FsACARS ...

P

Peter Schindler

Founder
Users Local time
Today 9:55 AM
Due to the constant annoying problems we had with FsAcars (see several posts about the subject) I have rewritten a great part of the script and cleaned some of the code. That doesn't mean it will work now, since I never really knew what caused the problems. I will do a couple of test flights whenever I have time, and try to see if things got better or worse. However, I have no time for testing today :(
Therefor:
To all those who still use FsAcars (not many, if any): please use it at your own risk (as you always did) or do not use it at all (as you probably already do) until I can confirm that at least it doesn't work worse than before and that there's no new bugs added.
Or, if you would like to help with testing, please use it and report your experiences, but don't be deceived if the same bugs or different bugs spoil your flights.

As far as I could see, most pilots replaced FsAcars with XAcars by now or completely left the VA (which would be sad if it was only for the buggy FsAcars). So it shouldn't be too much of a problem.
 
Well i wished i had read this topic before trying my first flight with Air-Child.After installing FSACARS i booked my flight sorted everything in the dispatch centre,connected to Vatsim and proceeded to startup my D.A. Fokker 100.O.K. all set to push back started FSACARS clicked plan from V.A. (at this point i am impressed when all the flight details are filledin )then clicked start log :S FSACARS crashed.I tried again and again with the same result.
:think: I quickly download and install XACARS and the config file.I started up XACARS input flight number
(again i am impressed when the flight details come up) then clicked start... :x "ERROR you are in the air or your engines are running"
I quick read of the manual tells me that unlike FSACARS i need to have the engines stopped with XACARS.

By this now i no longer of the time to do the flight this evening :(

The trials a tribulations of a flight simmer :)

I will try again tomorrow

Steve ACH0356
 
Just seen that you have found your way around - to Wellington ;)
Looks like XAcars works better, at least. I remember that some FSX users reported crashes with FsAcars. Not so surprising because FsAcars development stopped before FSX was even planned. ;)
Anyway, for some people it also seems to work. Strange piece of software :lol:
 
I have just carried our my first flight for Air-Child using FSACARS.

I don't know if this was a bug before or if there is anything I can do about but here goes.

I followed the instructions, setup everything and ran FSACARS when ready to push back.

My FS time was set to the correct UTC time and my windows time was +1 hour as we are still British Summer time here.

so I saw within FSACARS it has sent an offblocks message and looked likt it was the correct UTC time. The airborne time was then shown in LOCAL TIME (UTC+1) and so was the arrival time. All times shown on the PIREP are UTC+1 and +1 from the time shown in Flight Sim as it is synched to UTC automatically.

I am guess that there might be an issue with the Daylight Saving time so when the clocks go back this shouldnt be an issue? Has anybody else experienced this? I cant really justify or afford any extra payware ADD-ONS at the moment so would like to stick with the freeware option.

I had no other issues with the software except the times submitted in the PIREP. It even shows in the FSACARS that UTC is -1 hours from the local time.


I am a little confused. :think:
 
FS9 has BIG problems with timezone conversions, you can easily lost or got few hours during long flight with multiple timezone changes...

Acars probably only read time from FS and dont make its own calculations, so If You miss time in FS You will miss also in acars.
 
Hi,

I know about the time problems in FS but I use FSCOPILOT to correct the times. The minutes on it are correct, its just it was showing the local time as UTC even though in the cockpit the correct UTC time was displayed. It cant be a crossing time zone issue as I flew EGCC-EIDW which has no time zone change. I will see if things are different next week when British Summer Time Ends.
 
I suggest using a programm to keep FS-Time accurate. I myself us FSRealTime but there is also an little Time Sync program integrated in FSCopilot for those who fly online.

There is a free version of FSRealTime (an older one). Let me know (via PM) if you need it.

cheers,
tobi
 
Re: FsACARS ... Career Boost

Hi there,

I put this post down here beacuse todays flight lifted me up into the rank of a senior captain. Well, I was using FsAcars :x
Like Peter said already, it's buggy :'(
Now I do prefer the honest promotion :devil: could you please get my points back to a decent level :oops:
I guess it is the problem with the wrong calculation of time with FsAcars :?
I'm not going to use it again, Xacars will do. Besides, FsAcars put a "hard landing" in most of my FsAcars reports - that must be a Bug as well :lol:

Cheers
Steve
 
good morning,

I've already reported that to Peter & Norbert. They will check your account asap ;) A hard landing bug? I got that door open while engines running bug last time i flew, another bug :D :rofl: :x :roll:

cheers,
tobi
 
Thanks very much Tobi :thx:

it seems there are more bugs out there than I ever expected :lol:

Save flights and happy landings,

Steve
 
I put this post down here beacuse todays flight lifted me up into the rank of a senior captain.
Click to expand...
Hello, I seem to have run into this problem too. The strange thing is: the reports with FsACARS report a -5 minute flight time while it seems to boost the flying hours enormously.

