Using ASX

Active Sky X can be started using the Desktop icon or Start/Programs/HiFi/Active Sky X programs menu item.  It can be started before or after FSX, but we recommend starting it first in order to allow all basic internal initialization to complete beforehand. 

Once loaded, the initialization process will start which takes approximately 30 seconds.  During this time, ASX is downloading weather, synthesizing it, creating initial reports and map imagery, and many other tasks.  Most options within ASX are disabled until initialization completes, but you can use the browser on the Main Screen while things initialize.  This is a great time to check the latest news for ASX users, recent articles and more.

After initializing, all options and screens are available!  The menu bar on the left lets you navigate through the main areas of ASX, and is always visible. 

All the screens that these buttons access are explained in detail in the next sections of this documentation, starting with the Main Screen.

The "Active Date and Time" area below the navigation buttons will show you the currently active time.  Normally this is your current system "live" time.

You can use the "GMT / Local" selector to choose which format to show your active time in.  GMT time (also known as UTC or Zulu time) is what aviators use to have a reference of time regardless of current local time zone.  This is essentially the current time in Greenwich, UK.

Below the active time area you'll find options to set your active time to a historical period in time.  This is used when in "online mode" in order to keep your time synchronized and playing back from that moment forward.  To enable the historical date/time selection options you must first uncheck "Force to Real Time".  Historical weather is available on an hourly basis starting from January 1, 2007.

When "Force to Real Time" is checked, your time will always be synchronized to real/live time.

ASX Window Controls

You'll notice these 3 buttons on the top right of the ASX program.  These are, from left to right: Send to System Tray, Minimize and Quit.  Sending to System Tray will hide ASX and put an icon down near your Windows clock.  To bring it back up, simply double-click the icon in the tray.  Minimize will hide ASX and put the ASX item in the Windows taskbar.  Simply alt-tab to it or click the taskbar item to see it again.  When you're finished using ASX, hit the Quit button.

Note: When virtual station generation is enabled (on by default), it can take FSX some time to remove and reinitialize the station database after ASX quits.  FSX may appear "frozen" during this time.  ASX will remind you about this if you attempt to quit while FSX is running.  We therefore recommend that FSX is actually closed first, before ASX, in order to avoid any delays (this does not apply when virtual station generation features are disabled).

Process Status Indicators

These 3 status indicators at the very bottom of the program indicate the activity for the 3 main repeating processes within ASX:

• Synthesis: Process which takes raw weather data and synthesizes it into usable weather parameters

• Depiction: Process which sends weather data from ASX and injects it into Flight Simulator X

• Download: Process which downloads new weather from the HiFi DataNet X Weather Servers

When these processes are "active" the text will change to green for that particular process instance.

Voice Feature: