Hoppie's ACARS

Hoppie's ACARS is a complex system which consists of several software modules which cooperate. Depending on whether you want to simulate an airplane or a dispatch/ATC station, you need another module.

QUICK PICK-UP: if you are looking for the ACARS client to install on top of the Microsoft Flight Simulator, just go here. Be aware this is very, very old software; there is much more modern software available from the flight sim developer community. All software uses the same network backend, so no matter what client you install, you will be able to talk to everybody else.

Project Progress

2023-02-19
I'm tracing a probable bug in an ATC program used by IVAO (only). It seems to attach random binary garbage to CPDLC messages, which often but not always leads to the ACARS server simply discarding the message. It is not just accented letters or so, it really is a couple of dozen binary bytes that look like random memory, previously used to contain various other things such as HTML. As in, a few random stack frames until there was a zero. If anybody can suggest which program this may be and who is its developer then we may be on our way to fix it.

2023-01-28
As most airplane or controller software for Hoppie's ACARS is provided by third parties, I started a list of client software. Please help me out by submitting known client programs to my e-mail address.

see all previous progress messages

General information

We are interested in the applications on top of the ACARS transport network. The most basic one is the Flight Event Reporter, also known as OOOI after the major events: Out, Off, On, and In. These events are detected by the airborne unit using several sensors and relayed via ACARS messages to a ground station. Typically this is the dispatch office of an airline. The ground station runs a program which keeps a list of all currently monitored aircraft and updates the status as OOOI events come in.

On top of the OOOI, free-form text messages can be exchanged between aircraft and ground station (or other aircraft). Some of these are routine messages, such as final load figures and arrival information, which can be half-automated. The ground and aircraft stations have functions to manage these messages, such as specific pushbuttons to request them.

Some very specific files can also be transferred. Although the ACARS system as implemented here can transfer basically anything, practical files are only flight plans in FMC format. For the PS1 simulator this means ACARS retrieval of full route files, adding to the dispatch capabilities.

ADS (Automatic Dependent Surveillance) is another specific application on top of ACARS. It is essentially position reporting, either automatic or on request. The application included in the system described here is "addressed" or "contract" ADS-C in the sense that the position reports are sent to a specific station, which needs to ask for reports. But every station is allowed to ask every other station for reports, so if you want, ADS-B-like operation can also be obtained. As a bonus, some pretty moving map generators are available to plot the aircraft position on a globe.

Lastly, a nearly complete CPDLC implementation allows ATC to have an efficient data link with the aircraft. The controller application is separate from the dispatch application; the aircraft application integrates both the traditional functions and ATC but makes them available as if they were separate, just as in reality. There is lots of material on CPDLC available on the internet, see for example this one by the Australians and of course the European LINK2000+ programme.

The basic ACARS network transport is quite simple and can be used by basically every application that sticks to the protocol. You are invited to write your own applications on top of this.

Four Software Modules and a Server

For air traffic control centers equipped with CPDLC, you need the ACARS ATC Client. It controls the communication between several planes and the center and allows for standardized messages to be passed, exactly like the real CPDLC systems.

For company dispatch ground stations, you need the ACARS Dispatch Client. This is a generalized implementation of what airline companies use, without trying to be exactly alike any one company in particular.

One place in the world needs to run the ACARS Network and that one place is the server you are now looking at. So you don't need to install this -- it is already there, and running fine. You may as well forget that it exists. But if you really want to, you can also run your own local mini ACARS server -- great for demos on notebook computers.

Advanced Features and Dispatch/Company Goodies

Like this map? You can have it on your own web page! Just email me for information and tuning to just your own company.

Special WorldFlight 2012 Procedures

A transcript of a typical World Flight leg with voice, ACARS, and CPDLC is provided as an educational example.