Remove Before Flight Flags blow in wrong direction

[Andrew8604]

This is very minor but might as well report it.  You went to the trouble of making them blow in the wind.  Might as well make them blow correctly, right?

The red "Remove Before Flight" flags that hang from safety pins and covers of the F-4E when static on the ground with the helmet off, appear to blow in an incorrect direction.  At least, they do in the Nevada Map.  If the wind is blowing from 249 magnetic (260 true, which is the same as blowing to 080 true), the red flags appear to blow towards about 290 true.  Which means that the flags act like the wind is from 110 true.  (I didn't exactly measure the angle they appear to blow.  It's my rough estimate.)

Upon switching the wind around in ME to blowing from 080 true, toward 260 true, the flags reverse and seem to blow toward 110 true (as if the wind was from 290 true).

Someday when you have time you might check it out.  Thank you for an excellent module!!

[Cobra847]

Thanks for the report! Can you check the windsock whether this error is also present with that? I thought I double and triple checked that they match.

[Andrew8604]

52 minutes ago, Cobra847 said:

Thanks for the report! Can you check the windsock whether this error is also present with that? I thought I double and triple checked that they match.

Yep, I checked with a couple windsocks, they appear to blow in the correct direction, as well as some of the flags on flagpoles at the airbase.  Could it be that Nevada map is somehow messed up?  I also have my settings to show Imperial Units in ME.  Maybe I'll try another map.  You double and triple checked?  Makes me want to now go double and triple check what I'm reporting.

[Cobra847]

2 minutes ago, Andrew8604 said:

Yep, I checked with a couple windsocks, they appear to blow in the correct direction, as well as some of the flags on flagpoles at the airbase.  Could it be that Nevada map is somehow messed up?  I also have my settings to show Imperial Units in ME.  Maybe I'll try another map.  You double and triple checked?  Makes me want to now go double and triple check what I'm reporting.

You never know in a coffee fueled development cycle

I will check it again, as I was worried I had it wrong, but then checked against windsocks and was confident everything was working correctly.

[Andrew8604]

It could be that DCS is messed up.  

• Wind in ME with "Display Imperial Units" checked, set to "Blow toward" 271 (true) at 10 knots (at 33ft, the base level, or ground level, I assume.  Nonetheless, I have all levels set to blow toward 271.)  Still in Nevada Map.
• The windsocks are trailing back in line with the large runway at Creech, Rwy 8/26.  So, the windsocks indicate wind from about 080 magnetic.  Magnetic variation (aka declination) says 11.3 at Creech in ME.  So that pans out.  Wind from 091 true, subtract 11-deg variation and wind is from 080 magnetic.
• F-4E is parked heading 226 on the wet compass.  Add 11 to that and it matches the 237 true heading of the parking space in ME.
• REMOVE BEFORE FLIGHT flags on the F-4E appear to be blowing toward its 7 to 8 o'clock position.  So, as if the wind was coming from maybe 40 degrees to the right of its nose.  As if 266 magnetic.  The wind is blowing to 260 magnetic.  That's pretty close to being 180-degrees wrong.  My estimate could be wrong and it's as if the wind is from 34 degrees right of the nose, not 40 deg. 
• I connect ground power to the F-4E and call ATC for Req Engine Start-up, and ATC reports wind as 091 at 10 meters per second.  So now, is the wind really 10 knots as ME claimed, or 10 m/s as ATC claims?  By the way the windsocks were stretched out and the sound of the ambient wind, sitting in the cockpit, I'd say it's really 10 m/s, or 19.4 knots!

[Andrew8604]

It's hard to tell because screenshots from my Rift S VR goggles are so low resolution, but the flag on the pole is opposite to the flags on the F-4.  I'm not saying the F-4E module is wrong, I'm just saying they're opposite. 

[Andrew8604]

It does it in the Marianas Map, too.  Mag Var there is only 0.4.  So, magnetic and true are pretty much the same.  But it's not 180-deg opposite to the wind.  It's like 145-deg out.  I placed 2 windsocks, a flagpole and a smoking fire close to the F-4E.  All of the other items agreed with the wind right down the runway, but the F-4E's flags did not.  ATC said wind 067 at 7 m/s, when I had set it to 5 m/s in ME.  

Edited May 26, 2024 by Andrew8604