m sure that information is in the forum somewhere.
If it comes to it, you can also go into “assistance options/piloting” and turn “Turbulence” to medium or low if you feel the current realistic turbulence it too high for what you’re seeing/feeling.
Regards
oh interesting, only some planes have the aerodynamic visualization feature? i assumed they’d all be effected by the dynamic forces.
yeah I’ve tried that before and found it interesting, but it seems to be only right around the plane. what we need is akin to a mix of this feature and the 3d thermal feature in order to better understand the air moving in the world.
maybe they’ll add that one day
Only the ones that use CFD (computational fluid dynamics) in their flight model will show the visualization, and it’s really only over the wings and parts of the fuselage, I think. Don’t expect NASA wind tunnel level detail. The base Cessna 172 now uses CFD; that would be a good one to try to see what the display looks like.
Yes, it’s possible with the current wind visualisation (see pics below), but you also need to learn how to visualize yourself.
Some good tips on learning how to “see” the wind and turbulence: Seeing The Invisible - Aviation Safety
The CFD visualization of the aircraft isn’t going to help so much here, you need to visualize where the likely turbulence zones are and avoid them ahead of time. A good example would be coming up to a ridgeline, drop off, or canyon with a headwind/tailwind/crosswind, not a good spot to place yourself in. By the time you feel it, you’ll already be in trouble.
Here’s some visualization examples of St Barts where you can get more insight by using the developer tools settings. I would play around with those in specfic locations with different wind settings to understand what happens while applying the tips in the linked article, and you’ll be able to visualize it yourself soon enough.
Atmospheric visualization w/ wind velocity flows over landscape features:
Proximity Air Flow visualization:
On hot days you will also get lift off different surfaces as well.
Literally like a cat on a hot tin roof.
To summarise:
Always know the ambient temps, wind direction and strength, and overlay that onto the land features you’re moving into to calculate likely turbulence vectors.
that’s all in MSFS? no way thats amazing. i’ll look into dev mode features with atmospheric visualization
It’s not always correct and often it’s simplified from how it feels and how/where it hits you but in general it’s there, yes. The largest issue might be that even though the air movement and turbulence might be there the effect on the aircraft is entirely incorrect. That’s why we struggle to understand what’s going on so much.
As an example: Crosswind blows over trees or hangars next to the threshold, behind the trees or buildings it will create a barrel or drum (not sure how to phrase it in english) and fall down. If you fly into this in MSFS it will shake your plane around, often the nose will pitch up and down. In reality your WINGS might be pushed down, either one of them (change of bank) or both equally and the plane will be pushed down. Being familiar with the airfield helps in reality to expect this to happen, it’s more difficult in the sim since it’s unclear how the system will react and calculate it.
This is a good visualization:
