I just wanted to say WOW
I just wanted to say WOW regarding HiFi Sim's new release ActiveSky Version 5. Fastastic job guys!
Last night, I was flying from KHIE to KBGR in my trusty Carenado C182RG (with modified King Avionics Panel) using real weather conditions.
It was beautiful flying weather - low ceilings and visibility, precipitation, and possibility of icing - my kind of flying! My flight plan was V104 at 9000 feet to KBGR. At that altitude I was purposefully flying near the cloud tops . After passing the BERLIN VOR, I found what I was looking for - STRUCTURAL ICING . I have only had this experience once in real life flying and never in MSFS. The aircraft began to slowly loose airspeed and I had to keep adjusting pitch trim to maintain altitude. Finally, I could no longer hold altitude and was descending at full power – any more pitch changes would have lead to a stall. I was never successful at recreating this experience in MSFS before using MSFS weather! This was fantastic!
I recognized the problem long before I began descending but I wanted to see just how far the simulator would take it and it was pretty much what I expected. I notified KBOS center of my situation and requested a lower altitude. Yes - a lower altitude. This is a situation in which LOWER is better (not higher). Why? First, at that point I was descending at full power with my airspeed at 65 knots (~Vx) - I could never attain a higher altitude; Second, I knew from flight planning that temperatures were higher at the lower altitudes and that the precipitation was in water form (but not freezing rain). So, the structural ice would come off quickly.
Weather tip for you: When there is a possibility of icing in the forecast, chance of icing is usually greatest near the tops of clouds because the tops are usually the wettest.
Anyway, for those of you looking for real world challenging weather to flying in I think you should consider ActiveSky Version 5 - it's well worth the investment!
Van Stokes