Could someone correct this? I think the following flights are problematic:
ACH7638
ACH7570
ACH7481

All Flight Report ACH0932

Their real duration is about 30 minutes.

I would like my flying hours to be as they really are. :help: I don't remember my exact hours but it was not in the thousands. Or does the script multiply them with a certain factor? I'm confused. :S I remember becoming junior captain when all was still correct.

I didn't know FsACARS caused such problems. :$ I was just looking for something that accepts a short flight. The passengers from FSPassengers complain about short flights. You know, a short flight because the pile of dishes to wash in the kitchen was so high and now it's almost time for bed. :zzz:

I'll just make a career-less dummy airline in FSP for these short flights, that'll probably solve it. And stay away from FsACARS in the future.
 
To make it short: FsAcars is a b*tch! Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I suppose their time calculations are based on the Maya calendar ....

I corrected your reports, Barthe, and also 2 similar cases of Sascha Berner. The roster should be alright now.
Barthe Hogenboom said:
I'll just make a career-less dummy airline in FSP for these short flights, that'll probably solve it. And stay away from FsACARS in the future.
Click to expand...
Sounds like a good plan :yes:
 
I have developed a problem with fsacars I can use it ok to log my flight but the problem I am having is when I go to start a flight I have to re install acars every time for it to work, and its becoming a pain in the neck. I get my flight ready and go to start acars only to find it has disappeared from my computer. :S
 
Hi, it might be a user's permission problem if you use win7 or Vista. That caused me many headaches in the beginning, even running FS2004 itself.

Even when you get FsACARS to work it will only cause more problems like I experienced with it's time registration.

You could give
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a try, it's completely integrated into FS2004 after installing so it can't get "lost". The
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only lets you fly from, I believe, KLAX but you can see all it's possibilities. Out of the box it can get a bit fussy but you can disable most things that aren't about just registering your flight. The only thing that's essential is getting weight and balance right for your aircraft.

There's also FS Flight Keeper on the
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. I never tried it but being the preferred PIREP add-on for Air-Child VA it should be good.
 
Dear Peter,

sorry to bother you with this again but as I'm not entitled yet to VA discounts I had to choose the free option to report flights - and silly me went with FSAcars.

Now the problem is the same as it was for Stephen Helms on this same topic: I flew overnight between LHBP and LOWW and FSAcars simply couldn't handle the change in days. It reported 65k hours of flight, rocketing me to outer space at once to being a Senior Captain. Could you please fix my report and drop me back to my Student rank?

Thanks in advance! :)
 
Peter Tutervai said:
sorry to bother you with this again but as I'm not entitled yet to VA discounts I had to choose the free option to report flights
Click to expand...
Bare in mind you can use the demo version of Flight Keeper

http://www.flightkeeper.net/Trial.asp

You can however only record 3 flights in your log book, but can delete those then record more if you wanted. (there are some other minor limitations you can see on the link above)

Fantastic software IMO

ps. I've sent Peter this way to sort this, but may take a day or two :)
 
No worries Peter. Problem solved.
However, I agree with Andrew: Flightkeeper is definitely something to look at.

@Drew: I hope 1 day response time is still acceptable ;)
 
Thanks Peter! (it feels like I'm talking to myself.. :D)
Although I'm not Dave I do accept your response time ;)

Speaking about FlightKeeper: I checked the features on their site but not entirely convinced yet, would it add anything else to my flights except the fact that it would be able to log more actions than just speed at flaps/gear change and landing speed (as FSAcars does)? I haven't used FSPassengers either, but as far as I know there you get some textual (or even vocal) feedback of your flight from the pax, e.g. screaming if you screwed up something, or some more detailed evaluation of your flight (complaining for quite annoying details which I'd rather avoid).

Thanks in advance,
Peter
 
Hi, Peter. XAcars is a bit less buggy than FSAcars. It's also not perfect but with care quite doable. And it's also free. No annoying interfering extra features, just logging and reporting. It also displays you on the map here at ACH.

Don't forget to check if XAcars has stopped logging before ending the flight or exiting FSX; otherwise it gets confused.

I have quite a reasonable to good experience with it, it doesn't eat many resources. And that's a good thing because my pc doesn't have any. :think:
 
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