Sim Wx (True or Magnetic)?

[Kyle Sanders]

(Note- I know that METAR and other printed resources report winds in True, but I am not asking about that. I know that ATIS reports in magnetic... That is not the question here. I want to know how the simulator interprets this data from the weather panel/menu... even when set manually.)

ALL Sim users... I need your help:

I need to know when you go into your simulator weather panel and you set a direction for wind manually... For example "wind is 160 degrees at 10kts"...

Is that 160 true or magnetic?

Please state the answer along with which sim you use.

[Merik Nanish]

I don't know the answer. But I was thinking, how can you figure that out? Here is how I would do it:

1) Go to an airport where magnetic declination is large (e.g. in South Africa, where it is around 30 degrees).

2) Move your aircraft next to the windsock.

3) While in the cockpit view (F9 in FSX) take note of the current magnetic heading of your aircraft (use the compass or the gyro).

4) Set the wind to blow from the same heading at 15 knots or more.

5) Switch to the outside view (F12 in FSX). Zoom in/out as needed, until you can see both the aircraft and the windsock.

6) Are the windsock and the aircraft parallel to each other? If yes, it means your simulator is simulating the winds using magnetic heading. If no, (i.e. if you see the windsock at a 30 degree angle to your aircraft) then it is using true headings for wind.

I really, really hope that all simulator use *true* heading.

[Bradley Grafelman]

I really, really hope that all simulator use magnetic heading.

And I really, really hope they all use true heading, given that true heading is used in all/most written weather observations (e.g. METARs, TAFs, D-ATISes, winds aloft reports, etc.).

[Merik Nanish]

I really, really hope that all simulator use magnetic heading.

And I really, really hope they all use true heading, given that true heading is used in all/most written weather observations (e.g. METARs, TAFs, D-ATISes, winds aloft reports, etc.).

Woops, that is what I meant! I fixed my post above. Why would I want magnetic?!

[Kyle Sanders]

Got the answer yesterday. I am working on a post just for informative reasons... But in short... NO simulator (XP, MSFS or P3D) will apply the corrections from manual (or METAR) input to magnetic. The input is already taken AS magnetic.

So when the METAR is sent to your sim at a 160 heading... It is taken as a MAGNETIC 160 heading. Exceptions to this is if you have a add on that does this. Example: active sky. REX does not.