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Unable to get CumulusX working


mu2freighter

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Hi Glenn,

If you use "user defined", go to the "advanced settings" and make sure to define wind aloft, too. Otherwise, teh aloft settings maybe a residue of the previous weather conditions.

Temperature is actually not relevant for CumulusX!. Relevant paremeters are season, geographic location, wind and cloud situtation, and few landclasses. There is a table in the manual, which explains the impact of cloud situation on development of thermals.

Which makes the story a bit more complicated is that there are two sorts of weather data sources in FSX, "global weather" and "weather stations". CumulusX! prefers the weather station, however uses the global conditions, too, for deciding on the development of the thermal clouds, in the case that local conditions say that only blue thermals exist. In this case CumulusX! still produces thermal clouds, if the global condition has an appropriate cloud situation. This is important to know, as FSX keeps the global conditions whatever it was before, when downloading real weather from the internet. By this you can control if CumulusX! tends more to blue thermals by setting "clear skies" prior to weather download, or more to thermal clouds by choosing fair weather beforehand.

Using fair weather theme for soaring is just a very simple way to set up a nicely soarable weather situation. However winds aloft are relatively strong, making it more edifficult to find the lower end of a thermal by projecting downwards from the cloud, because of the relatively strong leaning. Instead you may choose fair weather first, after that switching to user defined and edit the wind layers aloft to weaker strength.

best regards,

Peter

This is working nicely!

I get your point about themes for simple setup...I just spent about an hour around Brookhaven, Long Island (got my private power license there in 1978 and hung around a bit with the Long Island Soaring Association folks) hopping from thermal to thermal in a simple Schweizer 2-33 after a fast setup with 'fair weather.'

I'll keep your advice in mind when setting up custom weather, but as you say, using themes is a simple no-fuss way to get soaring fast.

Perhaps it's my screwy brain, but I'm not getting a good grasp of the concept of blue thermals...the manual seems to assume a priori knowledge of them, could you give me a bit of a steer to better understand them?

Thanks!

Glenn

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Perhaps it's my screwy brain, but I'm not getting a good grasp of the concept of blue thermals...the manual seems to assume a priori knowledge of them, could you give me a bit of a steer to better understand them?

Hi Glenn,

blue thermals are just thermals without a cloud on top and thus invisible to the eye in the clear blue sky. That's all,

regards,

Peter

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Hi Glenn,

blue thermals are just thermals without a cloud on top and thus invisible to the eye in the clear blue sky. That's all,

regards,

Peter

OK, so we're talking a convective vertical current, gotcha. Simpler than I expected. thanks!

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in RL soaring blue thermals have been described as walking blind into the woods hoping you bump into a tree. It makes the flight a bit of a lottery and competition pilots generally don't like blue days because of the chance factor.

It sounds like you've got the thermalling aspect of Cx well sorted - 'user defined / advanced' weather is needed for setting the wind so you get effective ridge lift. For the NE USA as you mentioned you generally want a NW wind at 15-20 knots, and fly along at not much more that ridge-top height.

B21

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in RL soaring blue thermals have been described as walking blind into the woods hoping you bump into a tree. It makes the flight a bit of a lottery and competition pilots generally don't like blue days because of the chance factor.

It sounds like you've got the thermalling aspect of Cx well sorted - 'user defined / advanced' weather is needed for setting the wind so you get effective ridge lift. For the NE USA as you mentioned you generally want a NW wind at 15-20 knots, and fly along at not much more that ridge-top height.

B21

Yeah, I think I'm getting a handle on using CX. Using a theme for fast setup is fairly brainless, and the user-defined weather is pretty intuitive to set up...for ridge lift, since you're at a lower altitude, it's a snap to set up the winds aloft since you don't have more than a couple of layers to deal with.

Speaking of ridge lift, I just flew a small cross country trip in a downloaded LS-7 from Chilhowee up to Pigeon Forge/ Gatlinburg, about 125nm or so over 1.3 hours. I like the more contemporary machines not least for their water ballast capability, and it went well.

Lots of low altitude/ NOE flying, storing the ridge lift energy as airspeed to trade off for altitude to make getting across gaps in the ridge line comfortable.

This first XC flight was a good start...be fun to try some real world weather when the conditions are appropriate.

Thanks!

Glenn

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Chilhowee up to Pigeon Forge/ Gatlinburg, about 125nm or so over 1.3 hours

Nice flight! It looks like you had to cross a lot of gaps - did you have to climb up off the ridge to transition to thermals?

