lightning – Photography, aviation and flight simulation

REX

REX offers two important elements through its different products: 1) A weather engine that downloads real weather in your computer while replicating the different weather phenomenon, through its REX Essential Plus program and 2) very realistic cloud textures (through its add-ons like Overdrive, Texture Direct, Soft Clouds).

A flight planning mode is also included, as well as numerous options to create specific weather themes that take care of the appearance of the clouds, the quality of the light in the sky, the definition of the sun effects, the different textures and colors of water.

You also have the possibility to choose different runway markings, the sounds associated with thunderstorms and the type of lightning that will illuminate your virtual sky.

REX is compatible with all platforms, including X-Plane.

Here are the REX products, which each play a very different role:

REX Essential Plus: a weather engine and a product that contains cloud textures and multiple options in order to simulate as much as possible the real outside weather for the area you have chosen. The weather engine will soon be renewed with a new addition: REX Weather Direct.

REX Overdrive: adds 12 GB of cloud textures.

REX4 Texture Direct: adds another 16 GB of cloud textures, and a possibility to create complete weather themes according to your preferences, while you still have access to other themes created by all the virtual pilots of the REX community.

REX Soft Clouds: adds volumetric clouds in the lower layer of the atmosphere for a more realistic effect.

REX4 Weather Architect: a program that allows you to create a precise weather system then position it anywhere on the planet. This is not a weather engine: It will not look for new data on internet and download it in your computer.

REX Weather Direct: a soon to be released improved weather engine that will be compatible with DX9, DX10 and DX11 as well as with FSX, FSX: SE (Steam Edition) and P3D.

On virtual flying forums, users seem to have a preference for the Active Sky Next (ASN) weather engine combined with REX cloud textures. This is a good combination, but it’s not the only one that deserves attention: FSGRW together with REX cloud textures do an excellent job (this is the duo that I am using for very precise results). There is also OpusFSI with REX, ASN with ASN2012 (ASN weather engine combined with ASN2012 cloud textures) or even a REX only set of programs (soon to be available REX Weather Direct and REX cloud textures).

This all depends on your priority: the FSGRW simplicity and absolute realism, the facility to use a cockpit camera and the dynamic head movements supported mode of OpusFSI, etc. It is best to read a lot and take the necessary time before jumping to quickly to a conclusion.

Some weather engines might need tweaking or modifications to be compatible with the most recent versions of P3D, if we believe what is written on specialized forums.

Here is the link: REX

For more weather engines, click on the following link: Other weather engines

For more articles on flight simulation on my web site, click on the following link : Flight simulation

(Precedent story: the commercial pilot license / a tire bursts on landing)

On a hot summer day of 1981, I was asked to fly a Cessna 150 to the Montreal Pierre-Elliott-Trudeau international airport to pick-up one of our flight instructors and bring him back to St-Jean-sur-Richelieu. The winds were blowing from the northwest, so runway 28 was being used. While I was in final for that runway, the air traffic controller realized that he did not have enough separation between my plane and a heavy one that was also in long final. He told me “Increase your speed, there is a Boeing 727 behind you”.

It is very easy to increase the speed of an airplane while maintaining an altitude. You just push the throttle and the speed increases. However, when the aircraft is above the threshold of the runway, it needs its specific speed to touch the ground otherwise it continues to fly until the appropriate speed for landing is reached. It seemed to me that the Cessna floated for an eternity before finally touching the runway. But it eventually worked out well and I exited the runway before an overshoot was required for the Boeing.

So I parked the aircraft near Transport Canada’s offices and waited for the instructor for about thirty minutes. Clouds were rapidly covering the sky in this late afternoon, with all the humidity and an already high temperature. When the instructor finally showed up and we proceeded with the taxiing procedure, the air traffic controller told us: “You must accept radar vectors for your departing route because of the weather.” What weather? A cold front was at work, but nothing serious was visible from our position. So close to the airport terminal, all we could see were towering cumulus, nothing else. We accepted his offer in order to be allowed to leave the airport.

The take-off was made from runway 28. I made a left turn toward St-Jean. We soon understood why radar vectors had to be followed. A storm had developed between Montreal and St-Jean. We observed what looked like five cylinders created by heavy rain. Lightning was also occasionally visible. We had to fly between the cylinders to avoid the most problematic areas. We tightened our seat belts just as the first bumps were being felt, making our altitude vary considerably. Knowing what I know today about flying in bad weather, I would not attempt another flight like this one, especially without an onboard weather radar.

The flight ended nicely with a smooth landing in St- Jean, outside of the problematic weather area. A few weeks later, I was asked if I would accept to be captain for a long flight across Canada. This unexpected offer represented a great opportunity, especially since it would allow me to log more than forty additional flying hours.

(Next story: a visual flight (VFR) from St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec, to Emonton, Alberta)

For other real life stories as a pilot, click on the following link: Real life stories as a pilot