XAcars zero distance

Peter Schindler · Jul 28, 2011

Since the last post on the subject may be hard to find, here's a little reminder for all the new ACH pilots: if you use XAcars it's essential to stay online during your flight, otherwise we can not record your flight distance in the pirep! Search the forum for "XAcars" and you may find some in depth explanations

@Daniel Novotny: I filled in the distances for your last 2 flights, but I noticed there are a lot more with zero miles, although I thought you had it solved. Is it still the connection, or is there some other problem? Just curious (and willing to help). Thanks for feedback, Daniel - should you read this.

Daniel Novotny · Jul 31, 2011

Hi!

Thanks for putting the distance into my reports. I thought it was solved, but that turned out to be wrong. My connection is not very reliable, I´ve not been disconnected from VATSIM during those flights however.

I´ve had that much problems with those free ACARS systems, I´ve started thinking about coding my own (that would perfectly fit my needs).

I suppose that would be a lot of work and it would take quite some time, but surely it wouldn´t be the worst way to waste my spare time

.

Cheers

Peter Schindler · Jul 31, 2011

Hi Daniel, I'm really sorry that you have these problems. For now, you can always send me a short email (peter*at*air-child.com) when it happens, and I will correct the data. I do not always notice, and it's easier for me to correct one or two reports than 10 or 15 at a time.

For the future, I decided to change the XAcars reception script, so that it fills in the great circle distance whenever there's no other distance available. Think that's the best solution.

Daniel Novotny said:
I´ve had that much problems with those free ACARS systems, I´ve started thinking about coding my own (that would perfectly fit my needs).

I suppose that would be a lot of work and it would take quite some time, but surely it wouldn´t be the worst way to waste my spare time .

Certainly not

It's definitely lots of work, especially if you create an application for MSFS + X-Plane, that's why we skipped the idea of trying this. But if you decide to do this, let us know.
I'm not into application programming (only web scripting) but I could maybe help with the application/server interface.

Andrew Williams · Jul 31, 2011

Peter Schindler said:
For the future, I decided to change the XAcars reception script, so that it fills in the great circle distance whenever there's no other distance available. Think that's the best solution.

:think: :think:

by Andrew Williams on Fri Jan 14, 2011 1:45
Peter,

In the Xacars script, can you not write something where if the reported distance is less than the direct distance between the two airports, then display the direct distance? I know it won't be totally accurate, but it will be closer than if xacars lost connection half way through the flight.

:hi:

Peter Schindler · Jul 31, 2011

:wall: :wall: :wall:

S O R R Y

Daniel Novotny · Aug 1, 2011

Hi Peter!

Thanks a lot for your cooperation,
I will let you know if the problem occurs again.

I´m certainly playing with the idea of writing a multi-platform and multi-sim ACARS, but for the moment I have nothing more than a draft

I´ll let you know if it gets more serious.

Have a great day!

Peter Schindler · Aug 2, 2011

I have made a few changes to the XAcars pirep scripts. Included Andrew's(!) workaround and a couple more "experimental" changes :devil:

So beware! I will monitor the pireps during the next days, but please report if something goes totally wrong. Thx!