Tutorial 3 - Using The Weather Control Tool

In this tutorial you will see how Ground Environment Professional can intelligently install textures for you based on METAR information obtained from your selected departure point, destination and any waypoints you enter in between.

Ok lets' get started.

Scenario:
We wish to Fly from Chicago (KORD) to Atlanta (KATL)

First we open the Weather Control screen and are presented with the following information

Here the default values are

Departure: Seattle (KSEA)
Destination: Seattle (KSEA)
Circuits/Local Flight: unchecked so we can select a destination
Inhibit Weather Reports: unchecked so we can view the decoded METAR for any item we select

So the first thing to do is select the departure Airport.  We want Chicago O'Hare (KORD), so, we can either start to type the ICAO code or select Chicago from the departure city combo.  Whichever option we use to find KORD we need to select it from the list in the search results listbox.  At this point we will be presented with a request to download the latest  METAR cycle from NOAA.

Here you have the option to use existing METAR data in the database or download the latest cycle from NOAA.  You can also inhibit further requests for METAR updates during the current session by clicking the checkbox to inhibit further requests.

If you have not selected to inhibit Weather Reports then a fully decoded METAR will appear:

We carry out the same procedure with Atlanta (KATL) for the destination .

This is the result after selection.  If you look closely you can see that we used different methods to select the destination and departure airports.The departure airport was selected by using the departure city drop down list to find Chicago and then selecting KORD from the Search Results list.  The destination was selected by entering a partial ICAO code into the destination ICAO textbox.  When Atlanta appeared in the search results listbox we selected it to add it to our route.

We can now click on the Install button and this will start us towards installing the most appropriate Texture Sets for the average conditions on our route.

The first thing that will happen is that a message box will come up asking if we want to add any waypoints to our route.

The waypoints will be certain aerodromes either on our route or in the vicinity.  You can select the crossmark to say no and Ground Environment Professional will only take into account the departure and destination.  In this case we are going to add 2 waypoints to our route so that we get a more balanced set of texture sets installed.  Selecting the checkmark button brings up the following screen

You select the aerodromes in the same way that you selected the departure and destination airports the difference this time is that the selected aerodromes are entered into the listbox on the right.  If you decide that you do not wish to use some of the waypoints entered on the right, just remove the checkmark and the waypoint will not be evaluated in the calculation for the texture set selection.  We selected Indianapolis (KIND) and Nashville (KBNA) as en-route waypoints.

We now select the checkmark button to carry on or the crossmark button to abort the procedure.

If you selected the checkmark button to continue you will be presented with the following message asking if you want to install texture sets to match the weather conditions of the METAR data.  

If you select the crossmark then no textures will be installed.  If you select the checkmark then Ground Environment Professional will intelligently select a balanced set of Sky and Ground Textures to match the average conditions of your route.

Once the installation is complete Ground Environment Professional will ask if you wish to start Flight Simulator.  

If you select the checkmark box then Ground Environment Professional will start Flight Simulator and minimise to the task bar.

Enjoy your flight!