FSACARS Problem

[Mike Sharpe]

Hi guys,

Im really loving the website so far and the detail your VA provides for FlightSim enthusiasts like myself is incredible.And to be able to help people at the same time while flying is awesome. The livery is beautiful and the Aero A320 Livery is a standout for me not that I have a hefty collection of repaints from here....yet
Im itching to get my first flight out of the way but im running into a problem with FSACARS.
Im able to "export the flight from VA" with success but its when I finally release my parking brake for push back the whole scenario resets back to the original time that i began the scenario.
I was looking for a solution to the problems through the forums and I did notice I should be only starting FSACARS right before pushback/engine start.
Is this correct and I ignore the reloading scenario time if it appears again?- if I run FSACARS at the actual published pushback time?
Thanks,
Mike.

 

[Daniel Novotny]

Hi Mike!

First of all an unofficial welcome to Air-Child .

I´ve seen the same issue with FSAcars. If I got you right neither the position nor the state of the aircraft are changed as the scenery reloads. There´s no need to worry - just go on and do your flight.

I´ve never found out why this happens, it never caused any trouble however. If you mind waiting you may like to consider switching to XACARS (which works fine but has less features at the moment).

Cheers!

 

[Peter Schindler]

Hi Mike. May I add an official Welcome :hi: and some more information:
FsAcars was developed - and already discontinued - before FSX was even released. It works (for most) with FSX but it was not actually made for it. Add to this a couple of strange bugs which only appear for some users in some conditions, and you get a reporting add-on that works perfectly for a few and is rather unpredictable for many
In other words: you should check it out, follow

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as close as possible and see if you get along with it or not. If not, don't be disappointed. Just switch to XAcars or maybe try the FlightKeeper demo

 

[Mike Sharpe]

Hi Daniel and Peter,

Thanks for the warm welcome - much appreciated.

Yes Daniel thats right, the state of my aircraft doesnt change
just the scenery reloads. Okay thanks- I wont take any notice of it
and continue as normal.If I run into any more problems Ill try another
way of logging flights as you guys mentioned.

Okay thanks for the info Peter I didnt realise FsAcars was that old.
Flightkeeper does sound good so ill keep that in mind.
Also, I would like to use the dispatch from the dispatch centre as an accurate source
of payloads etc.

In regards to the dispatch sheet im having a few problems converting the weights across accuratley with the Aero A320X.
The max I can set in the dispatch sheet can only be 105 pax as this equals a payload of 11,025Kg including baggage just under the Aerosoft set limit of 11,100. So that would actually mean setting the pax limit to 148 for the aero A320 in its load program (xconnect).
Should I be setting the maximum amount of passengers at 105 for every flight if I want to use the dispatch and the aerosoft A320?
I tryed using Topcat but when I try to send the data across it tells me the weights are differently set to the actual plane in Flightsim even though im using the cfg file from the Aero. If I proceed to send the data it basically sends different values to the ones set.
I would set realistic values in Topcat for the Aerosoft A320 but the values I require I cannot locate through the product itself.
How do you guys work around this?
Thanks for the help,
Mike.

 

[Peter Schindler]

Mike, I'm not sure if I fully understand your question. The maximum possible payload always depends on the amount of fuel you need for your trip. Lots of fuel = less payload, short trip = fewer fuel = more payload.
Below is an example loadsheet for a typical mid range flight from Manchester to Madrid, packed with 135 pax and 4000 kg additional cargo. Total payload is above 18,000 kg and still enough room for the required fuel.
[imgpop]http://www.air-child.com/files/pix/brief-sample.gif[/imgpop]

I'm a little surprised that Aerosoft would give a fixed payload maximum of 11,100 kg because, as shown above, max TOW always depends on both, payload AND fuel.

For the Topcat question: maybe someone who is actually using it could answer.

 

[Norbert Woeller]

I tryed using Topcat but when I try to send the data across it tells me the weights are differently set to the actual plane in Flightsim even though im using the cfg file from the Aero. If I proceed to send the data it basically sends different values to the ones set.
I would set realistic values in Topcat for the Aerosoft A320 but the values I require I cannot locate through the product itself.
How do you guys work around this?
Thanks for the help,
Mike.

Mike, how do you sending the data from TOPCAT to your aircraft? Via the "Save to 'Aircraft.cfg' file" function or via the "Send via FSUIPC/WideClient" function?

 

[Mike Sharpe]

Hi Guys,
Thankyou for the responses,

I have re-read my question and I can see how confusing it was lol.

The figure of 11,100Kg I quoted should have said- 11,100KG is the maximum payload that you can set for passengers only in the Aerosoft A320x Loader- without cargo,baggage and fuel.

The maximum figure is actually 20,535kg including cargo/pax/baggage without the fuel ofcourse- because as Peter mentioned that always changes.

So reading the dispatch sheet Peter used as an example the payload is 18175kg including 4000kg of extra cargo.

That means when I set a passenger load of 135 using the Aerosoft loader it will give me a figure of
10,125KG meaning i need to make up 8050 Kg's respectivley to match the dispatch payload.

My question should have read- Can I now set the cargo weights a little higher than the 4000kg figure given on the dispatch sheet in the aerosoft loader to make up for baggage weight as its clear the baggage weight hasnt been included in the passenger load for the Aerosoft loader? I wasnt sure how other Aero A320X users were compensating for this.

Because the Aerosoft loader uses a slide bar (facepalm!) to set your weights not a figure you can manually enter its hard to match the exact weights to the Dispatch sheet. Its close but not exact.

