Hello,
I’ve noticed a critical issue regarding the airspeed indication in Aerofly FS Global.
When a headwind (e.g. 10 kt) is present, the aircraft’s PFD indicated airspeed increases, even though no configuration (flaps, weight, etc.) has been changed.
This behaviour is not realistic and contradicts basic aerodynamics:
IAS (Indicated Airspeed) is the aircraft’s speed relative to the surrounding air mass.
Headwind or tailwind does not change IAS.
Wind only affects Ground Speed (GS).
Example in the sim:
Approach speed should be 148 kt IAS
With a 10 kt headwind, the sim shows ~158 kt IAS
This is incorrect — IAS should remain 148 kt, while GS should decrease to ~138 kt.
Unless a system is changing VAPP (flaps, weight calculation, alpha protection etc.), the PFD IAS must remain unchanged.
Please check this, because the current behaviour confuses users and results in unrealistic approach performance.
Thank you.
Wind and IAS do not match.
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- Official Post
No, we actually simulate this correctly and sudden changes in headwind or tailwind immediately show on the airspeed indicator as changes in airspeed.
Changing the wind speed in the settings is like an instantaneous gust. The true velocity remains the same because of the inertia (conservation of energy) but indicated airspeed changes because of the sudden relative speed. After a while the aircraft stabilizes back to the previously trimmed speed.
Same when you get closer to the ground. Suddenly the headwind becomes less and less and if you didn't add an approach speed margin to account for this you'll have a hard landing because all of the sudden your airspeed drops a lot because wind reduces and inertial speed = ground speed remains almost same due to inertia.
For this very reason Airbus added the "ground speed mini" function, which is also active in the sim. The aircraft maintains a steady ground speed during the approach and any sudden headwind increase (gust) causes the targeted airspeed to increase, so that the ground speed remains constant. If they didn't do this the aircraft would decrease thrust and slow down back to the airspeed target and if the wind gust stops you're suddenly way too slow and in a low energy situation, close to the stall and close to the ground. In a Boeing you have to manually increase the approach speed and either use manual thrust or just keep the MCP speed high enough, which ultimately means coming in hot and landing longer.
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No, we actually simulate this correctly and sudden changes in headwind or tailwind immediately show on the airspeed indicator as changes in airspeed.
Changing the wind speed in the settings is like an instantaneous gust. The true velocity remains the same because of the inertia (conservation of energy) but indicated airspeed changes because of the sudden relative speed. After a while the aircraft stabilizes back to the previously trimmed speed.
Same when you get closer to the ground. Suddenly the headwind becomes less and less and if you didn't add an approach speed margin to account for this you'll have a hard landing because all of the sudden your airspeed drops a lot because wind reduces and inertial speed = ground speed remains almost same due to inertia.
For this very reason Airbus added the "ground speed mini" function, which is also active in the sim. The aircraft maintains a steady ground speed during the approach and any sudden headwind increase (gust) causes the targeted airspeed to increase, so that the ground speed remains constant. If they didn't do this the aircraft would decrease thrust and slow down back to the airspeed target and if the wind gust stops you're suddenly way too slow and in a low energy situation, close to the stall and close to the ground. In a Boeing you have to manually increase the approach speed and either use manual thrust or just keep the MCP speed high enough, which ultimately means coming in hot and landing longer.
Thanks