For modern sailplanes in FSX, some of the downloads have rather inaccurate flight performance models - in particular the DG808S provided by default in FSX has a very inaccurate glide ratio (unrealistically high at slow speed, poor at 100 knots +). Much more accurate ones include:

* SOAR DG808S (improves panel and flight model) free download here.

* UKVGA ASW28 V1.3 (improved fliight model, FSX instruments) free download here.

* Aerosoft Discus (payware) - much more work done on the modelling, flight characteristics, instruments, and package include BT and BM motor-glider variants with retractable engines)

Each of those has had a fair amount of work calibrating the glide ratio at the various speeds.

B21

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Nice flight! It looks like you had to cross a lot of gaps - did you have to climb up off the ridge to transition to thermals?

For modern sailplanes in FSX, some of the downloads have rather inaccurate flight performance models - in particular the DG808S provided by default in FSX has a very inaccurate glide ratio (unrealistically high at slow speed, poor at 100 knots +). Much more accurate ones include:

* SOAR DG808S (improves panel and flight model) free download here.

* UKVGA ASW28 V1.3 (improved fliight model, FSX instruments) free download here.

* Aerosoft Discus (payware) - much more work done on the modelling, flight characteristics, instruments, and package include BT and BM motor-glider variants with retractable engines)

Each of those has had a fair amount of work calibrating the glide ratio at the various speeds.

B21

Cool, new toys! On it.

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Cool, new toys! On it.

when you're bored of installing fun things like new gliders and flying them, you might be interested in the ability to record and share your flights. The method is to install sim_logger, and upload your tracklog to everytrail.com. This isn't a major thing amongst FSX soaring pilots, but comes in handy when multiple of us fly an agreed common task and you can see where someone was much quicker than you. Or you can just use it to show off when you complete a 500km...

B21

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when you're bored of installing fun things like new gliders and flying them, you might be interested in the ability to record and share your flights. The method is to install sim_logger, and upload your tracklog to everytrail.com. This isn't a major thing amongst FSX soaring pilots, but comes in handy when multiple of us fly an agreed common task and you can see where someone was much quicker than you. Or you can just use it to show off when you complete a 500km...

B21

Looks like fun stuff, thank you!

I'll have to get familiar with those; they look like handy utilities. They'll be useful once I've got some more time and experience with practical soaring. As I've mentioned before, I've wanted to develop my skills for a long time...in RL I've logged over 15,000 hours, but only about 15 in sailplanes.

Since I'm limited to virtual flying now, it's great to have all the tools I need at my disposal!

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Nice flight! It looks like you had to cross a lot of gaps - did you have to climb up off the ridge to transition to thermals?

For modern sailplanes in FSX, some of the downloads have rather inaccurate flight performance models - in particular the DG808S provided by default in FSX has a very inaccurate glide ratio (unrealistically high at slow speed, poor at 100 knots +). Much more accurate ones include:

* SOAR DG808S (improves panel and flight model) free download here.

* UKVGA ASW28 V1.3 (improved fliight model, FSX instruments) free download here.

* Aerosoft Discus (payware) - much more work done on the modelling, flight characteristics, instruments, and package include BT and BM motor-glider variants with retractable engines)

Each of those has had a fair amount of work calibrating the glide ratio at the various speeds.

B21

That ASW 28 is a hoot, thank you for the link!

Love the audible VSI, effective Schempp-Hirth spoilers and nicely animated yawstring. It handles well, a lot more responsive to the controls than I'm used to in FSX. My only concern is the specified VG of 50 KIAS, that feels awfully low, and presents quite a high nose up attitude in external view. It seems a lot happier at about 70 KIAS when looking for lift...any comment?

To answer your question, no, I never had to use thermals when crossing gaps between ridges. The LS-7 did a fine job of holding altitude, though I admit it got a bit tight in the vicinity of McGhee Island. SSW of Knoxville where the Tennessee River cuts across the ridge line, got down to maybe 250 feet AGL before I caught the lift from the next ridge. Other than that the trip was pretty much cake.

I'll have to try another XC soon in the 28, should be big fun :)

post-31442-127598341812_thumb.jpg

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  • 1 year later...