That is where I thought Topcat would be effective as you can enter the values yourself.
Norbert I have tried both ways to be honest.
If I try sending the data across it will state "The dry operating weight is different to the aircraft in Topcat even though im using the cfg file from the Aero.You must have chosen the wrong aircraft- Do you still want to load"? I have tried pressing Yes but then it gets the figures totally wrong.

If I try saving not sending the data I receive the same error message as above but also "do you want to update your DOW to the one set in topcat". I have also said yes to this error and it will still get the values wrong.

I have tried setting the correct weights in Topcat but it never seems to match the actual aircraft so i decided to make my own .cfg file for the Aerosoft A320x as its not included.
I was able to run the .cfg file correctly but as the CG are unknown for the AERO A320 X i wasnt able to use the cfg file. The numbers I need are not included in the aircraft.cfg file for the Aero.

Its now clear I wont be able to set the exact payload figure from the dispatch sheet to the Aero A320x but will have to make do with a close figure as such.
Hopefully later down the track topcat will include a "template" for the Aero as they already have the Airsimmer and Wilcos.
Im being way to fussy in trying to set the exact payload figure from the dispatch-I will just get on with flying now .
Sorry to keep bugging you guys,
Thanks again,
Mike.

 

[Norbert Woeller]

Mike, regarding TOPCAT and your Aerosoft A320x, I have found this post in the TOPCAT Forum. Maybe it will help you a little bit, till TOPCAT will release the Aerosoft A320x for that great tool:

http://www.topcatsim.com/forum/index.php?topic=509.0

 

[Peter Schindler]

That means when I set a passenger load of 135 using the Aerosoft loader it will give me a figure of 10,125KG meaning i need to make up 8050 Kg's respectivley to match the dispatch payload.
...
Its now clear I wont be able to set the exact payload figure from the dispatch sheet to the Aero A320x but will have to make do with a close figure as such.

Thanks for the explanation, Mike. I now had a look at some of the Aerosoft manuals and also got brief info from someone using (more or less) their Bus. According to this, the A320 X features a DOW of roughly 37,500 kg. This is actually different from values given at airliners.net indicating a DOW of around 42,500 kg. Probably the reason why Topcat argues about it.

I also understand now that the max possible passenger load is 148. Which is basically fine (the seating of 179 that we use for ACH is the upper design limit and very "compressed"; we might change that). At 148 pax you have 11,100 kg (as you already wrote), so Aerosoft assumes 75 kg per passenger. However, this must be including baggage because the AX cargo seems to have a limit of 1500 kg which does not even allow 15 kg per passenger. A real A320 should have a cargo capacity of 6000 to 7000 kg.
So the max payload of the Aero is much below what it could be, and with the load manager it's impossible to get past the max TOW, even with full tanks and max payload. This is not realistic but understandable in Aerosoft's aim to make it easier for less experienced users.

Anyway, it's still possible to try and match the ACH dispatch with Aerosoft load manager. Here's how:
- In the briefing do not "order" more than 100 pax, leave cargo at zero.
- Compute company plan and check required fuel (including some pilot extra).
- Load that fuel amount through the load manager (roughly).
- Check TOW in ACH load sheet.
- Fill up pax and cargo until you reach a total weight matching (or below) that TOW.

It doesn't matter, after all, if you're below the weight of dispatch. That means your fuel will be more than sufficient for the flight.

ps: I probably didn't tell you anything new. I mainly wrote it for my own understanding

 

[Mike Sharpe]

Hi Norbert, I checked out the post you linked- Its good to see they might include it in a later release of Topcat. Fingers crossed.Thank-you.

Hi Peter, I really appreciate you taking the time to browse through the Aerosoft manuals in your own time.
Yes as you can see when it comes to the weights figures of the Aero it can be a little confusing especially if your trying to match it to an exact figure.Yes I knew you couldnt get close to the MTOW which is one of my dissapointments with the product.

Yup, topcat doesnt like the figures at all that you try and send across so thats a no-go for now.
Okay im glad to hear I can work with the pax limit of 148 without any major problems.

Thanks for clearing up about the pax weights, which does include baggage.Now i dont need to worry about compensating for this in cargo load.

Yes correct the Aerosoft Airbus is more or less catered to the fulltime worker for example who doesnt have much time and wants to complete a relativley quick flight.

I on the opposite hand am sweating on an advanced version of the airbus as I like to use things like dispatch sheets and the FCOM.
The closest I was able to come to emulating the a320 to the real plane with whats on todays market is the airsimmer, but it was still very buggy on my system plus I prefer FSX.

I do use the wilco from time to time especially more for its FMC than the other products on the market for its features but going from the Aerosoft cockpit to the wilco cockpit is like dating the hottest girl in world-dumping her and start dating a fugly.

Thanks for the instructions on trying to match the ACH dispatch- One Problem lol! The loadmanager only sends a rough figure not exact, so if you send 10,000 kg of fuel for example more often that not your plane will show 10,410KG for example. Then if you check your fuel load through Acars again its different again.lol!
But I see the point you are making about matching the Take off weight and its a very good one, so I will try that.I can always play around with the figures.
I guess it comes back to what you orginally said Peter- Its aimed at less experienced users so fuel and such isnt a massive deal in exact figures.

I appreciate the help again- you both are legends.
Mike.

P.s lol no you did Peter thanks and im glad you are less confused now too !