Weather along your route
CAVacars 2 can show the real-world weather for your flight: the latest METAR and TAF for your departure and arrival airports, every reporting station along your route on the map, and a warning if your destination's weather turns bad while you're flying.
The weather comes from aviationweather.gov, so it's the real-world weather. It only matches what you fly in if your sim is using live weather.
Turning it on
On the Flight Tracking screen, click Weather in the buttons above the map. It turns blue when it's on, and CAVacars 2 remembers your choice for next time.
When it's on, you get:
- a Route weather card under your flight card
- coloured dots on the map for the weather stations along your route
The Route weather card
| Part | What it shows |
|---|---|
| DEP and ARR | Your departure and arrival airports with their flight category, wind, visibility, ceiling and any precipitation or fog. Click a row to see the full METAR (and how old it is) and the TAF. |
| Below CAT I | Shown in red when an airport's ceiling is below 200 ft or its visibility is below ½ statute mile, the lowest a normal ILS approach goes. |
| Along the route | How many stations along your route are reporting each flight category, then the worst of them (IFR or LIFR), worst first. |
The card refreshes by itself every few minutes.
Flight categories
| Category | Colour | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| VFR | Green | Ceiling above 3,000 ft and visibility over 5 SM |
| MVFR | Blue | Ceiling 1,000–3,000 ft, or visibility 3–5 SM |
| IFR | Red | Ceiling 500–999 ft, or visibility 1 to under 3 SM |
| LIFR | Magenta | Ceiling below 500 ft, or visibility below 1 SM |
Stations on the map
Every weather station within about 30 nm of your route is drawn as a dot coloured by its flight category. Click a dot to see the station's name, a summary and the full METAR.
The route is your SimBrief plan when you have one for this flight (see Planning with SimBrief). Otherwise it's a straight line from your departure to your arrival. Automatic stations that don't report cloud or visibility aren't shown.
Destination weather alerts
While a flight is being tracked, CAVacars 2 checks your destination's METAR every few minutes, whether or not the Weather button is on. You get an alert when:
- the destination drops to IFR or LIFR from something better, or
- it goes below CAT I minimums (ceiling under 200 ft or visibility under ½ SM). If it's already that bad when you start tracking, you're told straight away.
The alert shows as a red message in the app, an entry in your flight log, and a desktop notification if CAVacars 2 is in the background (see Starting with Windows and notifications). You only hear about each change once.
An alert is a heads-up, not an instruction. Check the TAF, and think about your alternate or holding fuel. If you do divert, CAVacars 2 handles that when you file (see Filing your PIREP).
Good to know
- Some smaller airports don't report weather. They show N/A and "No current METAR".
- The weather card also works in a browser or on an iPad connected to CAVacars 2 (see Using CAVacars 2 in a browser or on an iPad). The alerts come from the desktop app.