Project Progress
2009-10-17 World Flight 2009 is coming up fast. As always, ACARS plays an important role in this event. Operationally it is used to coordinate many issues, and the maps it generates are very nice for event dissemination. There is more information online about how to use ACARS during WF2009.
2009-06-07 To facilitate nice maps for web sites of Virtual Airlines, I added a feature to the world map. You can now filter for all airplanes that share the prefix of a callsign, such as "BAW".
2009-06-07
A research project at George Mason University (DC) required a shorter polling cycle than 60 seconds. The new acars.pollintv configuration setting of the ACARS Airborne Client, which is not available in the Setup dialog for safety, allows you to adjust this cycle time in milliseconds. 60000 is the default. Don't use this on the ACARS network unless you make sure you don't overload the server. V1.7.1 of the Airborne Client (only).
2009-02-15 One of the long-standing ToDo items was to enable the ATC position report. It is now an exact copy of the FANS-1 variant, which is shared between FMC PROG, FMC COMM, and ATC modes (and therefore cannot return to anything, just as in reality). V1.7.
2008-10-12 In preparation for World Flight, I added a VisualPS1 offset detector to the ACARS Airborne Client V1.6. This is only of use for people who use VisualPS1 with IPC 2.8, probably just two on the Earth. All the others may leave this selection in Setup undefined.
2008-09-13 ACARS Mini Server full "ping" implementation, which enables the ATC client to not time out planes that are quiet but remain online. Release 0.4.
2008-09-07
The CPDLC system got a significant extension: ATC stations may now relay route files to planes via CPDLC. Of course not all sims know how to handle route files, but this is "not my problem" :-). Both a new ATC station and a new Airborne Station required.
Also significant improvements in terms of ADS-C in the Airborne Client. This stuff now goes only to the network server but may eventually also appear in the ATC client.
2008-08-22 V0.3 of the ACARS mini server fixes an irritating bug that blocked all CPDLC message exchanges. A case of trying to be too clean in data sanitising...
2008-08-13
Dispatch has a new release, with the option to change the sound file now in Setup, and also the option to change ACARS servers. Typically you want "localhost" if you run the mini ACARS server yourself.
The CPDLC (ATC) client also got released with a few things, mostly the configurable ACARS server setting. Same for Airborne.
And of course the ACARS mini server itself, currently at 0.2.
2008-08-11 In preparation of the new ACARS mini server, the Airborne Station got the option to select a different ACARS server URL. Also added a switch to select pure UTC time on the clock, instead of listening to a connected simulator. The program is now called differently and installs in a different location, which will be my new installation pattern.
2007-10-28 New Dispatch Client, updated with recent developments around TOPCAT and such, sound, and now packaged with a Windows installer. Also new Airborne Client, with manually editable OOOI fields in case you don't have working data feed.
2007-10-26 Airborne 1.2 has integration with TOPCAT and also allows downloading FMC route files for other sims than PS1.
2007-10-21 Better internal structure leading to bugs fixed in the airborne client.
2007-10-20 Bugs fixed in the CPDLC client (ATC) that mixed up the effects when a CPDLC message came in with those for telex.
2007-10-12 Pre-Departure Clearance added, printing logic restored to a sane state, and a few minor cosmetical fixes. V1.0 with Windows installer. Armable reports still absent, which probably nobody will notice anyway.
2007-09-30 Emergencies and When-Can-We added, ATC keystroke logic improved (the MCDU cannot detect holding the ATC key down, but it can detect pushing it twice within two seconds -- this will get you to the Emergency page straight away). Many smaller things fixed up. It now gets somewhere. Major thing lacking: armable (automatically sent) reports. 0.7.5.
2007-09-29 Reports added and Verify totally rewritten in the airborne client 0.7.4.
2007-09-22 Small polishings and a Windows installer instead of a plain .zip file.
2007-09-21 Full addition of the telex capability so that controllers have both communication systems in one client program. Sound library still not configurable except by overwriting the meepmeep.wav file.
2007-09-19 Quick and dirty addition of a sound when a CPDLC message comes in. Will get configurable. Please report whether it works.
2007-09-18 Airborne client up to 0.7.2. Fixed a problem with complete ATC log printing (from the ATC Index Page) and added some white space at the bottom of each print, for typical flight deck printer form feed.
2007-09-15 Airborne client up to 0.7.1. Can now print and some leftover items from SB747 have now been removed.
2007-09-15 ATC client up to 0.7.1. Now has usability improvements for departure clearances and other long messages that repeat often, window management aimed at ATC scopes, and messages to planes not yet logged on.
2007-09-14 New releases 0.7 of airborne and ATC clients. Plane handover between centers included (look into the COMM message cluster) and lots of loose ends tied up.
2007-09-08 New release (0.6) of airborne and ATC clients. All required functionality is in there now, just a few bells and whistles missing.
2007-09-06 Busy redoing the ACARS web site. It was a mess, getting better now.
2007-08-19 The latest beta release of the airborne client gets closer to what it should eventually be. Serious usage of this is possible by now. The web site is getting better, slowly.
2007-07-04 As I slowly fix all open issues and add more and more pages to the airborne side of CPDLC, the thing becomes actually usable.
2007-06-20 CPDLC beta released, both ATC and aircraft side. Still needs work though.
2007-03-11 Start of ACARS revamp, including all web sites.