I have exactly this same installation problem as Glenn, but on a new Windows 7 64 bit laptop. I have read through the thread carefully. The Hello World program works. When I installed FSX - I ran it first, then installed SP1 and ran FSX again, then installed SP2 and Ran FSX again as per the standard instructions that have been published in various places for many years. My Windows\system\ folder is empty. No files at all in there. I do not have Acceleration so it has not been installed. In the Remove Programs folder there are two entries for FSX: FSX itself and FSX SP2 SDK. One thing is non standard: My FSX is installed in C:\FSX, not C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games...etc.etc. I have always done this (20 years with FS) without problems - in fact fewer problems than many.

So what now?

Peter

UK VGA

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I have exactly this same installation problem as Glenn, ...

Does this mean, that installation is not proceeding at all? If not please describe the problem with more details.

My Windows\system\ folder is empty.

Maybe, there is a windows explorer setting active, not to show system directories and files. Anyway, don't mind.

My FSX is installed in C:\FSX

Shouldn't make a difference.

Did you extract the zip archive first, or just tried to double-click the install command from within the zip file? This would not work, as the install script will not find the components. You have also run the install command with "Run as admin".

best regards,

Peter

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Does this mean, that installation is not proceeding at all? If not please describe the problem with more details.

Maybe, there is a windows explorer setting active, not to show system directories and files. Anyway, don't mind.

Shouldn't make a difference.

Did you extract the zip archive first, or just tried to double-click the install command from within the zip file? This would not work, as the install script will not find the components. You have also run the install command with "Run as admin".

best regards,

Peter

The install did not proceed at all. On double clicking the install file (the one without an extension) there is a brief flash as if a window tries to display but fails, and then nothing. I tried right clicking and "Run as Administrator". Same result. But no windows error messages.

If I right-click install.cmd and Run as Administrator, the same flash occurs. It seems to be a Command-prompt window. Then I get the windows message "Cumulus X has stopped working" with "Check online for a solution" or "Close the Program" options.

I have User Access Control Minimised (you can't actually turn it off in Win 7, it seems).

I have settings set to allow me to see system files

I extracted the files from the zip first.

Peter

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Then I get the windows message "Cumulus X has stopped working" with "Check online for a solution" or "Close the Program" options.

This is it. This means that you had installed FSX before there was the Framework 2.0 (or higher) installed. In this case the simconnect interface is not registered with the Framework library.

Luckily you have the Deluxe version which includes a separate installer for simconnect. Please try this:

Go to:

...\Microsoft Flight Simulator X SDK\SDK\Core Utilities Kit\SimConnect SDK\lib

There is a file "Simconnect.msi". Double-click this, which issues a new installation of the simconnect interface. This time it will register with the installed Framework. After this try to install CumulusX! once more.

best regards,

Peter

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I am surprised that that is the case, though I don't doubt your knowledge, Peter. I has assumed that dotnet Framwork was part of Windows. Off to try it now...

Peter

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As I feared would happen, doing that has destroyed my FS Setup completely. FSUIPC has gone, IVap has gone and Plan-G won't connect to FSX via Simconnect. AND Cumulus X still doesn't install. I should have trusted my instinct and ignored your suggestion.

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Here is the FSUIPC log written after rebooting and restarting FSX. Says it all. Off to reinstall FSX, and everything I have accumulated over years now. That is the first time I have ever had to reinstall FS, any version, in 20 years Flightsimming.

1155 SimConnect_Open succeeded: waiting to check version okay

1155 WARNING: Failed to install Mouse Macro hooks!

9641 Exception 5 "VERSION_MISMATCH", Ref 1, Version 0.60905: Open: SimConnect Version incorrect!

9641 Trying another version of SimConnect ...

9813 NOTE: SimConnect SP1 May07 is supported, but it isn't installed.

9844 Trying to connect to SimConnect Original ...

9844 Now running with SimConnect Original

9844 SimConnect_Open succeeded: waiting to check version okay

9844 Exception 5 "VERSION_MISMATCH", Ref 1, Version 0.60905: Open: SimConnect Version incorrect!

9844 Trying another version of SimConnect ...

9938 FATAL ERROR: FSUIPC4 cannot connect to any supported version of SimConnect!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well I reinstalled FSX and all my addons and everything was working nicely. I made several successful powered flights. Then I tried to install CumulusX again. Exactly the same behaviour. However, this time, before doing anything else I checked the FSUIPC log. Sure enough, The log reported failure to find a valid version of Simconnect and when I closed down FSX it did so with an error "Flight Simulator has stopped working" rather than cleanly. On a hunch, I reinstalled FSUIPC and everything was restored to normal including a clean FSX shutdown.

I'm afraid this episode has rather put paid to my gliding unless or until Peter solves this problem.

Peter

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