Hi Mikael,
it works here. Steps:
- Go to ASN Wx Configuration page and select live mode first (to get realistic winds aloft) and after you see "Idle", then go to manual mode.
- Enter ENHV in the station ID (the current metar of ENHV will come up)
- In the "Edit Metar" text box, paste the part of the metar
after the zulu time, i.e.: "19020G35KT 160V220 2SM -FZSN FEW020 BKN030CU OVC050TCB M2/M5 Q0987", replacing the current one. It's not important to keep the original zulu time part the same, but it's better to do this (under certain circumstances ASN may consider the metar delayed and use the TAF instead, so best is to have a "current" zulu time. By "current" I mean close to the active time)
- Click once outside the Edit Metar text box. All the winds/temps etc will be updated
- Select an application range and click "Apply to Range"
Now, moving to conditions page (or on the map) and clicking ENHV, the conditions will be updated. So, by directly pasting the metar this is possible. One shortcoming of ASN is that you cannot insert (currently) the gusting part and the winds variability part through the winds table/grid. This has to be done through the metar text box. Depending on feedback this functionality will be added in the future (at the moment it's low priority).
As for the freezing snow part, ASN will recognise this as "-FZSN" and not as "-FZ SN". It has to be one word. Of course the "freezing" part in this case is redundant since the temperatures are below zero, so in the decoding it will be presented as just "-SN", but that makes no difference. In the sim what matters is that ASN will apply icing on the aircraft in this case regardless of the presence of the "FZ" part in the metar.
(well there is a small issue with manual weather and icing, but just by restarting the application and keeping the mode the same, it will be applied appropriately as can be seen in the debug window).
EDIT: I tried the approach and it's very very interesting and demanding. Down to the minimums! Remarks:
1) ASN applied a significant brief downdraft (-1500 ft/min) on attempt to circle to land to RW26, as warned by the chart (not to mention the gusting crosswind). Of course I got here the maximum downdraft setting to 1500 to make this more realistic. The default is 500
2) I took off from ENHV, went around and then attempted the approach. Most of this time (about 20 minutes) the aircraft was exposed to icing (I did the "restart ASN" trick I mentioned). In addition to the pitot heat that froze in just 1 minute (that is an unrealistic "feature" of fsx), during short final the aircraft performance was significantly deteriorated (I avoided any anti-ice in purpose). Icing simulation in fsx and whether it's realistic is a whole new discussion. Suffice to say, that in real life when freezing rain (rain not snow) is present, then it would be extremely dangerous to fly this scenario. In fsx the rate of icing accumulation is too slow. It's there, but too slow.
3) The MDA (according to the first chart I googled for:
http://www.cfg023.de/norway04/charts/ENHV-Honningsvag.pdf) is 1280' However for ASN to depict fog there has to be a suitable cloud at 1000 feet. If not, ASN inserts one (a "synthed fog" overcast) at 1000' feet. So you may have to descend below the MDA to see the runway. If you want to disable this behavior, then Add the following lines in [Visibility options] section of the file %appdata%\HiFi\ASNFSX\Options\FSXOptions.cfg
FogLayerGeneration=0
Keep in mind that this is suitable only in specialized cases like this one and in general it should be not used or many problems may come up.
4) The clouds are rather squeezed at this latitude (another fsx "thingy") and with all these layers apparent z-order issues were apparent due to yet another fsx bug (fsx determines how to draw the clouds, the draw order, only by checking the lateral distance to the aircraft/camera viewpoint, skipping the vertical distance causing this)
5) You may consider the gusts to be rather "smooth". This is done in purpose to discriminate them from wind shear. This can also be adjusted. If needed just let me know
Now let's go fly!